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Cool a mini space shuttle that is still flying around for testing stuff. Any chance it has seats and can be used for rescues?
by AstroJetson 7y ago
Cool a mini space shuttle that is still flying around for testing stuff. Any chance it has seats and can be used for rescues?
- forgotmysn 7y agoto rescue what exactly?
- wil421 7y agoChinese or Russian satellite “rescuer”.
- AstroJetson 7y agoExactly!
- biesnecker 7y ago"Liberator"
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoHold still while I freedom you!
- dang 7y agoCould you please review the site guidelines and not post unsubstantive comments to HN? We ban accounts that repeatedly do that because we're trying for a bit better than internet default here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoSorry - I did not mean to contribute to BS drive-by comments. I will refrain from doing so in the future. Apologies.
- nine_k 7y agoI won't be surprised if a military satellite of any state capable of launching military satellites will self-destruct if taken away forcibly from the designated orbit. A simple acceleration test would suffice. I also won't be surprised if when self-destructing, such satellite will try to deliberately damage everything in its close vicinity.
- mc32 7y agoI don’t think they make boobytrapped satellites that explode, but they may remotely activate a self-destruct process which renders abduction pointless. If they exploded it wouldn’t it create more problems than it solves in terms of more flying debris they have to track as well as friendlies in the same orbital path? (Like when Iridium 33 crashed into a defunct soviet satellite.)
- bdamm 7y agoI also don’t think the attack would involve changing orbits. The attack would be inserting electronic backdoor etc.
- jonathankoren 7y agoNah. Bolt cutters on an arm, or even just spray paint. You don’t need to be close to do an electronic attack. If you’re close, you might as well hit it with a hammer or snip the antenna and solar arrays off.
- nine_k 7y agoThis kind of sudden malfunction, along with acceleration not due to firing of any engines, would be a signal for the self-destruction device, likely chemically powered (explosive) and mechanically actuated. It would be sure to shatter the interesting electronic parts, burning or detonating any remaining fuel for bonus points.
- 7y ago
- salex89 7y agoWell, the Russians are also doing some shady stuff... They call it the Sputnik Inspektor. https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/kosmos-2519.htm https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/kosmos-2519.htm
- RandallBrown 7y agoPeople in the International Space Station?
- NikolaeVarius 7y agoThey have Soyuz capsules that do exactly that
- perilunar 7y agoour dreams
- Phlarp 7y agoPresumably ISS? Seems unlikely US government would expose a military asset to the Russians willingly like that. Also life support systems are heavy and that will cut into the delta-v budget of the craft.
- rtkwe 7y agoI don't think the main mystery and classification is about the craft itself but about the cargoes and missions it takes. It probably could be outfitted to act as a rescue craft for 1-2 astronauts though in a pinch all you really need is a way to strap the astronauts in and the pack from their space suits for some short term life support (or maybe even just a CO2 scrubber pack and an oxygen bottle if the interior is already thermally managed enough for the astronaut to survive) being much smaller than the shuttle it can land at more places so they wouldn't have to be in the craft long.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- rladd 7y agoOr to send a brave crew to an asteroid to deflect it from a calamitous earthbound trajectory?
- avmich 7y agoWait for Dream Chaser, first unmanned orbital flight planned for 2020. That one looks more promising, at least it's bigger and originally planned to be used manned.
- radium3d 7y agoThat's what the plan was (is maybe?) for the X-37C variant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#X-37C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#X-37C