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>So "outdated" that you can't refute anything it says, or mention a specific ?

Touchy, eh? I didn't know that was your site, but it doesn't change my opinion. Though perhaps I should have said narrow-minded instead.

I'll touch on the three points you put at the top, for now:

>Reduce cost-to-Earth-orbit by a factor of 100 or so. Everything else depends on this. Probably means a new propulsion technology for surface-to-orbit.

Launch costs have traditionally been high not because of technical issues, but programmatic ones. The Space Shuttle is a prime example of this. If New Armstrong turns out to be fully reusable, as the plan is for the BFR, I expect the cost of space access to be drastically lowered - SpaceX themselves claims that the BFR will be cheaper to launch than a Falcon 1. Take their claims with a grain of salt, but I expect both they and Blue will continue working to drive down costs, no matter the time frame.

At the same time, though, building something such as a space elevator or laser launch system would definitely help drop launch costs further, but space elevators are currently impractical as we don't have the materials science for them, and laser launch would need a vast upfront investment. The military might pay for it - I don't see NASA attempting it.


>Find a place where we could build a self-sustaining colony.


This one's easy. We can build one almost anywhere we choose. In your 'Future' section you note all of these:

• Gravity. Human bodies do not react well to sustained zero gravity; animals and plants affected too.
  
• Atmosphere. For protection from UV, protection from micro-meteorites, for breathing, for manufacturing.
  
• Magnetosphere. For protection from cosmic and solar radiation.
  
• Water. For human consumption, for growing food, for manufacturing.
  
• Oxygen. For human consumption.
  
• Raw materials to make fuel. Need energy for transportation, living, manufacturing.
  
• Platform to grow food. Soil, nitrogen, other elements ?
  
• Raw materials for manufacturing.
  
• Reasonable temperatures. We can compensate for extreme temperatures, but that will increase costs of everything else.
  
  We don't need a planetary body to have any of that. I think you've fallen into the trap of what Isaac Asimov called 'planetary chauvinism' - expecting that we need to live on a planetary body. We don't. We have the technical ability, if not the funding or the political will, to build large colonies in space, where we can provide all of those above bullet points - with the exception of the magnetosphere, though full radiation protection is still doable. Take a look at Gerard O'Neill's The High Frontier for more information.
  
  >Develop a new propulsion technology for use in space. Carrying chemical rocket fuel around imposes huge penalties on every mission. In fact, eventually we really need faster-than-light (FTL) travel if we're going to go anywhere useful, but who knows if we'll ever get that ?
  
  I think you're partially right here, but only partially. We do have other options for in-space propulsion - among them ion thrusters and nuclear thermal propulsion. Somewhat more out there is mass driver propulsion, but that's also doable from a technical standpoint. All three of these offer much higher ISP over chemical rockets, though they have their own tradeoffs.
  
  Where I think you go wrong here is assuming to go anywhere useful we need FTL. Our own solar system is quite interesting enough, with lots of available energy and materials for us to use. While I'd love to see humanity gain the ability to go to other stars as well, you still don't need FTL for that. So long as you can accelerate to some reasonable fraction of lightspeed, you can go from star to star without expending too much of someone's lifespan. Theoretically, an antimatter starship would be a good bet for that.
  
  As I've been doing other things in the process of writing this comment, I decided to add these comments:
  
  Your comment on near-Earth asteroid mining: "Doesn't sound feasible to me." It is very feasible. About ten percent of NEAs are easier to reach, from an energy perspective, than the Moon, and many of those have a low return delta-V. Outside of that, while using chemical propulsion alone probably isn't the best idea, ion engines, mass drivers, and solar sails are all viable means of reaching and redirecting asteroids, should anyone choose to do that.
  
  There are also vast resources contained within the asteroids - we can tell, using techniques such as spectrophotometry, polarimetry, and radiometry, what they consist of, so there's little risk of sending a probe out to one and coming up dry. You can find more information on projected asteroidal resources in Asteroid Mining 101 by John Lewis.
  
  And I have to ask: why would you bother using a solid-rocket booster to move an asteroid? Seems ridiculous.
  
