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| Fifth Column |
| Russia Eyeing New Launch Services Deal With US |
| 2008-06-12 |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #3 Russia could do a lot better by lowering taxes, extending it's citizens life expectancy and moving into the second world. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-12 18:53 |
| #2 Russia could do a lot better by planning a series of about 20 heavy-lift launches, each of which could carry a 100 ton modular or fuel payload into orbit. Then a US manned mission could assemble the modules into an interplanetary "shuttle", an unmanned, reusable engine that would take other rockets to the Moon and Mars, and back. The biggest advantages of doing this would be that spaceships launched from Earth would only need enough fuel to takeoff and land twice, not haul the fuel needed for the trip. This would mean that astronauts could carry much more provisions, water and oxygen. Their missions could last much longer, and they could bring along materials to build infrastructure on the Moon and Mars. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-12 17:52 |
| #1 If they want to be taken seriously they should develop an Orion launch platform, the old style one that used nuclear bomb blasts as propulsion. Make two flights. One to test that it works, and the second to life everything and their mother into orbit in one single shot. A side benefit is using up some of the stockpile before it gets misplaced. If neutron bombs are used the fallout and such might not even be that bad and if it is, well it's Russia so who will complain. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-06-12 16:31 |