[img]http://i.cbc.ca/1.2476489.1388077227!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/russia-space.jpg[/img]
[quote]From rocket-shaped playground equipment to faded murals of cosmonauts, mementos of the heyday of Soviet space exploration are scattered around this sandswept town that launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961.
When President Vladimir Putin described the space port on the remote Kazakh steppe as "physically aged" in April, he could have been speaking about Russia's space industry itself.
In Baikonur as elsewhere, the once-pioneering sector is struggling to live up to its legacy, end an embarrassing series of botched launches, modernize decaying infrastructure and bring in new blood and new ideas.
Putin hopes a sweeping reform he signed off on this month will not come too late to turn the industry around — part of a push to make Russia a high-technology superpower by salvaging leading Cold War-era industries and research centres.
Built far from prying eyes in a desert-like flatland in central Asia, the once-secret launch site of Sputnik and the first man in space lives on in a strange limbo, marooned in western Kazakhstan by the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Today it is the only gateway for manned flights to the International Space Station, hosting astronauts from the World, and the site of about one-third of all satellite launches.
But Baikonur has no movie theatre — let alone many of the trappings of the 21st century. Camels graze the barren steppes near rocket launch sites, and what little seems to have changed since Soviet times often looks the worse for it.
"Visitors expect a city of steel and glass like in science fiction films, but for a long time no one even knew this place existed," said Evelina Shchur, director of the space museum in a city she describes as "provincial.”
Despite bigger budgets and Putin's pledge to revive the sector, Russia's space industry has been in crisis for years.
"The whole industry needs to be overhauled because the old doesn't work and the new hasn't been built," said Igor Marinin, editor of the spaceflight journal Novosti Kosmonavtiki.
By separating space agency Roskosmos from its contractors, the Kremlin hopes the reform will boost quality control and end a calamitous series of blunders like July's crash of a Proton rocket carrying a $200-million payload.
"We have big plans," the new Roskosmos chief, Oleg Ostapenko, told Reuters last month. "We will do everything possible to get rid of the black marks on our reputation."
"It will be very difficult, but the Kremlin realizes it can't keep living the old way," said Sergey Pekhterev, head of Russian sat-com firm SetTelecom.
Critics of the plan say it will eliminate competition and that the shakeup may bring more confusion to the industry, but many insiders say reform is long overdue.
While Russia is the world leader in space launches and Russian-built engines equip U.S. rockets, it holds less than 10 per cent of the multi-billion dollar global space market. [/quote]
[url]http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/russia-looks-to-revive-ailing-space-industry-1.2476449[/url]
Hope this triggers the US to get back in to the space industry. We need another space race, honestly.
YES go space race v2
[QUOTE=Rocko's;43321112]Hope this triggers the US to get back in to the space industry. We need another space race, honestly.[/QUOTE]
You do know as far as launches go, we're having far more of them than ever before. The only thing we're not really doing is launching people into worlds as much.
[QUOTE=Rocko's;43321112]Hope this triggers the US to get back in to the space industry. We need another space race, honestly.[/QUOTE]
The space race between the US and the Soviet Union was a consequence of the military arms buildup of the cold war. The motives were military, not the "healthy competition" which seems to be the implication of your post. The idealistic side of it - humans exploring the cosmos and advancing civilization - was of course realized, and certainly exploited as a front for the whole expedition, but ultimately it still had sinister means. All in all, it still reads as a novel (as all meaningful human endeavors do), and will forever be a symbol of the amazing feats of which humans are capable. But do not forget the dichotomy of the circumstances. In the midst of the whole world possibly being annihilated by war in the purest and completely naked expression of power ever known, mankind made a "giant leap" towards progress. It is a parody of sorts.
[QUOTE=Rocko's;43321112]Hope this triggers the US to get back in to the space industry. We need another space race, honestly.[/QUOTE]
The only reason the US doesn't launch it's own astronauts is because NASA is too busy developing the SLS, and their screening/approval for the COTS program is way too cautious and drawn out. We have a smorgasbord of launchers. Some of them crew capable, just not approved for manned flight yet.
Next Space Race victory is to discover an alien civilization, so we can prepare to war and invade that planet or defend ourselves against alien forces.
