Here are a couple of pictures of Ares I X in the V.A.B. If we return to the moon in the next couple of decades, this may be how we will get there.
Now in my opinion, its too pricey, too heavy and relies too much on an SRB derived from the shuttle. I have trouble with a rocket motor that once lit, cant be shut off, or throttled back. Frankly, this thing scares me. But here it is none the less.
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I was looking for a photo of a pressure relief valve, and came across these photos of my last suit. This one went to a museum in Germany. I think we have made some real progress since this one. Although looking back, this still looks pretty good I think. (Or maybe its just the handsome devil inside it)
This suit was sewn form cordura nylon and had cast plastic hardware that was hand detailed.
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The committee members will meet with administration officials Friday and will report that there is no realistic way to get Americans back on the moon by the target date of 2020, which has been the agency’s goal since President George W. Bush signed off on the “Vision for Space Exploration” in 2004. Landing on the moon by 2020 would require such drastic budgetary maneuvers as de-orbiting the International Space Station — crashing it into the South Pacific — in 2016.
The “program of record” — NASA’s current strategy — has not fared well in the committee’s review. Former astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the panel, said the gap between NASA’s goals and its current budget totals roughly $50 billion by 2020. If the space station’s life is extended for five years, she said, the current budget would allow for the completion of a heavy-boost moon rocket only in 2028, and that would be without spending money on developing the components of a lunar base.
So I guess we will just continue to “wallow around” in low orbit for the next few decades.
Let the ESA handle the money pit we call ISS. I think we have wasted more than our share of money on that lumbering contraption.
And we definitely need a replacement for that death-tap shuttle. Astronauts are supposed to be explorers, not truck drivers. And this truck has a bad habit of killing people, half a dozen at a time.
If NASA doesn’t have the budget to get to the moon, then increase it! That’s the way to stimulate the economy, get all the aerospace contractors back to work and hiring people!
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I wanted to see how difficult it is to drill the bubble for the feed port. So I took out the prototype bubble I have, marked it and modified the drill bit as instructed by the plastics company. And proceeded to drill it to receive the port. My beautiful wife Dawn was kind enough to hold the bubble, making it much easier to drill.
Here are photos of the end result. I have the headrest/vent duct propped in the back, so if the angle of that part looks a little off, that is why.
This is the basic configuration of the helmets I will be making, with the following exceptions: The ring at the base will be anodized, as will the feed port. The vent-duct/headrest will have a pad and be painted the correct color. And of course mounted to the helmet. And the Bubble will not be distorted, but rather perfect all around.
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Here are some photos of one of the gas connectors with the brass lock and lock-lock tabs inplace. These will be removed before anodizing. Pretty huh?
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As my good friend and partner on this project, Johan, pointed out: when you look inside the L.S. connectors on most replica suits, all you see is the fabric the suit is made from. Well, after looking down many LS connectors, we decided that was a detail we had to have.
This is what I came up with to represent the O2 plenum as seen from the connector side.
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