
SpaceX announces deal to shuttle tourists to private space stations - leejw00t354
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/spacex-announces-deal-to-shuttle-tourists-to-private-space-stations/
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cdash
Since we are talking about SpaceX in here, I figured I would linked to a image
Elon posted today of the Grasshopper landing gear. Grasshopper is a testing
platform they are creating for an eventual reusable version of the Falcon 9
rocket.

<http://img.ly/i5JQ>

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SoftwareMaven
It is so awesome the private sector is getting into this. Here's hoping I'll
still be around by the time it become affordable (or that I've it pay dirt in
the meantime :).

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ChuckMcM
This is certainly the closest I've seen folks to being able to put 'real'
people into space. I'm so hoping we can get there in the next 20 years.

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lbo
Is it just me or does an inflatable space station sound terrifying. It seems
like it would be very fragile if it collided with any fast-moving debris.

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terramars
The Bigelow design is actually significantly stronger than the ISS modules.
You're thinking about "inflatable" wrong- they have an expandable mesh of
fabric several layers thick that is extremely strong and lets them get a
larger diameter module out of a smaller payload fairing. If you get hit with
debris of any reasonable size, you're fucked one way or the other. The Bigelow
design is easier to seal up and more robust against smaller debris.

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moonchrome
>If you get hit with debris of any reasonable size, you're fucked one way or
the other.

I wonder if this will be included in the brochures.

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yew
I suspect (a fair proportion of) the initial crop of tourists are already
aware.

The risk isn't really that high, though. It'll only become a real concern once
things start to scale up. Then we'll have to clean up orbital space. The real
problem is dealing with the occasional solar radiation surge. Bigelow's
baseline designs were sourced from NASA, though, so I suspect they have a plan
for that.

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moonchrome
I meant it as a joke about his phrasing not about actual risk but I guess it's
hard to express tone with text, at least for me :)

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yew
Ah, it might be as much a matter of my interpretation skills.

But anyway, it's still true that the real danger is radiation. I would be
interested in finding out whether they intend to shield part of the station or
just schedule visits around solar flares . . .

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rdl
Maybe this will be the solution to broken US immigration laws, in 20 years.

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lhnn
The last line implies that SpaceX won't be ready to ferry astronauts to the
ISS until 2017.

1) I thought they were closer than that

2) The ISS is slated for decomm in 2016, or is it 2020?

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JumpCrisscross
4-5 years to astronauts from the first experimental supply delivery sounds
reasonable. Remember that we are re-tooling our entire space economy to work
sustainably.

The ISS was extended "to 2020 via the NASA Authorization Act of 2010" [1].

[1]
[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/facilitie...](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/facilities_category.html)

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nerdfiles
_intro to Cowboy Bebop_

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nerdfiles
Breaking even ain't bad.

