Looks like their space policy is as much of a politics-driven mess as ours is.
6 thoughts on “Russian’s Space Plans”
The gummints won’t get serious about space until someone shows them a buck can be made out there, which can then be taxed. At least until the Belters tell them to shove it.
The belt is so vast the government won’t even know they’re out there.
Type “No stealth in space” into google, and follow some of the links. If you think you’ve found an obviously wrong argument, back up and try a different link – the arguing is endless.
I’m fully aware of that. You will note that Atomic Rocket is a link on my blog.
Ok. So the govt. will know there is activity. It doesn’t make the belt any smaller. It’s also a long way from seeing a heat signature to taxing a particular person.
I think that although Rand’s assessement is essentially correct, it does not contradict the view that Russian space policies are pragmatic. It is a glass half-full kind of situation. In particular, Node is well into construction phase (4 hulls are built – all but 1 for testing and full-scale representations) and is specifically designed to create a “forever” space station. This is something NASA is not considering at all, at least not in the open.
Mr. Zak’s spin is rather limp, too. Slaming certain measures as “political” changes nothing about their necessity. This week, Kazakhstan denied a permission to launch Metop, causing an open-ended delay of months. Vostochnyi may be as “political” as observers wish it to be, but it is unavoidable. As for first launch in 2015, time will tell. There’s nothing impossible in that. No work was done on the Kourou pad until 2006 – including design – yet it was basically complete in 2010.
Poverty has a tendency to make you pragmatic. Like at the height of the cold war some guy lands this Mig in Japan that our guys were afraid of. Turns out it only had titanium on leading edges and the skin was riveted.
The gummints won’t get serious about space until someone shows them a buck can be made out there, which can then be taxed. At least until the Belters tell them to shove it.
The belt is so vast the government won’t even know they’re out there.
Type “No stealth in space” into google, and follow some of the links. If you think you’ve found an obviously wrong argument, back up and try a different link – the arguing is endless.
I’m fully aware of that. You will note that Atomic Rocket is a link on my blog.
Ok. So the govt. will know there is activity. It doesn’t make the belt any smaller. It’s also a long way from seeing a heat signature to taxing a particular person.
I think that although Rand’s assessement is essentially correct, it does not contradict the view that Russian space policies are pragmatic. It is a glass half-full kind of situation. In particular, Node is well into construction phase (4 hulls are built – all but 1 for testing and full-scale representations) and is specifically designed to create a “forever” space station. This is something NASA is not considering at all, at least not in the open.
Mr. Zak’s spin is rather limp, too. Slaming certain measures as “political” changes nothing about their necessity. This week, Kazakhstan denied a permission to launch Metop, causing an open-ended delay of months. Vostochnyi may be as “political” as observers wish it to be, but it is unavoidable. As for first launch in 2015, time will tell. There’s nothing impossible in that. No work was done on the Kourou pad until 2006 – including design – yet it was basically complete in 2010.
Poverty has a tendency to make you pragmatic. Like at the height of the cold war some guy lands this Mig in Japan that our guys were afraid of. Turns out it only had titanium on leading edges and the skin was riveted.