seasong.idempot.net

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http://www.k26.com/buran/index.html

Why the crap don't we use the Russian Energia rocket design? It would only be getting even, considering where they got the idea for the Buran shuttle design! (We'll think of it as a tribute, since it doesn't suck.)

For those who may have forgotten, the Buran is a Russian space shuttle that was launched about a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, back when spacecraft with red accents and "CCCP" were still all the rage. Technologically, the Buran had a number of advantages over the American space shuttles, including the fact that it could be flown unpiloted, purely on automation. News articles at the time were quick to point out that its engines were considerably weaker than our own shuttle. But, what our American propaganda didn't mention was that was because the Energia booster did all the work, and that booster assembly, which is fully reusable (as opposed to our two solid fuel boosters and big, disposable tank), more powerful, and considerably safer than our own.

Given that the Energia booster could make it to the Moon, we'd be complete idiots not to use the thing. We're already renting Soyuz missions. Right now, NASA may be looking cool from the robots on planets perspective, but in terms of manned missions, post-CCCP Russia is coming out ahead. (Especially since they're capitalizing on the private sector and flying rich people into orbit. Russia is winning the latest round of the space race, by capitalism!)

Sadly, the Buran / Energia project has idled because of Russia's poor economy. Following its one flight in 1988, it never again took off, and never once took a living being into space. President Yeltsin decomissioned the project in 1993 because of costs, and its storage hanger, unmaintained, collapsed in 2002 in an accident that killed eight people. This happened less than a year before the Columbia explosion.

The Buran / Energia design represents several decades of Russian engineering; it wasn't all just ripping off NASA. (Most of the work actually went into the Energia booster, which is in many ways the real marvel of engineering.) It's a shame to see it going to waste simply because it "costs too much." For NASA, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper to pick up where Russia left off rather than reinventing from scratch, and it could hold potential for the "Moon, Mars, and Beyond" initiative.
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Free lycanthropy to any survivors!

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