Christ, I wish I could be that bad at my job.
but if you want a tl;dr
genetically sick jew woman destroyed the cleanest and most sterile place ever created and tossed a trillion dollars of research and equipment into the sun because she was being paranoid and neurotic (as jews do) about her EX. continued to throw tantrums and destroy the septic system and irradiated the work quarters because NASA cant just send an uber into space at a moment's notice.
@Hoss @Nudhul @egirlyuumimain They had an airlock. Shoulda used that.
[i write "brig" on a sheet of paper]
[i tape it to an airlock door]
The reason they're going to scrap it soon, as far as I understand, is more related to physics than politics. Radiation damages metal, and the 90 minute heating and cooling cycles introduce metal fatigue, and some other similar "shit just wears out being in space" effects. It might last longer, but safety margins are high in space. (Or are supposed to be.)
The reason they don't just launch a whole new station in advance is politics and incompetency. China just whipped up a station and put it up there no muss no fuss. Musk would already have one if his goals were that low. Russia claims they're going to launch a new one, but don't hold your breath. They'll probably just tag along with China.
id also wager the iss was the most expensive infrastructure/research project in history and even with all their money printers on 24/7 they couldn't meet the price tag
It is (was?) the single most expensive thing ever built by humanity.
Much of this had to do with the ungodly amount of corruption in the US space industry and the defense contractors who run it. Remember, China is the second largest launcher in the world after SpaceX, and waaaaay ahead of 3rd place. The vast majority of their rockets are simple and cheap designs, not overengineered ultra-complicated bureaucratic boondoggles. Falcon 9's design is not particularly revolutionary either. It uses the simplest and most naive engine design, built with an eye on cost. It uses simple fuels. It's made from simple, standard materials. Sure, it comes back and lands, and that took a lot of engineering effort, but NASA had the capability to build a Falcon 9 since the mid 90's at least. So did Boeing and Lockheed and Northrop Grumman. But they didn't. They just wanted to feed on the teats of government and guard their pensions.
The ISS weighs 450 tons. Falcon 9 could lift it for just under $2b, which is less than the cost of two shuttle launches. And it would only take 2 months to launch the entire thing. Even if NASA was only half as efficient as SpaceX, it could relaunch a new ISS in only 4 months for the cost of 2 SLS launches.
@Hoss @gentoobro @egirlyuumimain @Nudhul It was the last one made pre-concurrency. Now that we're jumping straight to mass production while prototyping, we end up having to retrofit everything multiple times
Amazing system, it's truly marvelous they haven't quit yet. If we did it with these they'd have left the floor with buggy electrical and a single bank engine making 450 hp
@Hoss @egirlyuumimain @Nudhul Keep it going? SpaceX won a $850 million award to deorbit ISS in 2030.
@Hoss @Griffith I have a feeling this is not the first time something like this has happened, besides, they're getting TDY $. On a serious note, I don't think the "stranded" astronauts are unhappy. They volunteered and then trained their ass off to go to space and do space shit and now they get to live their dream. I bet all fighter pilots are itching for a war with Russia or China so they can shoot shit instead of escorting lost Canadian Cessna's back north.
@Hoss @egirlyuumimain @Nudhul It all depends on WH and Congress, if they legislate and fund it then ISS will be staying in orbit for as long there is money for it.
A developing nation that's heavily motivated to play catch up against a rival world power has less tolerance for bureaucratic gridlock bullshit than the leading superpower that has been resting on its laurels for decades.
China can hardly be considered "developing" anymore. It probably passed the US in overall industrial development before the bulk of its space program. As it stands, the US leads China in desktop processor/gpu design and fabrication by maybe 10 years on the generous side. That's it. That's the only thing the US has that China doesn't. It's a completely useless lead too; China can get by just fine with 10 year old gaming computers. Anything else can be distributed.
China is also extremely corrupt too, just not as corrupt as the US. The US is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet, despite gaslighting their populace since the average Joe can't bribe his way out of a parking ticket.
The only way to "end" those programs is to scrap the entire thing, including selling off existing jets to whoever is willing to buy them. Merely ordering fewer jets results in the supplier adjusting the unit price with some 3rd grade arithmetic to still get the same profits with fewer units.
>price goes up
only in weimerica
And in reality the F22 and F35 are likely just as vulnerable to an S400 as an F18. "Stealth" is all lies; the only actually stealth aircraft were the F117 and B2, and most of the practical stealth comes from special paint that apparently washes off after a few rainstorms. "Stealth design", as in not due to the paint, is in comparison to shitty WW2 era radar systems that can't talk to each other.
It's because the buyer (the government) is forced to buy at whatever cost due to corrupt government contracts.
it's also basically what kojima created the metal gear to be (an untraceable nuclear platform) except better because it can fly.
(the nuclear warheads it would have carried are dumbfired with an impact fuse so there's no seeing via infrared and no risk of EMP disruption)
the only narrative flaw it would have had in metal gear is that the US is the only country to own them. so if a nuke suddenly blew up somewhere with overcast skies it would be obvious who did it.
@Hoss @egirlyuumimain @Nudhul Another important lesson learned from our early space efforts. The first space station to have a proper brig should be named the "Auñón-Chancellor Detention Module" in honor of that nasty cunt.
It's less "low radar profile" and more "not literally the worst case radar cross section design possible", which was common in WW2 planes.
The investigation following that mishap is supposedly how they figured out that the radar-absorbing paint just washes off.
b2 is the coolest plane ever made and im not up for debating this.
The coolest plane ever made so far.
Very different missions... but it's really tough to beat the SR-71 on the cool factor.