Wild Speculation and Fun Fantasy Thread No. 256^3!

[rybanis]

I thought I'd make this thread for some entertainment in this forum, as things usually have a more serious bend to them. I'm not even sure this thread is right for this forum, but I'd rather keep it out of the 9th ring of Hell (Free Space) at all costs.<br /><br />Anyways, I present to you a senario that is unrealistic:<br /><br />The DoD currently has a budget of 470 billion dollars, not including the funds that are being appropiated because of the Iraq situation. Lets take one third of 470 billion, which is 157 billion (rounded off). Lets give that 157 billion dollars (per year!)to NASA and related space indsturies.<br /><br />Now given current technology ect...what do you think we could do? 157 billion dollars per year is a huge amount of money. What could we have? <br /><br />This could never happen, but I think it'd be fun for everybody to speculate on what would be possible with an ungodly amount of money such as that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[halman]

Rybanis,<br /><br />I love playing this game, but there is one stipulation I want to add: The money that NASA does not spend in one year is rolled over to the following year, and so on. This to avoid the spending of money merely to spend it, which is frequently done in government, the reason being that if you didn't spend all that you got, you don't need as much.<br /><br />Anyway,year 1 would see design studies for a Heavy-Lift Launch vehicle in the 250,000-500,000 pound to Low Earth Orbit class; a second-generation reusable space plane with manned, fly-back booster, capable of carrying a crew of 3 and 15 passengers plus 2 tons of cargo, or no passengers and 5 tons of cargo, to Low Earth Orbit; a second Space Station;a Lunar Shuttle, capable of carrying a crew of 3 and 10 passengers, plus 2 tons of equipment, from LEO to the Moon, support them there for 30 days, and return them to LEO; a Temporary Lunar Habitat, able to support 20 people for an indefinite period on re-supply from Earth:a permanent Lunar Base, capable of supporting 50 people with re-supply from Earth; an automated freght rocket for re-supply of Lunar Expeditions, capable of carrying 25,000 pounds from LEO to a soft-landing anywhere on the Moon: a closed-loop Life Support System, to be used at the Lunar Base and on long-duration missions to Mars; a autonomous Martian Survey System, to include 1 orbiting supercomputer to control operations and handle communications with Earth, at least 3 Tracking, Data, and Relay Satellites to provide constant communications with all surface probes, Stationary Surface Probes, to gather long-term weather, radiation, and meteor data, Mobile Surface Probes, to investigate different areas of the surface, including soil analysis; and a Long-Duration Manned Space Vehicle, for missions to the Asteroid Belt, Mars, Mercury, and the moons of Jupiter; probes to the individual Jupiter moons, a Surface Lander/Excavating Probe to Mercury, individual probes to Neptune and Urananus a <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[dan_casale]

Year 1<br />1) Begin designing Earth Orbiting Elevator (EOE) and Mars Orbiting Elevator (MOE). (For Humans and livestock)<br />2) Begin designing Earth Orbiting Tether System. (Cargo system)<br />3) Begin designing Lunar Orbiting Tether System. (Cargo system)<br />4) Begin designing Martian Orbiting Tether System. (Cargo system)<br />5) Begin designing Mechanical Closed Loop Life Support System (CLLSS).<br />6) Begin designing Biological CLLSS.<br />7) Begin construction of Shuttle-C<br />8) Begin designing space dock for EOE and tether systems.<br />9) Begin desiginng AI for repair robots.<br />10) Begin designing lunar mining equipment.<br />11) Begin designing lunar colony modules/equipment.<br />12) Begin designing Mars colony modules/equipment.<br />13) Begin designing Mars explorers.<br />14) Begin designing boot straping technologies for Asteroids, Mars, and Moon.<br />15) Continue work on development and uses for Carbon Nanotubes.<br />16) Continue work on inertial confinement fusion.<br /><br />Year 2-3<br />1) Launch Earth Tether system. This will increase shuttle-C payload.<br />2) Build/Modify shuttle to doc with EOE.<br />3) Begin designing orbital hotels for space dock.<br /><br />Year 4-5<br />1) Launch EOE system.<br />2) Begin allowing space tourist businesses.<br />3) Launch prototype CLLSS systems for orbital & lunar testing.<br />4) Launch Lunar PV plant to begin manufacturing solar cells.<br />5) Deploy Lunar Tether system.<br />6) Begin testing new rocket engine types on EOE.<br /><br />Year 6-10<br />1) Launch Lunar base.<br />2) Launch LEO base.<br />3) Begin construction of space dock from Earth/Lunar materials.<br />4) Launch second generation CLLSS systems.<br />5) Mars base designs completed.<br /><br />Year 11-20<br />1) Construct Earth/Mars transport system.<br />2) Deploy Mars Tether and MOE systems.<br />3) Begin launching from LEO space dock.<br />4) Begin launching Mars base to Mars.<br /><br />Year 20-<br />1) Settle solar system.<br />2) Perfect CLLSS system.<br />3) L

 

[flynn]

Wow, the word fantasy has really taken off. I can see all those contractors rubbing their hands with glee.<br /><br />I don't know enough to give realistic timescales (I'm so used to them slipping) so I won't bother being too exact with them. As for ignoring what we already have in our arsenal well nothing will waste our money quicker. <br /><br />Year 1 - <br /><br />Start BDB Project<br />Expand Ion-propulsion technologies.<br />Plan to bring Hubble back to Earth whilst using interest generated drum up support for the Next-Next generation of space observatories.<br />Continue Shuttle back to flight program.<br />Colaborate with ISS partners and private companies (i.e Scales Compasites) on reusable vehicle capable of getting a crew of 8-10 people to and from ISS.<br />Fund X-Prize type competitions (next generation, i.e. A week in space, 6 People to 100km ...)<br /><br />Year 2 -<br /><br />Secure funding of ATV to deliver ISS supplies (colaborate with ESA).<br />Fund a new ISS module specifically for docking 3 Soyuz lifeboats and work with Russia on securing future Soyuz launches.<br />Secure funding for remaining ISS module lauches<br /><br />Year 3 -<br /><br />Review of progress and start push towards Lunur exploration, whilst getting the ISS to do what it was meant to and revitilising the robotic exploration of our Solar system and beyond.<br />Robotic heavy mining equiptment to the moon, lets tunnel ourselves some caves.<br />Noahs arc on the moon - DNA deposit<br />More X-Prize type competitions (2 People to orbit moon ... ) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>