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ToTheSummit
peregrinus



Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,127
Loc: Las Vegas
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ISS...it still amazes me!
#8958519 - 09/20/08 11:21 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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I've been watching this thing fly overhead for 10 years. I never get tired of it. Recently I stepped outside to watch a flyby and the wife joined me. Her comment went something like "I don't remember it being so bright when you first showed it to me". 
Brighter huh...ya think?
Heres the ISS when it first went into orbit 10 years ago...

Here is the ISS this year. The part circled in red is the original modules seen in the first photo...

I guess its no mystery why it seems so much brighter!
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,289
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8958527 - 09/20/08 11:23 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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I'm not a huge fan of the ISS.
It seems to me that everything it does could have been done more cheaply by other means and the enormous sums lavished on it could have been put to better use.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Ferris
PsychedelicJourneyman



Registered: 03/12/06
Posts: 11,529
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8958551 - 09/20/08 11:32 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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The ISS is a symmetrical disaster. Where did that fourth set of solar panels go?
-------------------- Discuss Politics
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: Ferris]
#8958998 - 09/20/08 01:46 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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> Where did that fourth set of solar panels go?
Currently in storage waiting for flight STS-119 (Assembly flight 15A) scheduled for February 12, 2009.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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Nephlyte
Misfortunate One



Registered: 10/11/05
Posts: 1,025
Loc: South Texas
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: Seuss]
#8959884 - 09/20/08 05:39 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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I'm a big fan of the ISS. I'm curious, is there an expiration date for the ISS? Or do they plan to keep it up there indefinitely?
-------------------- "To do right is to know what you want. Now when you are dissatisfied with yourself it's because you are after something you don't really want. What objects are you proposing to yourself? Are they the objects you really value? If they are not, you are cheating yourself. I don't meant that if you chose to pursue the objects you most value, you will attain them; of course not. Your experience will tell you that. But success in getting after much labor what you really don't care for is the bitterest and most ridiculous failure." -George Santayana
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,289
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: Nephlyte]
#8959897 - 09/20/08 05:42 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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The lifespan is ridiculously short! I think I heard 5-6 years after full completion?
If they finish in 2010, that means 2015.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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DieCommie


Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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What does it do again?
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milkman
DeliveringWorldWide



Registered: 07/04/07
Posts: 2,108
Loc: tha FLA
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: DieCommie]
#8960129 - 09/20/08 06:43 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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isnt it just so people can live up there and conduct super important space studies
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RRhoads
chemistry student




Registered: 10/26/04
Posts: 1,434
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: DieCommie]
#8960135 - 09/20/08 06:44 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Eats money.
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus



Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,127
Loc: Las Vegas
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8960329 - 09/20/08 07:31 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Meh.
Yeah, the ratio of money spent to scientific benefit is pretty poor. But I don't care. All the politics and wasted money aside, its still pretty fucking cool. And if given the chance I would drop whatever I had going on in my life to go for a ride if it was offered to me!
At least its a lot more entertaining then that money pit they call the LHC.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Ferris
PsychedelicJourneyman



Registered: 03/12/06
Posts: 11,529
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8960366 - 09/20/08 07:40 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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If anything, we're learning how to run day to day operations on a space station, which will hopefully be much cheaper when we have the tech to build cheap space elevators.
-------------------- Discuss Politics
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DieCommie


Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8960376 - 09/20/08 07:42 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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I bet the best research that has come out of it is engineering research on how to assemble and maintain a space station! (as well as all the components) That certainly has some benefit. Personally, I think the money and energy spent on the ISS would be better suited towards space exploration.
(With the LHC too, I think thats a great engineering feat but science... probably not so much... well see)
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johnm214



Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: DieCommie]
#8960393 - 09/20/08 07:46 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
DieCommie said: What does it do again?
This is really disgusting.
A physicist like you and you don't know the great benifits of the ISS?
Educate yourself.
Among other things it:
1. Has a really bright light that you can see from earth. 2. Orbits really fast. 3. Costs the US billions every year for the benifits listed previously, which is a good deal in anyone's book. I think total is only around 150billion for the whole project, which is a steal.
I mean, NASA says we get at least 2$ back for every dollar we spend on the ISS, and they wouldn't lie.
We should take the entire federal budget next year and give it to nasa, cuz they are able to double money somehow (I'm guessing its magic).
(I like how they don't give a source or say in what period of time the money doubles or if this accounts for inflation. I would guess just investing in a large cap index fund would do much better than NASA's crap. I also wonder who gets the benifit? I don't care if NASA gets a doubling of money after twenty years or something.)
Quote:
How will the economy benefit from development and completion of the International Space Station? Money spent on America's space program is a good investment. Every dollar spent by NASA returns at least $2 in direct and indirect benefits.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/faq/index.html#30
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Annom
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Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 6,367
Loc: Europe
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8960398 - 09/20/08 07:48 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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The ISS definitely isn't what I would build with the global space budget, if I could control it. Money and scientific efficiency aside, I think the ISS is an amazing thing. With 278,000 kg (right now) and 75x45 m it is like placing a Boeing 777 in orbit around Earth. It definitely has an engineering artistic and entertainment value for me. The price tag has to be ignored to enjoy it though.
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Annom
※※※※※※




Registered: 12/22/02
Posts: 6,367
Loc: Europe
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8960461 - 09/20/08 08:03 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
ToTheSummit said: At least its a lot more entertaining then that money pit they call the LHC.
I don't agree. The LHC is also very entertaining and an amazing thing. I'm also interested in the results of the experiment. From a curiosity(scientific?) point of view it is the only logical thing to do. We should always build experiments to test the most fundamental and best models of reality. The LHC can give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside , although I don't understand much of what they are doing. It's also a lot cheaper, in the 10$ billion dollar range. Still a lot of money.
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Minstrel
Man of Science



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 1,974
Loc: Hogtown
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Re: ISS...it still amazes me! [Re: Annom]
#8963474 - 09/21/08 01:00 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Some private folks with money aught to create their own space program and build an orbital grow-op.
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