Deep space MANNED exploration a possibility by the end of the deacde!

Article

Perhaps an interesting aspect of space exploration will be re opened once again!
Sending man into deep space! By the end of the decade.
Some of you may not get my excitement but for those who love space, you will!

The proposal to join in construction of the four-person US Orion spaceship will be debated at the European Space Agency's 20 member states in Italy. Europe is preparing plans to join the United States in building a manned spaceship that would take men and women to the Moon and beyond. The project could see a European astronaut launched into deep space before the end of the decade.

Something that interests me is this.
Who is going to be that astronaut?
What would it take for you to be the first person to be sent into deep space? No family or friends? Ambition for fame? Love of exploring, venturing where no man has gone?

The Orion capsule - known officially as the Multiple Purpose Crew Vehicle - is designed to carry astronauts on missions of up to six months and could take men and women to the Moon, or an asteroid or possibly even Mars.

I love the idea of sending men and woman back into space for exploring. Lets be honest, humans need to at some point get to get on the big stage with the probes!

It's great to see cooperation in the space agency where in a lot places, there is not much left in the world.

Can't wait to get updates on this!

I would sign up in a second
Then claim every planet for myself and call them Boymonkey 1, The land of boymonkey etc.
Mahahahahaha.....Mahahahhahahahaahahaa. Mahahahahaa...sorry got my evil hat on today
I think TPTB know we have not got long left here on earth and we must reach for the stars.

reply to post by curiousrb


I find this very exciting, it's about time we started to go beyond the Moon, and explored our own area and see with our own eyes the wonders our probes have been seeing.

I am glad to see the cooperation of the space agencies in getting this off the ground as it were.

Brilliant stuff, thanks for posting.

No worries peoples

I know we are making great advancements in our space technology but this just seems like a bit of colour has been added into the space program again. Something that will interest people who aren't necessarily interested in the topic.

To me it's like we're finally doing what we are capable of.

I will be honest I think at least 2 - 4 people should venture into deep space rather than one. I think being alone and so far away from humanity could cause one to go a bit crazy....

If you find any more interesting information would love to see it!

Noticed they say 'four person' capsule...meaning possibly a generational slant to future missions maybe?

If it's two men and two women...it might be in future plans to actually go to 'deep space', that will take a lot longer than 6 months, and if they are thinking of this, we might see the first human child born off Earth in our lifetimes...but as far as the moon, an asteroid or Mars goes...i would call that local space, not deep space.

reply to post by MysterX


Yes I saw that and that's talking about the Orion capsule capabilities.

I think they were inferring that the Europeans would like to take it a step further and hence the statement

The project could see a European astronaut launched into deep space before the end of the decade

If they were talking about the same mission they would have said ''four astronauts''.

The Orion capsule is what it says it is. A capsule. It's not a specified mission. They want to utilize the project to achieve greater success. They are talking about to different things. But I can see why you would come up with that interpretation but I hope my explanation helps

reply to post by curiousrb


I have a friend that told me he was selected out of close to a million applicants for being 1 of the first fleet of astronauts to be sent to mars in 2020, I am not 100% sure if he is telling me the truth, although as a friend & from his job ranking position, id say he is telling the truth. He works with NASA & organizing future projects.

reply to post by FeelingPure


Awesome!

Would he be able to return to earth or only on the ''one way trip'' which I saw on the news a few months ago?

reply to post by curiousrb


I don't know, all i know is he told me not to tell anyone

oh well at least no one knows his name... XD

reply to post by curiousrb


Sure, but i think the 'one European' part refers to the fact that Europe will only be allotted one seat...rather than a single European going off on a mission.

I'd imagine the US (as the project leaders i suppose) would have at least 50% of the crew, probably 75%.

I was thinking more in terms of gender, rather than nationality though...you know...two by two if you get my drift.

Personally I think it's a bad idea.

I can just picture this:

2022: US Orion Spaceship sets off and gets as far as the edge of the solar system,

During that next 10 years or so some new exotic propulsion system is developed and another team are sent out and reach them in about 20 days.....

