Why have the last 30 years been SLOW in space/aeroplane technology?

[mrstickball]

darthdevidem01 said:

mrstickball said:

Because no one has put money into R&D for said arenas.

After the Apollo moon landing, funding for space projects plummeted. Landing on the moon was a token gesture by Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon to help us 'defeat the Soviets'. As soon as that was done, we didn't care.

Fortunately, private companies like SpaceX and Bigelow are making headways in space travel, and we're going to see some incredibly exciting things in the near future. SpaceX looks to reduce the costs of launching goods into outer space at a fraction of the cost of current NASA programs, and even considerably cheaper than Russian programs as well.

This is very exciting! I did hear about it

I think Virgin is doing something too

@mrstickball

I guess but I have this fascination for space travel

Virigin is focusing primarily on selling tickets to sub-orbital flights for entertainment. In its own way, its a very good business, as ticket prices are expected to drop by 50% over the next 2 years.

The real player is SpaceX, because they actually launched a friggin' rocket into space. Not a namby-pamby airplane, but the kind that only NASA, Russia and few others have ever done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP5gykvTBpM&feature=related

Remember, this is a PRIVATE LAUNCH. No federal involvement. Thats what makes it so incredible....That a company has put the $$$ into space flight.

Here is why Falcon 9 is so important:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9

Cost to send 1KG of material to GTO (geostationary transfer orbit): $8,000-$10,000 (based on F9H specifications)

Current cost to send 1KG of material to GTO via NASA: $22,500

That's over a 50% reduction in costs. With such a drop, there will be new applications for space travel...Suddenly, it won't be so expensive. Further refinements in design will drop the price more and more, until it becomes very plausible for some billionaire to chart a trip to Mars. Heck, there are already price quotes on sending people around the moon for a 7-day vacation. When that price becomes reasonable, think about how easy it'll be for someone to say 'why fly around it, when you can land on it?'. Thats when colonization becomes a reality.