In past years (as I understand it) the NewMars forum had a review process for applications for membership in the forum.
I'd like to ask for a collective review of that idea.
How did the system work (way back then) and why did it fail?
The registration process seems to be effectively unrestricted right now.
An interview could be requested by an applicant.
The interview could be requested with an existing member who has agreed to serve as a gatekeeper.
If I were to serve as a gatekeeper, for example, I would ask the application a set of questions which would be agreed upon by the forum community.
Among these might be:
Why are you interested in NewMars forum? (eg, are you wanting to sell something?)
How could you contribute to the forum?
(th)
]]>The ATV’s final mission was the last chance in the foreseeable future to monitor the guided, destructive re-entry of such a large spacecraft.
ATV’s re-entry camera returned no images
The ATV’s five missions sent up 31,446 kilograms, or 69,327 pounds, of cargo, fuel, water and air to the space station. They five flights spent a cumulative 776 days docked to the space station on missions launched in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
ESA wished to stop producing ATVs after the fifth model, preferring to focus European industry on the development of a new project using technologies from the cargo resupply program.
The five ATV flights were part of a barter agreement with NASA to pay Europe’s share of the space station’s operating costs through 2017.
ESA and Airbus Defense and Space, the ATV’s prime contractor, are now working on a propulsion and power module for NASA’s Orion crew capsule. It will fly on the Orion spacecraft’s next test flight around the moon and back to Earth in 2018.
The Orion service module contribution covers ESA’s cost commitment to the space station through 2020.
ATV Reboost Test: The single-burn reboost firing test of the ATV “Jules Verne” overnight at 12:10am-1:52am was conducted successfully. Burn duration was 4m 33s, with a delta-V of 1.04 m/s (3.41 ft/sec). Mean altitude gain was ~1.49 km. The purpose of the reboost was to test the ATV main engines prior to the scheduled reboost on 4/25 (Friday). ISS attitude control authority was handed over to the Russian MCS (Motion Control System) thrusters at ~12:00am and returned to US momentum management at ~2:47am.
Well, if it's posible, they might as well start now. The hub could be sent up unmanned, the ATVs could join using the normal docking procedure, then send up the Astronauts using either Soyuz or (hopefully) an actual European rocket.
]]>As for space station construction, I'm in favour of using nearly expendable rockets (like Apollo but with the re-entry module being reusable) and just bolting together the parts remaining in orbit to build a station. Like what China is planning on doing.
]]>Does anyone know how many Gs the craft will be subjected to? Just wondering if it could be modified to carry humans.
Maybe something like this :
Leave the manned launches to the UnitedStates/Russia and continue evolving the concept as ATV as a cargo ship
]]>The problem is, that you need a very heavy heat shield to get back from orbit, and this hasn't changed very much since the 1960s.
]]>