  Your comment on competition, where you talk about the money wasted on spaceflight: I agree, actually - the money was wasted not because there are no resources in space, or that it's too expensive to exploit them - the money was wasted because of a few factors: a government monopoly on spaceflight; regulations prohibiting ownership of resources (now we're starting to see laws promulgated permitting private use), cost-plus and FAR contracting, which drove up costs, and an overall lack of direction or purpose. Now, as commercial companies start to ramp up operations, and look for incentives to keep costs low, we should finally see a change in the market. Each time previously there were too many factors still prohibiting vigorous commercial development - most of those barriers are now gone.
  
  Your insinuation that unmanned probes are cheaper and more effective than manned missions:
  
  A few notes here:
  
  
• Robots have to make do with what's programmed into them. A human has far more decision-making ability
  
• Humans are more mobile than robots
  
• Humans can more easily deploy and maintain equipment
  
  You might like to read this paper about the efficacy of humans vs. robots.
  
  Exploration for scientific purposes should be both-and, not either-or. The more we move the economic frontier into space, the more science we'll be able to do, whether purposefully or as a byproduct.

Red Moon Rising by Brzezinski is an engaging, novel-like quick read that dramatizes and summarizes the early space race. Side-by-side history of early US and Soviet space rocketry. Great stuff on the inheritance of the V-2 tech after WWII.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Moon-Rising-Sputnik-Rivalries/dp/080508858X

Korolev by James Harford is about the man without whom the space race wouldn’t have happened. A bit dry (academic) at times, but a well researched book with lots of cool details from first-hand interviews. Korolev was a fascinating guy. An under-appreciated giant of the 20th century.
https://www.amazon.com/Korolev-Masterminded-Soviet-Drive-America/dp/0471327212

Starman by Pierce and Bizony on the meteoric rise and end of Yuri Gagarin. Very engaging. Read for the story of Komarov!
https://www.amazon.com/Starman-Truth-Behind-Legend-Gagarin-ebook/dp/B0052LUE80

Into That Silent Sea/In the Shadow of the Moon by French and Burgess. Another side-by-side. Great history from pre-Sputnik to Apollo, the moon, beyond. Lots of good stuff about individuals on both sides.
https://www.amazon.com/Into-That-Silent-Sea-Trailblazers/dp/080322639X/

Russian Wikipedia. Seriously, run it through Google’s page translate feature, keep a tab open for google translate so you can copy-paste search terms in Russian. Lots of extra info on RU Wikipedia vs EN Wikipedia.

Kamanin’s Diaries. Kamanin was a Red Army General that got assigned as personnel handler for the Cosmonauts. His diaries of the early days are probably the best primary source for and industry forged in a time of uber-secrecy. I haven’t found a full English translation.

English Summaries:
http://www.astronautix.com/k/kamanindiaries.html

Russian Language:
http://militera.lib.ru/db/kamanin_np/index.html

I can't help you with the French part but in America the standard is this. Most people refer to it as BMW for the authors' names. There might be translations of it; I don't know. It's actually a surprisingly fun read. The first few pages talk about Newton with a kind of religious fervor that you never see in a textbook. It's beautiful. Also, it's damn cheap.

My orbitals professor also wrote a more condensed pdf textbook which he gave just to us. It's actually more clear than almost any other engineering textbook I've used. If I can find it, I'll post it.

In the early 90's I bought Man In Space - An Illustrated History of Space Flight (978-0831744915). It might be a little dated now with a publishing date of 1993, but what I really enjoyed was the beautiful photos. Inside the front and back covers were a timeline of space flight from the first test launches, and a set of diagrams comparing rocket sizes and launch capabilities over the years. Unfortunately I donated mine to the local library about 10 years back when it got just too old and I could find the same or newer info on the internet. It looks like you could pick up a used one from Amazon for less than $5

This is one of the places.

Basically, in short form, the Lunar Module (LM) was actually built from two stages: the Descent Stage and the Ascent Stage.

Each stage had its own independent rocket engine. The Descent Stage rocket engine was used to take the LM out of lunar orbit and land on the moon. The Ascent Stage rocket engine, which, again, was entirely separate from the Descent Stage rocket engine, was used to launch just the Ascent Stage back into lunar orbit.

The Ascent Stage contained the pressurized crew cabin, as well as most of the electronics to actually control the combined Lunar Module.

So, the combination of the Ascent Stage's independent rocket engine, along with the computer and guidance/control systems built into the Ascent Stage allowed it to successfully lift off the moon and rendezvous with the CSM.

If you want more details, there are numerous websites and books that can go into more detail than I possibly could.

