Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 19, 2009, at 4:50 PM, Andrew Crystall wrote: That being said, what I really wish someone would propose is sending a robot propulsion/navigation system out to a conveniently sized nickel/ iron asteroid, bring it home, and park it in an orbit high enough to Question: Would you need t

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Doug Pensinger
Bruce Bostwick wrote: > Not as tall an order as it might sound, using something like VASIMR which > has an Isp of up to 5000 s.  Once you get out of the atmosphere, a higher > efficiency engine system can spread out the delta-V across a fairly large > period of time, and with enough engines and e

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 19 Nov 2009 at 12:23, Bruce Bostwick wrote: > That being said, what I really wish someone would propose is sending a > robot propulsion/navigation system out to a conveniently sized nickel/ > iron asteroid, bring it home, and park it in an orbit high enough to Question: Would you need to

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 19, 2009, at 1:16 PM, Alberto Monteiro wrote: Bruce Bostwick wrote: That being said, what I really wish someone would propose is sending a robot propulsion/navigation system out to a conveniently sized nickel/ iron asteroid, bring it home, and park it in an orbit high enough to keep i

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Alberto Monteiro
Bruce Bostwick wrote: > > That being said, what I really wish someone would propose is sending > a robot propulsion/navigation system out to a conveniently sized > nickel/ iron asteroid, bring it home, and park it in an orbit high > enough to keep it from decaying for the foreseeable future

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 19, 2009, at 11:15 AM, Andrew Crystall wrote: On 19 Nov 2009 at 8:19, Bruce Bostwick wrote: Oh, and while we're talking about STS .. why is it, exactly, that NASA has been dropping all of those ET's back into the atmosphere to burn up, after spending the $10k/pound to get them up the

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 19 Nov 2009 at 8:19, Bruce Bostwick wrote: > Oh, and while we're talking about STS .. why is it, exactly, that NASA > has been dropping all of those ET's back into the atmosphere to burn > up, after spending the $10k/pound to get them up there, and not saving > them on-orbit as constructi

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Bruce Bostwick
Oh, and while we're talking about STS .. why is it, exactly, that NASA has been dropping all of those ET's back into the atmosphere to burn up, after spending the $10k/pound to get them up there, and not saving them on-orbit as construction material? I know they've considered keeping them

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 19, 2009, at 6:44 AM, Andrew Crystall wrote: On 18 Nov 2009 at 20:40, Bruce Bostwick wrote: Considering the fact that the only two "loss of vehicle and crew" events NASA has ever had to deal with that actually involved going into or coming back from space (not counting Apollo 1 in that,

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-19 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 18 Nov 2009 at 20:40, Bruce Bostwick wrote: > Considering the fact that the only two "loss of vehicle and crew" > events NASA has ever had to deal with that actually involved going > into or coming back from space (not counting Apollo 1 in that, as it Both were directly caused by problem

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-18 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 17, 2009, at 5:42 PM, Andrew Crystall wrote: On 17 Nov 2009 at 12:48, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: starts here . . . The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933945

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-18 Thread Bruce Bostwick
On Nov 18, 2009, at 7:12 PM, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: At 05:42 PM Tuesday 11/17/2009, Andrew Crystall wrote: On 17 Nov 2009 at 12:48, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > starts here . . . > > The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets > The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME > http://www.time

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-18 Thread Ronn! Blankenship
At 05:42 PM Tuesday 11/17/2009, Andrew Crystall wrote: On 17 Nov 2009 at 12:48, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > starts here . . . > > The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets > The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME > http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_19340

Re: List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-17 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 17 Nov 2009 at 12:48, Ronn! Blankenship wrote: > starts here . . . > > The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets > The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME > http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933945,00.html > http://tinyurl.com/yl4evjq > > (Inc

List of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2009"

2009-11-17 Thread Ronn! Blankenship
starts here . . . The Best Invention of the Year: NASA's Ares Rockets The 50 Best Inventions of 2009 - TIME http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933945,00.html http://tinyurl.com/yl4evjq (Includes the "5 Worst Inventions of the Year" and a poll for voting