Space, The final trip??? By Bong (Read 815 times)

[Bong]

This may be inappropriate but does not fall under politics or religion. ( will self edit/delete if necessary) I won't cuss either

Anyway, NASA is making it's final trip to the international space station. Once the shuttle lands it will be decommissioned. No more space flights!!

I know some private companies are doing testing but, I think it's a shame that an era is ending.

Does anyone else have thoughts on our final count down? It's up to the private sector to walk on Mars now.

I Guess a GY6 wont be cruising the moon anytime soon

[gatekeeper]

I always hate to see a good piece of equipment retired and put out to pasture. The shuttles have performed well past their original intended time frames so I guess this is overdue. Still, I hate to see them go.

I remember watching the first manned moon landing. I was spellbound by the grainy images being broadcast from the surface of the moon. I do feel confident however that in the next 20 years or so we will again be spellbound by crystal clear images of the first manned mission to the surface of Mars.

If it takes the private sector to get us there, so be it.

[JR]

What I want to know is what are we going to do about the gazillion dollar space station? No more people going?

JR

[gatekeeper]

The Russians will take care of that for us for the time being.

[Bong]

Yeah that's right. We will still be going up, just not here. We now go to the Russians for maned space flights. This last mission was to stock the space station with food and provisions for a year. Hopefully someone can figure a way up in that time.

Companies such as SpaceX, Virgin and others are doing very interesting things. The astronaut with the most time in space (forgot his name) is even developing a new type of propulsion, making the trip to Mars a few months instead of a few years.

I hope in my lifetime we can see at least another trip to the Moon, How bout a gy6 lunar rover It may run a bit lean though ;D