[QUOTE=OvB;43321463]We have a smorgasbord of launchers. [/QUOTE]
wut
[QUOTE=nickohlus;43321451]The space race between the US and the Soviet Union was a consequence of the military arms buildup of the cold war.[/QUOTE]
It was more along the lines of the ideological war. "Look, we put some guys on the moon, join capitalism", etc.
I don't think countries need to be at eachothers throats for a space race to happen. The conservative right just needs to learn that space is better than war when it comes to raising national prestige.
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43321671]Next Space Race victory is to discover an alien civilization, so we can prepare to war and invade that planet or defend ourselves against alien forces.[/QUOTE]
there will never be a "conventional" war against any aliens because either us or them are thousands of years more advanced
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;43321764]there will never be a "conventional" war against any aliens because either us or them are thousands of years more advanced[/QUOTE]
We'll totally kick ass though, aliens don't have AK-47's.
The space race was about ICBM development on the most public from imaginable.
If you can get something into space, you can strike from anywhere. That was the mentality back then.
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;43321764]there will never be a "conventional" war against any aliens because either us or them are thousands of years more advanced[/QUOTE]
don't worry, we got XCOM.
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;43321764]there will never be a "conventional" war against any aliens because either us or them are thousands of years more advanced[/QUOTE]
unless the only tech they perfected was suspended animation and they were running off of momentum from home planet to here
I don't know why mining companies don't invest in spaceflight. The sooner they get their hands on those platinum-rich asteroids, the better.
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;43322007]I don't know why mining companies don't invest in spaceflight. The sooner they get their hands on those platinum-rich asteroids, the better.[/QUOTE]
they still have plenty of literal slaves to exploit. they'll look to the stars once all of those guys are dead and or illegal to work to death.
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;43322007]I don't know why mining companies don't invest in spaceflight. The sooner they get their hands on those platinum-rich asteroids, the better.[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.planetaryresources.com/"]Planetary Resources[/URL] is doing just that.
[URL="http://deepspaceindustries.com/"]Deep Space Industry's[/URL].
[URL="http://www.shackletonenergy.com/"]Shackleton Energy Company[/URL] is investing and developing technologies for mining on the moon.
NASA also announced the [URL="http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_cohen.html"]Robotic Asteroid Prospector[/URL] project to evaluate the feasibility of mining asteroids.
So really there is already quite a few people investing time and money in developing the idea of mining asteroids.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;43321734]It was more along the lines of the ideological war. "Look, we put some guys on the moon, join capitalism", etc.
I don't think countries need to be at eachothers throats for a space race to happen. The conservative right just needs to learn that space is better than war when it comes to raising national prestige.[/QUOTE]
Considering we very nearly nuked the moon simply to say "look what we can do", I don't think the space race had entirely peaceful purposes.
[QUOTE=TheCreeper;43323147][URL="http://www.planetaryresources.com/"]Planetary Resources[/URL] is doing just that.
[URL="http://deepspaceindustries.com/"]Deep Space Industry's[/URL].
[URL="http://www.shackletonenergy.com/"]Shackleton Energy Company[/URL] is investing and developing technologies for mining on the moon.
NASA also announced the [URL="http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_cohen.html"]Robotic Asteroid Prospector[/URL] project to evaluate the feasibility of mining asteroids.
So really there is already quite a few people investing time and money in developing the idea of mining asteroids.[/QUOTE]
All these sound like terrifying sci-fi companies
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43321671]Next Space Race victory is to discover an alien civilization, so we can prepare to war and invade that planet or defend ourselves against alien forces.[/QUOTE]
Do you fucking thik that someone who just flew god knows how much will instantly go violent? If they want to fuck us up they would do it subtly.
[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;43321842]The space race was about ICBM development on the most public from imaginable.
If you can get something into space, you can strike from anywhere. That was the mentality back then.[/QUOTE]
Precisely, and both side had that technology and neither wanted to use it in fear of retaliation, so they advanced their ICBM technology and increased their stockpiles in order to ensure they could retaliate as well in the event of an attack. Two events brought upon the Cold War, the invention of WMDs and the Space Race. With that fear in place, the world entered the age of deterrence, and aside from a few proxy wars like Korea and Vietnam, as well as close calls with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world was in relative peace. Nuclear deterrence still governs our lives today, and is the main reason why the world has not experienced a third world war. I don't like the idea of creating deadlier weaponry, but its better than a potential WWIII.
