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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by JohnBrownsBussy2@hexbear.net to c/technology@hexbear.net

With this project falling behind, and the reducing likelihood of delays in the Lunar Gateway/Artemis program, I think there's a good chance that NASA and the ESA will not have access to a space station following the ISS's decommission. It's not the only "public-private" partnership for an ISS successor, but I don't think the other candidates are making much progress either.

I also thought that this quote was pretty amusing, and highlights the futility of trying to privately fund commercial station projects:

To bring in some much-needed cash, Axiom Space started selling seats for trips to the ISS on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

It was also awarded a NASA contract to fund a space suit for the first crewed mission to the lunar surface, Artemis III.

But the suit appears to have been a massive distraction — not to mention a major money pit — from its plans to build a space station. SpaceX trips to the existing orbital outpost were also not a sustainable solution to Axiom Space's woes.

"Turns out that there's not a lot of billionaires that want to set aside their life for 18 months to go train to be an astronaut for the ISS," a former Axiom executive told Forbes.

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[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 34 points 1 month ago

The current USA is becoming a cargo cult of peak empire USA. Which is good, because fuck us. But man it's gonna suck when capitalism has turned Everything into a hollowed out shell of itself.

[-] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 26 points 1 month ago

It's sad because NASA is like one of the only few cool and good things about America. At least they have a few missions going, but we'll see how long that lasts before some private entity is sucking up what little money is left of their allowance.

Oh well...

sit-back-and-enjoy

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago

CNSA is stepping up to do the real space exploration stuff. Lunar farside sample return is pretty damn cool and they're actually making good progress toward a human moon landing by 2030. There are going to be two more robotic ones before that, one with a rover and hopper to scout the best sites from the ground and one with some kind of ISRU test to make a permanent moon base more useful and viable.

[-] Des@hexbear.net 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

china will be regularly shipping autonomously mined and refined lunar farside cryogenic helium-3 packages back to earth to fuel a network of De-He3 5 gigawatt commercial reactors when the U.S. is on it's 16th failing silicon valley funded Thiel-backed private space agency under the Barron Trump administration

NASA, at that point just a PR team of 3 appointees for the private sector, will be promising to restore satellite launch capacity to rebuild real-time communications between the east and west coast after roving bands of florida RV refugees strip the copper and vital electronics from every land line and data center in the central dust bowl

xi-beard we are proudly welcoming Yemen as the 7th nation into our Space Exploration Federation after they have used their expertise to build their first super-heavy lift spaceport

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago

There are already 13 countries signed up to be a part of the International Lunar Research Station program. The most recent is Senegal which joined about two weeks ago.

Yemen would be a good place to launch space rockets from, just on a technical level. Low latitude, low humidity, ocean to the southeast.

[-] Des@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

cool glad my early morning sci-fi wishcasting has some basis in reality!

and i have been thinking about that in regards to Yemen lately. could see it being a future hub for space launches for the reasons you listed. also might have the highest density of rocket scientists in the world by then

[-] GaveUp@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago

Turns out that there's not a lot of billionaires that want to set aside their life for 18 months to go train to be an astronaut for the ISS

I wonder if there's some law that they could lobby to change. I wouldn't mind if billionaires started going to space without any training whatsoever

[-] StalinStan@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago

Once again I will forever hate china for being cowards. It would be so easy for them to do cute space pranks. Like, we so clearly have lost it. Just imagine them putting a CPC bumper sticker on the broke. Shuttle. We wouldn't be able to take it off. If they meme on us hard enough they could get us to actually spend on some space stuff properly instead of just doing pork scams with whatever contractor

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 19 points 1 month ago

Using a Starfleet chevron for the CNSA logo is kinda memeing on us.

The 2011 no working with China law is going to get funnier and funnier as their moon base progresses.

[-] someone@hexbear.net 14 points 1 month ago

Yeah, the CNSA logo is pretty dope.

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 9 points 1 month ago

Starfleet chevron over the UFP laurel

[-] someone@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

I've decided I'm going to try to make a 3D-printable TNG-esque commbadge, but using the elements of the CNSA logo. I threw something together to see how it works.

I'm not sure how detailed I can get with the laurels though on something that small. I'll make sure to make the STL files available if I do succeed.

I have a close match to the blue but I'd need some sort of backing to put them on. I'm thinking of a glitter filament, white flecks on black, like a starfield. Or maybe just a glossy black would do.

[-] StalinStan@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

That's pretty good. I just want them to just use their moon rover to push over the flag we did there. We wouldn't be able to set it back up.

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

That would be the longest rover trip ever by a factor of like several thousand.

[-] StalinStan@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago

Good, that would force us to watch knowing we can do nothing to prevent it. The suspence might even get congress to approve making a moon battle bot to send them to stop them.

[-] someone@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Funny thing is, that's already happened for Apollo 11, 14, and 15. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite has imaged the Apollo landing sites and could only see the flags standing upright for Apollo 12, 16, and 17. After 11's flag was unexpectedly blown down during the return to Earth from the ascent stage rocket's exhaust gases, NASA decided to put the flags on subsequent missions farther away from the lander. Didn't seem to work for 14 and 15.

But there's a fun and actually heartwarming twist. All the dye in the flags has been bleached out by solar radiation. They'd be recognized as American flags by the sewing stitches if you look really close-up, because the Apollo flags all had the stripes and stars stitched together. But from a distance they'd be pure white, as if we really did come in peace.

[-] StalinStan@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Haha, so my plan would require them bringing a little americna flag to throw down because we already shit thr bed on ours. That's great.

this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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