ISS

>>7724714
Yes

>>7724718
This thb senpai

>>7724725
Deus

Fuck you weeaboo moot wannabe

>>7724718
Why?

>>7724748

Because.

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when?

>>7725149

That was aliens though cuz

>>7724871

Because why?

>>7725413
because

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>>7724714

Yes, as practice for building multi-module spacecraft in LEO.

We didn't know how to do that before. The concept existed in scifi but we'd never actually done it and the Soviets weren't about to share data from MIR.

As for why we didn't make the ISS a mobile spacecraft from the outset, by the time it was finished NASA knew it'd be hopelessly obsolete. The recent crop of problems are just the beginning, we can build something way more durable and advanced with what we've learned.

See pic. It's the spacecraft NASA hopes to eventually build based on lessons from the ISS. But we had to do ISS first to learn those lessons, and do it in a comfy low orbit with easy access and easy return in case of major fuckups.

Just one small but crucial step on the road to dominating the solar system.

>>7725421

Just because?

>>7724714
Lots of valuable insight on space-related stuff so yes.

The cost wouldn't have been as much if NASA had actually built cheap launch rockets instead of using the shuttle.

>>7725439
>by the time it was finished NASA knew it'd be hopelessly obsolete.
Yea but just having that extra space & tonnage up there could be useful.
Instead they want to deorbit it? Is it truly so useless?

>>7726288
LEASE IS UP
THE FUCK OUTTA MY ORBITAL ZONE

>>7725439
>and the Soviets weren't about to share data from MIR.

Zarya was the first module, with most essential systems to keep the (unmanned) station going. Zvezda came third, providing life support - making ISS habitable. Western modules are good for science, maintenance, storage, living space, but the Russian modules are the backbone that keeps the ISS alive. And their construction is an evolutionary improvement on Salyut stations.

Lots of good science is going on ISS

- Crystal growth advances. (this started on Salyut, which had a small furnace manufacturing crystals to be used in guidance systems of anti-air missiles; nowadays these crystals are used in a huge number of experiments - electronics, medicine, optics (advanced science experiments in quantum physics) etc. Stuff impossible to grow on Earth.
- plant and bacteria growth in space, including low-pressure microgravity; developing bacteria that could break up Martian CO2 producing oxygen, working in Martian pressure.
- directionality of growth of tissue - biotechnology, growing structures from plants
- effects of microgravity on human body, and overcoming them.
- search and capture of dark matter.
- scanning deep space radiation
- launching tons of cubesats, an unending stream of tiny experiments all over the globe.
- Earth surface monitoring - agriculture, biology, polution, weather/climate, sea, all kinds of scans.

oh, I could go on. Just look at the list:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/experiments_by_name.html

BTW, lots of development FOR the ISS ends up entering common usage. Even silly things like cooling pads for laptops.

While a lot of that stuff could be done without a space station, it's *cheaper* on the ISS, because you have local power, local communication, heat management, repair/maintenance, no need for engines/attitude control, you just unpack an experiment from Progress, plug it in and it works, no need to build a whole satellite around it.

>>7726713
>>7726713
>No EM drive experiment

>>7726724

Not yet. First:

- they need to miniaturize and launch-proof it. It's well over a ton over a number of modules and wouldn't survive loading it on a truck, never mind a launch of some 8g
- make it friggin fault-proof and spike with redundant, backup and monitoring systems. You switch it on and read a flat 0N. Is it because EM Drive doesn't work, or because it's broken?
- Space-proof it. Most of the electronics will be really screwy with the space radiation, never mind void (air cooling won't work in void!) - probably needs to be split into atmospheric backend (electronics/power/diagnostics/software/control to work on the space station) and the actual bare bones drive to be installed outside. Plus some "through" to connect the two through the pressurized wall. There are compartments for stuff like that on ISS, the experiments just needs to be adapted to them.
- get funds to get it to the orbit once it's miniaturized. Considering price of other projects, and once the no longer necessary vacuum chamber for the actual drive is dropped, this isn't quite as big a problem.

So, yeah, EM drive will get to the ISS once it's ready to go to the ISS. It's not exactly as easy as packing it in a box and sending with nearest Progress, but it's not something extremely difficult either, just something that needs to be done.