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;43322007]I don't know why mining companies don't invest in spaceflight. The sooner they get their hands on those platinum-rich asteroids, the better.[/QUOTE]
Because mining asteroids is not as easy as it sounds and I don't think private corporations will be leading the space frontier anytime soon if ever :v:
[QUOTE=MrJazzy;43329301]Because mining asteroids is not as easy as it sounds and I don't think private corporations will be leading the space frontier anytime soon if ever :v:[/QUOTE]
Government's have to make the first steps before private sectors even think about it.
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;43321764]there will never be a "conventional" war against any aliens because either us or them are thousands of years more advanced[/QUOTE]
Call me overly optimistic, but I don't think there would be any need for hostilities. If intelligent aliens would have even a shred of empathy for other races, they would have very little motive for being hostile. None of the resources on Earth are particularly rare elsewhere in space, and if they have the scientific capability of finding us and traveling to us, we'd be of little use as slaves as their technology would be advanced enough for us to be practically useless anyway.
Obviously, if you're a pessimist about it, you could argue intelligent alien life would be naturally hostile for some reason. It's impossible to say really, because we have very little evidence pointing in either direction.
As for us, the same really goes if we're able to find a planet with intelligent life. There's very little reason for us to exploit it if we have that kind of technology, and we're already getting pretty big on empathy for other races.
[QUOTE=nickohlus;43321451]The space race between the US and the Soviet Union was a consequence of the military arms buildup of the cold war. The motives were military, not the "healthy competition" which seems to be the implication of your post. The idealistic side of it - humans exploring the cosmos and advancing civilization - was of course realized, and certainly exploited as a front for the whole expedition, but ultimately it still had sinister means. All in all, it still reads as a novel (as all meaningful human endeavors do), and will forever be a symbol of the amazing feats of which humans are capable. But do not forget the dichotomy of the circumstances. In the midst of the whole world possibly being annihilated by war in the purest and completely naked expression of power ever known, mankind made a "giant leap" towards progress. It is a parody of sorts.[/QUOTE]
This is possibly the best and most accurate description of the true nature of the space race I've ever read.
Space Race v2. Galactic Boogaloo!
[QUOTE=TAU!;43329548]This is possibly the best and most accurate description of the true nature of the space race I've ever read.[/QUOTE]
It was a distraction from the building tension at best, and a front for arms in orbit at worst. Hell, the Soviets went so far as to arm several of their space stations (albeit with untested, conventional weaponry) and even went so far as to land an armed rover on the Moon (which went on to drive itself into a crater and never come out).
[QUOTE=ewitwins;43336203]It was a distraction from the building tension at best, and a front for arms in orbit at worst. Hell, the Soviets went so far as to arm several of their space stations (albeit with untested, conventional weaponry) and even went so far as to land an armed rover on the Moon (which went on to drive itself into a crater and never come out).[/QUOTE]
this is why militaries and space agencies don't mix
[QUOTE=ewitwins;43336203]It was a distraction from the building tension at best, and a front for arms in orbit at worst. Hell, the Soviets went so far as to arm several of their space stations (albeit with untested, conventional weaponry) and even went so far as to land an armed rover on the Moon (which went on to drive itself into a crater and never come out).[/QUOTE]
I know about Almaz, but an armed moon rover? Where did you hear about that?
[QUOTE=Cone;43336316]this is why militaries and space agencies don't mix[/QUOTE]
Actually the military had a huge hand in the early space endeavors. Sputnik 1 and 2 (and a lot of subsequent missions like Vostok) used modified R7 ICBMs, and the Explorer 1 was launched with a modified Jupiter missile. Eisenhower attempted to keep the satellite program separate from the military ICBM programs, as he wanted a peaceful precedent for space exploration (he ultimately wanted to replace U2 overflights with spy satellites, so a non-military approach would benefit the US), but that really only delayed the US program in the end, which basically created the Sputnik crisis - whcih can be seen as one of the factors in starting the space race at all. After Sputnik, the US started using ICBM's (like the Atlas) as launch vehicles, simply because this was what was available. Most launch vehicles were (to my knowledge) ICBM derived up until basically the Saturn series, and all of course used ICBM tech to some degree.
The military was basically the reason why the space race happened at all.
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