Picturesque Orion Posted October 27, 2006 #1 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Hey hasn't Nasa thought about building spacecraft in space? Maybe in the near future. It would be a great idea. The problem could be the material but in the future they could lift it up with a futuristic space elevator. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted October 27, 2006 #2 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Hey hasn't Nasa thought about building spacecraft in space? Yes they have thought about it. It is exactly what they are doing right now with the International Space Station. Space elevators are being researched now, but they are still decades away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesque Orion Posted October 27, 2006 Author #3 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Yes they have thought about it. It is exactly what they are doing right now with the International Space Station. Space elevators are being researched now, but they are still decades away. Really? You know I mean building ships in space so they don't have to spend so much money on the rockets to launch in space. For example building a spacecraft in space so that it would be able to reach Mars much faster. I think it is much cheaper. Building space elevator could be complicated but it can be done you know. So do you mean to tell me that they are going to use the ISS for spacecraft building? That would be awesome! P.S. Sorry if I got a little bit too exited. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted October 27, 2006 #4 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Really? You know I mean building ships in space so they don't have to spend so much money on the rockets to launch in space. For example building a spacecraft in space so that it would be able to reach Mars much faster. I think it is much cheaper. Building space elevator could be complicated but it can be done you know. So do you mean to tell me that they are going to use the ISS for spacecraft building? That would be awesome! P.S. Sorry if I got a little bit too exited. Cheers. I think we are misunderstanding each other here. If you build a ship in space you still have to launch the components, you can't just build it from nothing. The point I was making with the ISS is that it is being constructed in space. However rather than using one huge rocket it useds dozens of smaller launch vehicles. As for a space elevator, no it can't be done, not yet. The theory of how to build one is well understood but the materials to do so are not available yet. A 22,500 mile long tether has to be extremely light and extremely strong. In the future spacecraft may be constructed on the moon from materials mined there. It takes less energy to launch something from the moon into earth orbit than it does from the earth to earth orbit. We may even construct spacecraft from asteroids but not in my life time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesque Orion Posted October 28, 2006 Author #5 Share Posted October 28, 2006 I agree with you on the moon thing. The Moon almost doesn't have gravity and the rockets won't have to burn that long. However launching from the Moon to Earth orbit could be done but I think it will be less practical. I think launching from the Moon to another planet like Mars will be more practical. I'm talking about new futuristic ways to travel to another planet without having to waste all your propulsion energy and use it to travel to other planets in a much cheaper way, thats why I think the Moon idea is a good idea because you won't waste so much propulsion energy to lift of from there as you do on Earth. I've been thinking about the space elevators and I think that will be a little bit dificult to construct however is anyother way to get recources easy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesque Orion Posted October 28, 2006 Author #6 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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