US Orion Spaceship Mark II tells Mark I: "You can go home now we've got it from here"

If I go I want the females to have really sexy costumes or sod it just clone 7of9 from star trek...I will have four of em

I've often thought that Chris :-)

Set out on a hundred year generational starship...sit in a cramped ship for 70 years or so, only to be met by another more advanced ship that set off to catch you 20 minutes earlier...oh...dear.

That's pretty exciting to see tax dollars being spent on stuff like this. Just imagine if we do wind up finding extraterrestrial intelligence. I bet we will get along great with them since we humans are expert diplomats.

Very cool.

When I first saw ORION, as I always do, I first thought of the nuclear bomb detonation pulse propulsion covered under Project Orion

How would you like to go for a ride on one of THOSE?

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

You'd never have to worry about tailgate drivers in space with a propulsion system like that.

Nuclear Detonation Pulse drive would be quite a site to see, even if the first bomb pulse didn't start until at least Lunar Distance from Earth.

The Orion capsule isn't that though. Still. Orion capsule and deep space. Yes. Cool. Still cool.
Lets get some people off this rock doing some real hands-on exploring.

reply to post by curiousrb


Hopefully, man can work together to reach a greater goal. To reach where only our imagination have been. Perhaps this will help relations with other less "liked" countries too? Include them in on the action, even if they can't splurge big bucks I'm sure they too have great minds that could help. Let this be a platform for us to advance together.

I really want to see this happen.

reply to post by Druscilla


I saw a documentary on that, JFK went to see a model of it and the army dudes stuck a load of guns and stuff on it and JFK was horrified and cancelled the project.
They said about 4 or 5 people would be killed by the fallout and the designer tried to sabotage the project.
Oddly enough the way the nukes were put in place came from the same design from coca cola how they move the bottles.

did we even go to the moon though?

Originally posted by MysterX
Noticed they say 'four person' capsule...meaning possibly a generational slant to future missions maybe?

If it's two men and two women...it might be in future plans to actually go to 'deep space', that will take a lot longer than 6 months, and if they are thinking of this, we might see the first human child born off Earth in our lifetimes...but as far as the moon, an asteroid or Mars goes...i would call that local space, not deep space.

I think it's too soon for that. We don't know how a foetus would develop in space or even if conception is possible in antigravity. We would first have to experiment in orbit and I'm sure there would be too many human rights activists and followers of religion making experiments of this nature nigh on impossible

Originally posted by boymonkey74
reply to post by Druscilla

 

I saw a documentary on that, JFK went to see a model of it and the army dudes stuck a load of guns and stuff on it and JFK was horrified and cancelled the project.
They said about 4 or 5 people would be killed by the fallout and the designer tried to sabotage the project.
Oddly enough the way the nukes were put in place came from the same design from coca cola how they move the bottles.

it's really a fascinating project that resulted from an accident that (theoretically) launched the first man-made object into space during a nuclear containment test explosion called "Pascal B" under operation Plumbbob where a 900kg steel capping plate was possibly accelerated to 6 times escape velocity (and never found).

Later studies on the concept did away with the idea of ground-to-space launch due the concerns over fallout, among other safety issues.

Read through the Wiki on Project Orion. It get pretty detailed with ship design, bomb payload requirements for trips to Moon, Mars, and I think Saturn too, with variations for high efficiency "Energy Limited" next to "Momentum Limited" configurations.

It's even detailed with enough payload, for Interstellar travel, a Project Orion type ship could (theoretically) reach:

A nuclear pulse drive starship powered by matter-antimatter pulse units would be theoretically capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% to 80% of the speed of light.

That's VERY fast compared to all the other solutions we currently have on the table.
That would put Alpha Centari and other close neighbors almost within traveling distance, at least feasible for robotic probes on timescales we wouldn't simply forget about.
Of course there's other engineering hurdles to overcome before speeds like that could be safely reached, like shielding against even dust and gas that would collide with a craft going that fast.

Anyway, apologies everyone for going tangental with something space related with the name Orion, but, not the Orion discussed in the OP.