One book in particular, "How Apollo Flew to the Moon", goes into considerable detail on the entire Apollo system, including the LM:

http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Springer-Praxis-Books-Exploration/dp/1441971785/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347300598&sr=8-2&keywords=how+apollo+flew+to+the+moon

A bit more googling will get you more details. Also try the Wikipedia pages on Apollo and the LM for more info and links to additional details.

Hope that helps

EDIT:

If you want another website from which to access additional information, try the "Beyond Apollo" website, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/beyondapollo/

Also, look at these Youtube videos, which are actual NASA movies which describe different parts of the Apollo missions:

Lunar Orbit rendezvous, part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuA5xNfYUFo&feature=relmfu


Launch Windows for Apollo Lunar missions (i.e. why did they have to launch at specific times on specific dates?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzthaO29tNY&feature=relmfu

Apollo atmospheric re-entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-6VQsVoc1I&feature=relmfu

This was what my prof used in college

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics (Dover Books on Aeronautical Engineering) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486600610/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0.eJAb3FG9KQ0

I liked it a lot, but that may have to do with him being an amazing teacher and not the book itself lol

There was an idea at one point to make the shuttle fly back to Florida from CA with jet engines mounded in the payload bay. It's tricky because these would need to be immensely powerful engines, and the shuttle is pretty poor aerodynamically (aka it falls like a rock). The 747 that eventually carried it has a better glide slope. But anyway, with enough thrust anything can fly it's just a mater of how fast and far you want to go.

For more info than you could ever use, this book is amazing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0963397451?pc_redir=1410487668&robot_redir=1

One of the best technical reference books that I have come across on the subject is: https://www.amazon.com/Propulsion-Analysis-Design-Ronald-Humble/dp/0070313202

Might require a bit of prerequisite knowledge on heat transfer, orbital mechanics, etc. but it's a really good resource

A good piece of reading would be the Challenger Launch Decision by Vaughan. She paints a really good picture that all other O-ring faults were attributed to improperly installed O-rings, like there was debris, hair, etc. so the correlation was made incorrectly with regards to temperature. The mechanism for safety reporting and analysis was right, just got the wrong answer.

Another good reading that talks about it is Risk and Culture by Douglas. http://www.amazon.com/Risk-Culture-Selection-Technological-Environmental/dp/0520050630

Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo by Asif A. Siddiqi

Two excellent, if exhaustively detailed books on the Soviet space program.

I also liked At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program by Milton O. Thompson.

one of my favorites is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004U2MS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

others:
https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Saturns-Saturn-Extended-Collectors/dp/B0001NBM5I

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026IQTR2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Je me suis débrouillé au final et j'ai à peu près acheté les mêmes livres plus d'autres en français :

• http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2854281667/
  
  
• http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/213047800X
  
  
• http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/0486600610
  
  
• http://www.amazon.fr/Space-Mission-Analysis-Design-James/dp/1881883108
  
  J'en ai eu pour un peu moins de 100€ mais là au moins je suis blindé pour te faire toutes les trajectoires que tu veux :)

Most of the first two minutes as well as the music is from the either the movie, "For All Mankind," or "In the Shadow of the Moon." (I watched both the other night, so they're kind of running together in my head. Some of the other footage is from the the Apollo series. If you ever get the chance to, get your hands on this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mighty-Saturns-Extended-Collectors/dp/B0001NBM5I. Make sure no one that isn't hard corps is in the room. They'll be bored, and you'll get tire of telling people to shut their mouths.

The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space

My guess is Mechanics & Thermodynamics of Propulsion 2e, by Hill & Peterson. This textbook was used to teach my undergrad Jet & Rocket Prop course.


Amazon Link

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUANC80/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_iK22BbCJ27DDY

We Seven

It's a collection of memoirs from the Mercury astronauts. Short little book.

Not sure on availability in Germany, but there's a decent 6 part series called "Moon Machines" - aired originally on the Discovery Channel. It covers the major components of Apollo and Saturn V. It's filled with interviews of the engineers, discusses major problems, and the solutions thereto.

ETA: I think this is it on Amazon.

ETA2: The six parts are:

• Saturn V Rocket
  
  
• Command Module
  
  
• Navigation Computer
  
  
• Lunar Module
  
  
• Space Suit
  
  
• Lunar Rover