India debates manned missions

[Tormod]

Originally posted by: Stargazer

Well, Ariane seems to work well now though? Also what I'm thinking of when I mentioned ESA was their Aurora Programme that will mean manned expeditions to the moon and Mars within 30 years if all goes according to the plans.

Yeah, well...30 years....who knows what will happen in 30 years. That may sound pessimistic but from what I gather ESA is really struggling just to learn to talk to each other.

Good call, Stargazer. The Aurora programme is very interesting. I still see it as just another Bush Push, though. Not sure if there is any real substance to it yet.

But considering that NASA did get a really good budget through Congress, miracles still do happen. If I remember correctly, Aurora is part of the voluntary projects - if so, it requires a lot of ESA member states to join it in order for it to happen.

[BlameTheEx]

Stargazer.

Nuclear fission?
I hope not. Rockets are dodgy things. They have a nasty tendency to explode, and scatter there contents to the four winds. When the contents happen to be a contingent of Astronauts it is bad enough, but a nuclear reactor?

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Tormod
Yeah, well...30 years....who knows what will happen in 30 years. That may sound pessimistic but from what I gather ESA is really struggling just to learn to talk to each other.

Good call, Stargazer. The Aurora programme is very interesting. I still see it as just another Bush Push, though. Not sure if there is any real substance to it yet.

But considering that NASA did get a really good budget through Congress, miracles still do happen. If I remember correctly, Aurora is part of the voluntary projects - if so, it requires a lot of ESA member states to join it in order for it to happen.

The first stages of Aurora has begun already, but the question is how far ahead they will go. The UK agreed to join recently, though unfortunately they don't seem too enthusiastic about manned missions for some reason I cannot understand. I would bet that France, Germany and Italy, the big ones, would like to keep it going though. ESA is trying to gain independent access to space, and I hope they realise this should include manned access as well.

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: BlameTheEx
Stargazer.

Nuclear fission?
I hope not. Rockets are dodgy things. They have a nasty tendency to explode, and scatter there contents to the four winds. When the contents happen to be a contingent of Astronauts it is bad enough, but a nuclear reactor?

I am sure that a reactor can be built in such a fashion that even if the rocket lifting it to orbit explodes doesn't cause much harm to it. I don't know exactly how much they are working on these things, but I do know it will be necessary for missions that require lots of energy and/or long range missions where solar panels are completely useless.

[Tormod]

Cassini runs on a nuclear engine. It works like a charm.

Launchers don't really have a nasty tendency to explode...and even when they do, any nuclear powered craft would have to be packaged in such a way that the material on board does not get spread in the atmosphere in case of an accident.