India debates manned missions

[Stargazer]

They say they could do it within seven years if the government agrees. I seriously didn't know India was this far ahead. I have never heard of any developments of manned spacecrafts in India, and so it makes me wonder if they are going to license some Russiam configuration? Also, can they afford it? Even if they can, where will they ultimately go? Do they aim for the moon as a long term objective?

 

http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/041121010819.7rhg8skj.html

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: Stargazer

Also, can they afford it?

Would it be better to spend the money on continued nuclear bomb development?

[Tormod]

India is one of the Big 5 in space: USA, Russia, China, Brazil, and India. Seeing as the first 3 already has launched people into space, I'm not surprised that India is following suit.

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Freethinker

Originally posted by: Stargazer

Also, can they afford it?

Would it be better to spend the money on continued nuclear bomb development?

The development of nuclear weapons is a mindless waste of money, and even more so for a country like India, where there are so many social issues to take care of. It's utterly unnecessary to increase the number of nuclear weapons on this planet. What, we don't have enough of them already? Space research is a good thing, though. It could be good for the scientific institutes and industries in India. But I wonder if they can afford it if they're not going to aim at some longterm goal instead of reaching LEO a few times.

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Tormod

India is one of the Big 5 in space: USA, Russia, China, Brazil, and India. Seeing as the first 3 already has launched people into space, I'm not surprised that India is following suit.

 

I admit I'm not extremely well read up on India's space programme, but I would replace Brazil and India on that list with ESA and Japan. Neither have carried out manned spaceflight, but they have done much more than India and Brazil as far as I know.

[Tormod]

ESA has a lot of astronauts. But they are not a country but an organisation, that's why I didn't list them.

 

Japan, yes. They are up there among the top candidates. As is Canada.

 

Sweden has it's own astronaut, Christer Fuglesang. Norway has none - but we take some consolation in the fact tah Fuglesang's dad was Norwegian.

[Tormod]

Remember we are talking about countries with the ability to launch their own astronauts into space. ESA does not have that possibility as of today. ESA astronauts fly on the space shuttle or the soyuz capsules. That India is planning to get it is what the article discusses...

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Tormod

ESA has a lot of astronauts. But they are not a country but an organisation, that's why I didn't list them.

That is true. ESA could have been the third government agency with manned missions but then they scrapped Hermes. Oh well, ESA is working towards some longterm goals regarding manned missions. The future will be interesting.

 

Japan, yes. They are up there among the top candidates. As is Canada.

Japan has hinted that they are interested in manned missions in a not-too-distant future. They are also experimenting with different solutions for space planes.

 

Sweden has it's own astronaut, Christer Fuglesang. Norway has none - but we take some consolation in the fact tah Fuglesang's dad was Norwegian.

Yeah he's going up in the shuttle next year hopefully, to work on the assembly of the ISS, and will perform a number of spacewalks. I'm a little dissapointed at the Swedish space programme though. Sure we do have satellites and the Swedish Space Corporation was the main contractor for SMART-1, but we still don't have the capability to launch our own satellites...

 

Remember we are talking about countries with the ability to launch their own astronauts into space. ESA does not have that possibility as of today. ESA astronauts fly on the space shuttle or the soyuz capsules. That India is planning to get it is what the article discusses...

That is true, I kinda went on a side track looking at the history of these countries. Anyway, India could very well be the fourth nation to launch people into space, but I highly doubt that Brazil will be the fifth... I would bet on ESA and Japan to do it before. Brazil are working hard to establish their space programme though, and I expect great things from them in the future.

[Tormod]

I wouldn't bet on ESA. They have problems with Ariane as it is. Japan is interesting, though.

 

SMART-1 is a pretty cool mission. It got a lot of press coverage in Norway during the orbit maneuvers last week. Norway has no part in it but the media is still interested.

 

The engine on SMART-1 is a prototype for the one to be used on the BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2012.

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Tormod

I wouldn't bet on ESA. They have problems with Ariane as it is. Japan is interesting, though.

Well, Ariane seems to work well now though? Also what I'm thinking of when I mentioned ESA was their Aurora Programme that will mean manned expeditions to the moon and Mars within 30 years if all goes according to the plans.

 

SMART-1 is a pretty cool mission. It got a lot of press coverage in Norway during the orbit maneuvers last week. Norway has no part in it but the media is still interested.

Space missions do get a little coverage here too, but it should be much more - but only if they can do it even remotely accurately...

 

The engine on SMART-1 is a prototype for the one to be used on the BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2012.

 

Yup. And ion engines could be useful for many other missions as well, especially if they could become more powerful, powered with nuclear fission for example.

[Tormod]

Originally posted by: Stargazer

Originally posted by: Tormod

I wouldn't bet on ESA. They have problems with Ariane as it is. Japan is interesting, though.

Well, Ariane seems to work well now though? Also what I'm thinking of when I mentioned ESA was their Aurora Programme that will mean manned expeditions to the moon and Mars within 30 years if all goes according to the plans.

 

Yeah, well...30 years....who knows what will happen in 30 years. That may sound pessimistic but from what I gather ESA is really struggling just to learn to talk to each other.

 

Good call, Stargazer. The Aurora programme is very interesting. I still see it as just another Bush Push, though. Not sure if there is any real substance to it yet.

 

But considering that NASA did get a really good budget through Congress, miracles still do happen. If I remember correctly, Aurora is part of the voluntary projects - if so, it requires a lot of ESA member states to join it in order for it to happen.

[BlameTheEx]

Stargazer.

 

Nuclear fission?

I hope not. Rockets are dodgy things. They have a nasty tendency to explode, and scatter there contents to the four winds. When the contents happen to be a contingent of Astronauts it is bad enough, but a nuclear reactor?

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: Tormod

Yeah, well...30 years....who knows what will happen in 30 years. That may sound pessimistic but from what I gather ESA is really struggling just to learn to talk to each other.

 

Good call, Stargazer. The Aurora programme is very interesting. I still see it as just another Bush Push, though. Not sure if there is any real substance to it yet.

 

But considering that NASA did get a really good budget through Congress, miracles still do happen. If I remember correctly, Aurora is part of the voluntary projects - if so, it requires a lot of ESA member states to join it in order for it to happen.

The first stages of Aurora has begun already, but the question is how far ahead they will go. The UK agreed to join recently, though unfortunately they don't seem too enthusiastic about manned missions for some reason I cannot understand. I would bet that France, Germany and Italy, the big ones, would like to keep it going though. ESA is trying to gain independent access to space, and I hope they realise this should include manned access as well.

[Stargazer]

Originally posted by: BlameTheEx

Stargazer.

 

Nuclear fission?

I hope not. Rockets are dodgy things. They have a nasty tendency to explode, and scatter there contents to the four winds. When the contents happen to be a contingent of Astronauts it is bad enough, but a nuclear reactor?

I am sure that a reactor can be built in such a fashion that even if the rocket lifting it to orbit explodes doesn't cause much harm to it. I don't know exactly how much they are working on these things, but I do know it will be necessary for missions that require lots of energy and/or long range missions where solar panels are completely useless.

[Tormod]

Cassini runs on a nuclear engine. It works like a charm.

 

Launchers don't really have a nasty tendency to explode...and even when they do, any nuclear powered craft would have to be packaged in such a way that the material on board does not get spread in the atmosphere in case of an accident.