>>7725413
Because Deus Vult

>>7725444
Because research

If it was worth it then they would have a replacement. Instead they're going to drop it into the Pacific and not look back.

>>7726746

- Space-proof it. Most of the electronics will be really screwy with the space radiation, never mind void (air cooling won't work in void!) - probably needs to be split into atmospheric backend (electronics/power/diagnostics/software/control to work on the space station) and the actual bare bones drive to be installed outside. Plus some "through" to connect the two through the pressurized wall. There are compartments for stuff like that on ISS, the experiments just needs to be adapted to them.

I was under the impression the EM drive was reactionless? Wouldnt you just be able to bolt it to the table or something for it to do its thing?

They need to get a centrifuge module up there asap if Mars is the big goal

>>7724714
no, we should have put in orbit around the moon

>>7726713
>which had a small furnace manufacturing crystals to be used in guidance systems of anti-air missiles; nowadays these crystals are used in a huge number of experiments

[citation needed]

>- search and capture of dark matter.
False. AMS-02 is investigating the a possible signature of DM in positions but it is not designed to capture dark matter.

>>7724714
>Is it actually worth the cost?

You're kidding, right? The projected lifetime cost for manufacturing, launch, operation and maintenance is about $150 billion. That's ridiculous considering it's just a Cold War remnant welfare program.

>>7724714

The ISS, yes.

The ISS justifies any cost, to have humans living in LEO constantly is currently THE best thing humanity has achieved. A symbol and a beacon of humanity's best work.

The Shuttle program however. . . .

14 people died and 190 Billion wasted because of Politicians, such is life on the other side of the coin.

Reminder that NASA has lost more Astronauts than every other space agency combined times2.

it ISS!

>>7727753
Would the iss have been possible without the shuttle?

>>7724714
I think it is. There are experiments running that justify its existence as other people pointed out. But I believe its main purpose was to sustain life in space in which it succeeded (One simple example would be the space toilet, no one knew frozen piss would be so problematic and many more like this).

It's a shame we lost interest in doing the latter though.

>>7727753
>THE best thing humanity has achieved
>not a theorem in pure mathematics

You a shit desu senpai senpai desu baka.

>>7726713

It always makes me smile how the Russians are actually the leaders in spaceflight and always have been.

Too bad they didn't get to the moon first, would have been interesting if they had. The US would of had to STFU and work harder for a long time, might have a better world today if NASA had kept going 100% for another 10 years.

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Also, based samy blasting her nips for all to see

>>7727787
bess spess waifu

>>7727763
>>7727753
>not the nuclear bomb

s m h

>>7727784
Murica lost their way with the space shuttle. if they had instead developed a robust Soyuz-style launcher they would still be going strong.

>>7727732
>[citation needed]

Jan Hoffman, Polish Museum of Aviation ( http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/indexen.php ) - has open lectures every Sunday at the museum. That was at a lecture about a month ago. The guy is a total powertank of knowledge of aviation, and knows soviet military systems inside and out.

>>7727761
Yes, and it would be better off without it. The USA would have developed an alternative orbital delivery system which would surely be better (because honestly, the shuttle really sucked at that job).

>>7727473
First, you can build such a "reactionless" drive out of a nail, a washer, a transformer from a microwave and a couple jump-starter wires. Except it's not exactly reactionless: it uses ambient air as the propellant. It won't work in vacuum.

So to prove the drive produces thrust without reaction mass it must be placed in vacuum.

Next - you need to measure the thrust so you need to nail the drive to a very precise tensometer. 'cause let's not lie to ourselves, the initial 0.1N is likely a fluke. The 15 micronewtons achieved in repeated attempts is far more likely (and not nearly as useless as a layman might think).

It's actually very unlikely the drive is entirely reactionless (uses NO propellant at all) - more likely it emits ions of its own construction at very high speeds. Which would still be a very nice thing because using a good solid iron rod as the propellant source for ion drive would be much better than a heavy tank of compressed xenon gas.

>>7727761
Just keep building Saturn Vs or adapt them into something new. The Saturn V was a fantastic and incredibly safe rocket and it was replaced by the Shuttle which was a PoS.

>>7728869
>sealed cone
>emits ions

>>7729122
Sealed with what? If the cover receives X coulombs of charge from the inside, it will soon be emitting X coulombs through the outside, as ions.