(no subject)
Well, this is a fairly intersting piece of NuSpace news; Excalibur Almaz actually did something. I'm still skeptical that all the money that the founders of this company have can make this tantalizingly possible idea work, but just think about it!
http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=26257
EA is a collection of billionares... what this will turn out to be is a private space station, for them! What a status symbol! Most likely result: Bunch of money spent and nothing launched. Next most likely result: some smoking craters... and lost money, possibly a reentering space station unvisited. Still, if it works, it would be another kick in the pants for private space. Consider the ISS, which aside from fufilling its mission of preventing the next cold war from happening, is providing that what is mainly needed for private space industry, a place to go to. The ESA, Japan, SpaceX, Orbital and others are killing themselves to build space transportation systems to service it, all for the obvious potential tourism applications.
A telling detail from the article, however: Station length -- 11 meters. Slightly smaller than that schoolbus that I had. Not quite so luxurious...
http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=26257
EA is a collection of billionares... what this will turn out to be is a private space station, for them! What a status symbol! Most likely result: Bunch of money spent and nothing launched. Next most likely result: some smoking craters... and lost money, possibly a reentering space station unvisited. Still, if it works, it would be another kick in the pants for private space. Consider the ISS, which aside from fufilling its mission of preventing the next cold war from happening, is providing that what is mainly needed for private space industry, a place to go to. The ESA, Japan, SpaceX, Orbital and others are killing themselves to build space transportation systems to service it, all for the obvious potential tourism applications.
A telling detail from the article, however: Station length -- 11 meters. Slightly smaller than that schoolbus that I had. Not quite so luxurious...