Quote from: su27k on 05/14/2014 04:10 amQuote from: FinalFrontier on 05/14/2014 12:12 amSo lets air on the side of caution and assume this is just banter and ultimately this position is reversed. Err on the side of caution would be assuming this is true and plan accordingly.QuoteThere is neither the political will nor the money.We'll see about political will when Americans realize post 2020 US would be without a station while China/Russia would dominate LEO. Money is there if SLS gets the ax.The majority of the country does not care about space exploration or national scientific goals anymore. The reasons behind this are complex, but by and large the next two generations of young people that are now beginning to vote and we hope, enter the workforce are grossly under educated and have no interest in science. But it goes deeper than that, most of them simply do not care about any national agendas of this country. I am not sure what to make of this but its deeply saddening to me. In any case the simple dark and inconvenient truth is that literally not enough people care anymore.
Quote from: FinalFrontier on 05/14/2014 12:12 amSo lets air on the side of caution and assume this is just banter and ultimately this position is reversed. Err on the side of caution would be assuming this is true and plan accordingly.QuoteThere is neither the political will nor the money.We'll see about political will when Americans realize post 2020 US would be without a station while China/Russia would dominate LEO. Money is there if SLS gets the ax.
So lets air on the side of caution and assume this is just banter and ultimately this position is reversed.
There is neither the political will nor the money.
Staying with ISS is going to be cheaper for Russia in long run than walking away and building themselves a new space station.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 05/13/2014 08:52 pmStaying with ISS is going to be cheaper for Russia in long run than walking away and building themselves a new space station.Russia has now surpassed Saudi Arabia as the worlds largest oil producer, and they know China will always buy Russian oil, regardless of any sanctions. >
U.S. to Be Top Oil Producer by 2015 on Shale, IEA SaysThe U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer by 2015, and be close to energy self-sufficiency in the next two decades, amid booming output from shale formations, the IEA said.>
The US will certainly never have access to another LEO lab of similar scale within my lifetime.
I would restate it slightly: "The majority of the country does not care about government-driven space exploration programs or national scientific goals anymore."
I know NASA has a plan to put a station at the l2 LaGrange point with SLS. (I honestly don't hate SLS, NASA will probably get more funding as exploration continues.) Keep in mind A new President elect is coming in 2016, Anything could happen.I would like to see some more support for Falcon Heavy though. I don't like the idea of Axing SLS, if we have to replace it fine, then get Spacex to make Falcon XX. Elon can use his private funds to fund MCT.As for CST-100 and Bigelow, Bigelow will probably come out of this fine. Bigelow has plan's for making a Lunar base, plus everyone wants inflatables these days. Boeing however is pretty much screwed. IMHO CST-100 was doomed from the start, got out of the gate late when Spacex already won the race.
Russia just announced plans to shut down the International Space Station in 2020, and prohibited companies in the country from selling engines to Lockheed Martin and Boeing for military launch purposes. If this is more than just posturing, there’s at least one takeaway: SpaceX is about to get paid.
On a new ICM/propulsion module, if we really want to keep the ex-Russian ISS around for a long time, it would make sense to have a propulsion module large enough to gradually lower the plane of ISS to 28 degrees, making it much more useful as a platform for Lunar/Asteroid/Mars missions.