Farewell... by Frakass

Posted by French_snack 12 years ago Report

Mais c'est triste, ça... Surtout avec la mémoire des disparues.

Allez, elles ont bien mérité leur retraite !

Bonne idée, et beau boulot !

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

Hé oui, c'est triste... Même si dans son ensemble, le programme STS fut un échec, les navettes représentent un tour de force technique, marquant la frontière du possible.
Je suis né l'année du premier lancement, et je les ai toujours connues, alors ça me fait quelque chose... Je me vois vieillir en direct, là ^^

Merci pour ton commentaire, French_snack ^^

Posted by Eurodex 12 years ago Report

Now that is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Very well done *starts to cry*

Posted by Indighost 12 years ago Report

Manly tears...

Posted by Kiyoa 12 years ago Report

This is ground control to Major Tom!

You've really made the gra-ade!

And the papers want to know whose shirt you we-ar!

Now to step outside the capsule if you da-a-are!

Posted by Sehnsucht 12 years ago Report

+1, would read again.

Posted by Gimlet 12 years ago Report

Beautiful pic, and I especially like that you included Enterprise as the Mom! Yes, she was the first after all. In this history did she change her name too? *chuckles* (I gather the first post was about that, Enterprise as the STS prototype. My French isn't that good.)

End of an era indeed. I really wish they'd kept up with some sort of space plane until some company or other had an actual working version. Virgin Galactic is promising one, but it's still a little ways off as far as I can see. *sigh*

Posted by Smokescale 12 years ago Report

It really is the end of an era. I wonder what we'll be doing next for manned space flight.

Posted by Throku 12 years ago Report

Elevator, it's a strange fact that we don't have one already. The international space station should have been a real spacestation with an elevator. What they built is a freaking joke and an insult to humanity. Oh wow a larger version of Mir...really...come on...mir is a relic, tossing up a few new dumpsters in space doesn't change the fact that they're nothing fancy.

With a space elevator in orbit they could easily build a station worthy of the name and take the next step forward in space exploration and research.

Very toutching picture Frakass, I hope there will be more spacegirls to come. Like I said above, I wouldn't mind seeing a "Stacey" up there. ;)

Posted by Kiyoa 12 years ago Report

Not really. Materials sciences haven't advanced far enough for us to construct a long enough ribbon of contiguous nanotubes, which is rather necessary for a space elevator.

Posted by Gimlet 12 years ago Report

In actual fact materials science could, theoretically build a beanstalk now, but it would be frighteningly expensive, and there would need to be a whole spacebased industry built first for it to work. Plus the materials we can build one with (Not nanotubes yet, no.) are not ideal and would end up with a very large diameter cable in orbit, leading down to a thin cable on ground. Plus you still have to work out how to swing the down end of the cable down from orbit and snag it without a lot of problems.

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

I like the idea of a space elevator too, even if there are many techinical diifculties and safety concerns (in case of collapsing, for example).

Anyway, the main question today is more : why to go in space?
Dreams of planetary colonisation seem vain to me, as there are no accessibles planets (not even Mars) able to welcome a long term human settlement.
The good reasons to go in space are for me (but I'm maybe wrong) :
-Research (of course) : astronomy, microgravity...
-Earth oriented technologies : survey, telecomunications...
-Microgravity industry
-Resources harvesting (but it's more a long term objective)

Many of these goal don't need manned crafts : a unmanned craft is safer, lighter and more simple.

This is why I'm not really happy when I see precious ressources wasted to make some wealthy tourists do a short hop into the high atmosphere in a (pretty attractive, I admit) Rutan-designed plane...

Posted by bunny75 12 years ago Report

Unknown asteroid could destroy all life on earth in half of hour warning. I would like that there is 'an another basket'. And for money, cost of yearly space exploration don't cower 2 days expenses of USA military. Even with pricetag of one stealthbomber you could build one and half spaceshuttles.

Posted by Gimlet 12 years ago Report

Amen! But the likeliest (and cheapest) candidate would be either orbital habitats or lunar colonies. Both have different and huge difficulties (though not as huge as back in apollo days) to setting them up. I can see why no government has tried to build anything like that yet, not just technical aspects, political ones too. One reason back in Apollo days they didn't even try to set a base on the moon was that they feared the Russians might think they were taking the 'High ground'. Lots of material to throw back to earth (if you build a mass driver or something) and a military base of any kind would have set tensions through the roof. This isn't quite as much an issue nowadays, but still is a consideration to anyone attempting such.

Posted by Vorefreak 10 years ago Report

If you want a reason, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy1k0J8VmYQ&list=PL5VQsjjgPXWJ4bMPDL8B5e6duTlUh63Ag&index=6

Posted by Frakass 10 years ago Report

Thanks for this nice video ^^

Well, it doesn't answer totally to the question I asked, because for exploration, human beings are often not needed, and heroism is, I think, more a regulatory social behaviour with the evolutionary advantage of motivating people to do dangerous thing for the good of the collectivity, in exchange of a internal (self-esteem, relief of self ethics pressure) and external (relief of peer-pressure, appreciation, distinction) rewards than anything else.
I deeply respect Carl Sagan, but I don't buy anymore the "heroism for glory" concept, and I must say that if I'm still a -rather radical- progressive, it's now without any "romanticism", no taste for adventure or epic fights, just with a desire for efficiency in making a more liveable world for everybody without sacrificing lives on behalf of a rosy future...

