Space traveling

By: kraftb@kraftb.at

Somewhen during a life almost everybody thinks about space traveling or the cosmos. I would like to write a little bit about space ships, the cosmos and the current state of technology in this area.

This time I would like to write a little about a hobby of mine. Well. Some people would not even call it a hobby. If someone for example likes to watch or read News you wont call it a hobby. Would you?

I find it very interesting to follow the topic of space exploration. One can't really get active in this area - and the typical stereotype of a small boy telling: "I want to become an Astronaut" is rather cheesy for many of us. But it is astonishing what mankind achieved in the last years and decades if you take a closer look at this area of science.

Often when you start to talk about space traveling and space exploration one would start with the first men on the moon almost a half century ago. But I think this was rather just a demonstration of political powers during the cold war than something with a real scientific background. Nowadays many countries and organizations work together to supply the ISS, the International Space Station, with food, fuel, water, new devices and modules and other mandatory things.

Nowaday it is only mentioned as short news flash when a Space Shuttle or a Soyuz rocket roars up into the sky. It does not have the public interest it had 30 or 40 years ago. I think as supply and development missions to the ISS have become common the public interest in those news declined like one doesn't want to hear what the weather on the other side of the earth is. I do not really understand this lack of fascination for space traveling, as it is a very important part of our future. As the Soyuz transportation system are very safe and also the last Space Shuttle missions took place without any difficulties it seems there is no place for disaster hunting media channels.

It is also quite sad to know, that mostly only the United Stated and Russia are taking real efforts to build up and supply the ISS. Altough other countries and organizations like the EU, China and Japan are having their part most of the work is done by the USA and Russia. Almost every few months a Space Shuttle or Soyuz spacecraft heads its way up to the ISS bringing them those required goods. The Europeans have a robotic transport vessel called "ATV" (Automated Transfer Vehicle) which can also bring supplies to the ISS. The Japanese pendant to the ATV is the HTV (H-2 Transfer Vehicle) which also can supply the ISS but not transfer fuel and oxygen.

Many of those space activities can be watched on NASA TV and there also exists a newsletter (box on the left) which can inform you about upcoming events and missions. And to have a short look at the future of space exploration I would like to give you a link to the Ares project of NASA.

The Ares-I and Ares-V are a duo of rockets (launch vehicles) designed for the future of space exploration. The Ares-I will be able transport a mass of up to 25 tons of payload into a orbit, while the Ares-V - the lorry of space travel - will be able to lift up to 188 tons(!!!) into a near earth orbit, or in combination with the Ares-I about 71 tons far away to the moon! But already before such heavy duty spacecrafts existed. Like the American Saturn-V rocket which was used for lifting up the vehicle for the first manned landing on the moon, or the Russian rocket Energia which was used in the Russian space program but is out of duty nowadays. Also China has some quite powerful cargo rockets in their "Long March" rocket series.

To allow you to compare this with other current spaceships: ATV (7,6 tons), HTV (6,0 tons), Space Shuttle (24,5 tons) and the lifting capacity of a Sojus with about 7 tons. All those numbers strongly depend on from where on the earth you start the rockets. A starting place at the equator allows more payload to get transported into the space than starting locations more near to the poles. This is caused by the higher radial velocity and lower gravitational pull at the equator compared to the poles. It should get noted that not all of those heavy load rockets are able to lift up humans into space and one has to distinct between rocket and spacecraft. One lifts a cargo up into space, the other one is for allowing people to travel through space. Currently only the United States, Russia and recently also China have sent people into space.

I could write almost endlessly about this topic but I just wanted to give people a little kick into this very interesting direction so everbody could look up information intersting form her/him by oneself. Happy virtual space exploration!

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