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posted by janrinok on Friday December 02 2016, @11:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the is-it-a-bird?-is-it-a-plane? dept.

Russian space agency Roscosmos has confirmed that Progress cargo spacecraft burned up it the atmosphere and its debris fell in south Siberia's Tuva Republic.

"As a result of an abnormal situation, the loss of the Progress cargo ship took place at an altitude of 190 kilometers [some 118 miles] above an unpopulated mountainous area in Tuva; most of the fragments burned up in the [Earth's] atmosphere, according to preliminary data," Roscosmos press service said.

Earlier in the day, a source told RIA Novosti that the debris of the Progress cargo spacecraft supposedly fell in Russia's Republic of Tuva in south Siberia.

Roscosmos previously reported that Progress lost telemetry six minutes after launch on its mission to deliver several tons of consumables to the crew on the ISS. They stress that the accident "will not affect the routine operations of the ISS".

Sorry, guys, looks like it's borscht again tonight.


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday December 03 2016, @07:21PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday December 03 2016, @07:21PM (#436594) Journal

    Space Elevators would reduce the costs a lot more than any other approach, but there are lots of reasons why they aren't something reasonable for an early investment. It's probably a bit early for even a Pinwheel (heavy rotating mass in orbit with several flexible arms that reach a long way down into the atmosphere. Decreases the cost of ground to orbit by a bunch (not sure how much over 50%), but you've got to fly up and grab onto an arm. And momentum up needs to average the same as momentum down.

    One thing that might help a lot would be a linear launcher, as that would reduce (or eliminate) first stage fuel, and possibly the entire first stage. But it would need to be HUGE, and even small railguns are having lots of problems ... of course, they're trying to get a much higher acceleration, but the things they're accelerating are relatively small. I do wish that they were being worked on as launchers, though, instead of as guns. You expect shells to not be reusable, but for this to ever be practical they can't be accelerating much above 4 G (unless it's strictly for freight).

    OTOH, atmospheric friction probably means that a linear launcher would only reduce the needed size of the first stage. Even that would help a lot, but it vastly increases the needed size and power of the launcher, and it would be big anyway. Maybe someone could develop the launcher up the side of a mountain idea into something useful. Then you could have a long run over a level track to get up speed, but the vehicle would need to be strong enough to take sideways stresses, so it might be enough heavier to lose all the advantages.

    I'm not sure that a space elevator will ever be practical on a world as heavy as Earth. it's operating too near the material limits, and you'd need a pretty hefty acceleration anyway, so the cable needs to be strong enough to lift, say, twice the weight of the things you are planning to lift. (I *think* a continual 2G acceleration would suffice to get you moving fast enough when you went through the radiation belts.)

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