Thread: Private Aerospace

I'm wondering if anyone would know any websites describing a career in this sector particularly focused on geology/mineralogy (primarily the latter)?
Space mining careers...etc?

Please let me know!

Barry

I get the impression right now they're focused on just getting up there. Anybody know more about this?

Honestly, I can see the private sector establishing a lunar base and starting up mining operations way before the US or any other country will.

What I think it really takes is someone finding a cheaper way to get up there. You figure that out and well.... cha-ching!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$

I agree; oil is 85.07$ (time to BUY stocks!!!) last week it was by ~90$ and it will raise again, after christmas it will be by ~100$, spring ~110$.

As you can see, oil is way to expensive for traveling to outerspace. Inventing a spacecraft that is powered not by oil but by something cheaper would make you the richest man on the world (yea, one of my side-projects...).

Well this isn't exactly what your looking for but it is the private sector beginning to go up.

spacediving

On a side note should this become possible (somewhat safe/affordable) I'd love the chance to freefall for that long and break the sound barrier.

Well, actually most space ships are hydrogen powered. I mean the rocket fuel is actually a mix of hydrogen and oxygen.

The major deal right now is you need multi-stage, skyscraper sized launch vehicles to get into deep space. The space shuttle only works for low Earth orbit.

Would be interresting when the first electro powered space crafts are made.
till now we pushed matter though energy away, which is nice and all but space has way to little matter to push off from. (Maybe a black hole generator, which creates a million blackholes infront of the space craft, pulling it foward, while the black holes only last a split second and are extremely small and extremely energy consuming to create.)

I'm curious if a solar sail could be used to get from low Earth orbit on out into outer space. Just unfurl it when the satellite is moving away from the sun, then bring it back in when it's moving toward the sun.

till now we pushed matter though energy away, which is nice and all but space has way to little matter to push off from.

You got this wrong. A rocket moves as a result of the conservation of momentum. Hot gass goes one way fast, but with little mass and rocket goes the other way slow, but with a lot of mass.

(mass of gass)*(velocity of gass) = (mass of rocket)*(velocity of rocket)

right. While the mass of the gas pushes off of the rocket, which creates its forward movement.
But... why is the mass of gas times its velocity equals the mass of a rocket times its velocity?

Its conservation of momentum, a basic law of nature. If the earth was perfectly rigid, it would literally move a very small amount in the opposite direction if you jumped into the air. A deflating baloon is another example.
That is why, if you disregard gravity, a rocket in space will accelerate just as fast as one on the earth with the same amount of thrust.

They're equal and opposite reactions. The rocket pushes on the propellant just as much as the propellant pushes on the rocket.

Originally Posted by Barry Flannery

I'm wondering if anyone would know any websites describing a career in this sector particularly focused on geology/mineralogy (primarily the latter)?
Space mining careers...etc?

Please let me know!

Barry

Space mineralogy? :wink: Are you interested in work in JPL, programming and handling data from mass spectrophotometer is sort of like space mineralogy. Because mining jobs...the only one I can think of is the future mining work on moon to extract oxygen from moon...but that will be done by more engineers astronauts than just regular folks.

Tele-operation of robots will probably emerge as a new field. I don't know how much education they'd want you to have for that one. It's kind of like how pilots are a fuzzy area for education. You don't need a college degree per se, but you do need training.

Originally Posted by KALSTER

Its conservation of momentum, a basic law of nature. If the earth was perfectly rigid, it would literally move a very small amount in the opposite direction if you jumped into the air. A deflating baloon is another example.
That is why, if you disregard gravity, a rocket in space will accelerate just as fast as one on the earth with the same amount of thrust.

So... what did I get wrong?

If the earth was perfectly rigid, it would literally move a very small amount in the opposite direction if you jumped into the air.

In this example, the man would be the exhaust gas and the earth would be the rocket. The atmosphere doesn't enter into it at all. So it does not matter how much matter is present in space. (excuse the pun) :wink:

I agree with you. But I think it is due to my bad english, I the matter (can be gas, fuel ect.) pushes off from the object.

...space has way to little matter to push off from

meaning there is no fuel in space no matter to push away from... I know, it sounds wierd, you can stop laughing now.

No problem. It's a common mistake and the way you frazed it is exactly how someone that makes that mistake, would fraze it. What did you mean by electrical propulsion? Ion drive?

Originally Posted by kojax

Tele-operation of robots will probably emerge as a new field. I don't know how much education they'd want you to have for that one. It's kind of like how pilots are a fuzzy area for education. You don't need a college degree per se, but you do need training.

you dont need a college degree to operate robots? current operation of UAV's like Predator in Iraq sure do require engineering degree.

Originally Posted by KALSTER

No problem. It's a common mistake and the way you frazed it is exactly how someone that makes that mistake, would fraze it. What did you mean by electrical propulsion? Ion drive?

yea the Ion drive is... nice. though it still uses Xe (or was it Xi??).
Maybe by using a particle accelerator. the atoms, located about every meter in space, can be used as the fuel. Seeing that the Particle accelerators are to big, and the number of atoms way to little I have little hope in this idea for at least the next 150 years.

My other idea, transorming energy to mass, then to use this as fuel. (which is also pausable, but not to be build as long as we live)

[edit] and look at this: the oil price reached 100$! Well, its 4 weeks to early according to my prediction, but not bad.