So, if knowing is the goal (and knowing IS indeed the greatest goal ever), adventure is not inevitably an ally. If space conquest had elevated the level of the desire of intelligence in mankind, it seems paradoxical, or even somewhat condescending, to think that the audience really needs to send life-risking champions to other planets just for the aesthetic need of it.

Until the day we will be able to travel to other worlds able to welcome us (and if mankind last enough, this day will come), sending people to space is hardly a prioprity : it's an unbelievably adverse environment, where the help the ship must provide to it's crew exceed in any way the help the crew give to the ship...
I think I'm going to be too pessimistic here (well, I hope ^^), but if we are not careful with the use of our ressources when we travel to space (like by sending tourist, who exchange their money, that will be recycled, for ressources and energy that will be lost forever... yes, it's one of the major "plot hole" of modern economics), we take the risk to be, one day, trapped on a exhausted Earth with no more mean to leave it...

Well, ok, it's my very own opinion, and as I'm not an English native speacker, I maybe didn't understood all the subtleties of Sagan speech, but I really wanted to give you an argued reply to the interesting (and beautiful) video you posted here ;-)

PS : After seeing this vid, I understand how much the poor shuttle-girls will really miss their space trips... And it made me also think about some psycholigical and phislosophical aspect of the whole plane-girl universe, so, thanks a lot ^^

...And I hope my English is not too s####y!

Posted by Gimlet 12 years ago Report

I still remember watching the first shuttle launch (god, was I 9 then? Something like that) and hearing all the various rumours since of replacements. Some based on existing tech, some on new ideas. Heck, even Britain started a design; Hotol. Never got funding of course. Along with numerous others in Europe and Japan. I doubt we'll be getting much from governments now, it'll likely be up to private firms completely... unless there is a severe upturn in world economy.

Posted by Kiyoa 12 years ago Report

Yeah. Ideally we'd see the advancement of methods other than the rather inefficient (but awesome!) method of strapping flammables to a mission module and blasting it into space.

Always had a weakness for the idea of space elevators, though a launch loop is also a likely candidate.

Unfortunately, if the economy suffers enough, it will cripple corporate efforts at space flight as well. At the rate things are going, I cannot say there's much reason to expect things to turn around, particularly given the degree to which Washington appears to be beholden to short sighted corporate interests.

Posted by Bright 12 years ago Report

Where do plane girls go when they retire?

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

Well... "they live their lives"
As they retire, like ordinary workers, they get retirement pension, and enjoy life in place like the AMARC (America's Main Aeroladies Recreation Center), a huge plane-girl-scaled recreational city situated near Tucson, Arizona.
They also often contribute to airshows and museums. ^^

Posted by Razgriz 12 years ago Report

I hope new spacecraft enter service soon. Using those newfound ion/plasma engines... Should cut costs quite profoundly to launching ships and equipment into space.

Posted by ThatGuy 12 years ago Report

When I saw this, my first thought when I saw the name was that this was some kind of fond-farewell retirement piece for you specifically and I nearly had a heart attack.

Now that I'm all calm, I have to wonder - what happens to retired plane-girls who have done historic things? Is there a kind of plane-girl Smithsonian?

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

Don't panic, I will not retire today... it will happen one day (sdaly, I'm not immortal...), but not now ^^

There are plane-girls "museums" in the plane girl world, but they are more "living museum" like the Commemorative (formely Confederate) Air Force than like the National Air and Space Museum... Even if the Udvar-Hazy is close enough to Dulles to be a "live museum" too :-)
So, many of the retired plane-girls contribute to these museum and airshows where they can meet their fans (but they don't live in these museums, generally) ^^
The plane-girls who did historically important things are, of course, welcomed in the NAASM fleet !

Posted by Aleph-Null 12 years ago Report

Much respect Frakass,

Not only for the pic that touches on many of our sentiments, but also, I think your gallery is the only one where discussion of the future of space exploration spontaneously erupts.

Posted by Mechafrog 12 years ago Report

Where DO retired plane girls go anyway?

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

I think I will draw a little something in 12 days, for the last landing, to show what the retired shuttles will do ^^

Posted by lewajet 12 years ago Report

vary nice did ever think of drawing a SR-77 Black Bird i think there the most sexy aircraft

Posted by lewajet 12 years ago Report

OOPS!! its SR-71

Posted by Frakass 12 years ago Report

yes, of course... but I still have to find a good idea for draw one ^^

Posted by Gimlet 12 years ago Report

I'd always imagined the F117 Nighthawk (the old stealth fighter) to be a kind of son of SR-71. In the plane girls universe maybe the old, cranky SR-71 would be be-moaning the young wippersnappers diving around her. :) Just a thought.