There was the Orion craft that was being developed, but Obama cut funding to it, entrusting private corporations to develop new low-orbit vehicles.
Personally, I think relying on other countries/private corporations seems like a bad idea, but I'm not sure.

How about we fix our country first before fucking up outer space?

>>258392
sounds like the whole world. someone bless the world

this

manned space flight is a boondoggle
it tells us nothing about the universe
it tells us a lot about aerospace R&D
>>258392
ideally we ought to be able to fund both astrophysics exploration & development
but tax cuts for the rich, trillion dollar military budget, fuck you I got mine mentality, the free market will fix it mentality, etc

the proper term is "game over"

republicans will cry foul if obama spends anything on NASA.

republicans will cry foul if obama doesnt spend anything on NASA and lets it become obsolete.

I fucking hate republicunts

Glorious Soyuz lol @ NASA

>>258401
exploring space is the future of mankind, and the problem with space probes is that a person could do the research 1 probe takes months to do, since most of the tests are really basic baby's first geology tests which people are a LOT better at. If we could put a man on mars and safely return him and samples back to Earth alone, we could gain massive data on the Red Planet.

>>258554
what could a man do up there a probe couldn't?
what would a manned flight returning with soil achieve that a robotic soil return vehicle couldn't?
The answers having nothing to do with scientific endeavors, what they have to do with are aeronautical R&D, life sciences, materials research, manufacturing, etc

>>258514
>52-year-old design
Cool progress, bro.
We could (re)man-rate the Atlas and still be decades ahead of the Russians in terms of launch systems.

>>258569
A man can make decisions.
When you get far enough away that transmissions can take minutes to reach your probe, that asset can be pretty significant. Of course, it won't be PRACTICAL any time soon, but if we want to ever do serious research on Mars or even in the Jovian Systems, a few men in an ISRM-fed space base could get a hell of a lot more done than a mess of rovers that have to spend 90% of their time communicating with Earth.

>How about we all die as soon as a small asteroid glances our tiny planet?
The current manned space flights are a waste of money just to repair spy satellites. That's why all astronauts have the highest level of top secret clearance. Aside from the occasional probe we stopped making advancements and learning things as soon we realized there was nothing useful on the moon. We need to get at least a small settlement going on mars if not for terraforming then at least so we can have a diverse gene pool of people to send back after the dust settles and the ice age stabilizes. I don't give a fuck if it's 50 year old technology. It worked then and if it saves the money necessary to make space expeditions work and last then I'm all for them using it.

>>258595
what the fuck you mean with decades? the latest soyuz rockets are much simpler and cheaper than space shuttles. and just cause you mentioned atlases, they use russian rd-180 engines. shit gets things into space, is reliable and cheap. so unless you can explain that "decades ahead" phrase, go troll harder afroamerican.

>>258603

Astronauts no longer repair sattelites, that stopped after Challenger. Repairing satellites was never cost effective, its just that the Shuttle program used it and other excuses to justify their pointless pork program. The military launches satellites on expendable rockets, and has its own space program to do so, and has since the dawn of the space age, there are no more military astronauts. The military even has its own small robotic space shuttle. Commercial sattelite operators also launch their rockets on expendable rockets. They last about 15 years, and when they break down its more cost effective to junk them and replace them with a newer model than it is to send any type of repair mission.

The manned space program is a scam though, it has become a pork machine. It could be otherwise, a useful program to help humanity toward the stars, but its corrupt, and most people are ignorant of its corruption, most especially the cheerleaders.

>>258596
decisions about what?
whats going on on mars that a split second decision is required that a probe couldn't wait a 2 minutes for?
or the JIMO probe orbiting the Jupiter moons?

I dont think you understand what goes on up there
It aint Star Trek
It colates data and sends back to Earth for scientists to study and analyze and interpret

>>258603
>>258615
repairing, or constructing, in orbit might require men - except the JIMO probe was canceled because its in-orbit construction design was deemed too complicated
So the one exception I'm willing to make, they say they can't do!

And maybe with R&D into teleoperation it could be done with robots - fit canadarms and tools and etc on a robot soyuz type craft

>>258392

NOPE
learn to history.
cold war space progress = modern day living.

"Shuttle replacements", some operation, some in the process of being operational. You can google for more info. Roles the Shuttle filled will be filled instead by different componets serving more specialized needs, and some roles are not needed anymore.

Launch vehicles:

Atlas 5
Delta 4
Falcon 9
Taurus 2

for science payloads and other launch duties

Cargo spacecraft:
Cargo Dragon by Space, a capsule. Launched by Falcon 9
Cygnus cargo module, by Orbital Sciences, launched by Taurus 2

Near term ISS crew resupply:

Russian Soyuz.

Manned spacecraft soon to be under development for ISS crew resupply:

Manned Dragon capsule, launch by SpaceX's Falcon 9

Boeing's CST-100 capsule, assorted launch vehicles, namely Atlas 5

SpaceDev DreamChaser, a small spaceplane launched on the ATlas 5

A few other contenders for development money:

Orbital Science's Pegasus Spaceplane
Blue Origin capsule

***

NASA is divided into centers, and the three major ones are in Alabama, Florida, and Texas, with Utah also having an interest since the Space Shuttle's SRBs are made there. Senators from those states hijacked space policy to force NASA to spend more than 18 billion to build a heavy lift rocket and capsule out of Space Shuttle parts, in order to preserve the pork program that manned spaceflight had become. They cut funding to other NASA initiatives like the crew vehicles mentioned earlier to fund it. It too, is a "Shuttle replacement", but its a mistake that will mess up the space program, as well as a criminal waste of money.

>>258616
I do, geogists I know all cry to actually do chemical analysis and SEE things, since even the most advanced robot brain is stupider than a 15 year old child at BEST (sup Watson, I for one welcome my new Robot Overlords). The biggest issues are geology and digging, humans with reallly shitty tools can dig a lot deeper than a probe unless it has a huge massive digging setup which means it can't do much else. Humans don't die when covered in sand, since they can move to a habitat and wait out the sand, etc