Brazilian rocket goes kablooey.

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-08-23 07:29am

Around 20 dead and 20 injured.

Linky: BOOM!

Well, at least they're trying, and willing to keep trying. I hear they want to build a nuclear submarine, too. That's bound to be... um... interesting.

Assuming they eventually become competent enough to reach orbit and build their own reactors, there's nothing stopping them from developing nuclear ICBMs, is there? Do you think they would try, and what do you think the world reaction would be if they did?

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-08-23 07:44am

Brazil had a nuclear program, but abandoned it decades ago. They have the technological capability and the economy to support it, but they just decided they didn't want to deal with the crap that comes with being a nuclear power.

As far as ICBMs go, if they can put a satellite into orbit, they have the capability to produce missiles. If they were pressed (say by Argentina restarting its nuclear program), they could develop a strategic deterrent in a relatively short amount of time. But unless they feel like they need nuclear weapons to preserve Brazil's survival as a regional power, they won't build them: having the bomb, after all, makes you a legitimate nuclear targer.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-08-23 07:51am

The range between Brazil and Argentina is such that you really don't need anything better than MRBMs (banned from US and CIS use by the INF Treaty- i.e. anything between 500-5,000km) though even they can be no joke technologically speaking (though there's a world of difference between a crappy Pakistani missile and a Soviet SS-20).

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-23 02:11pm

Brazil was working on a ballistic missile with 500-kilometer range during the mid 90's but canacled it. Brazil has no need of nuclear arms, no other nation on the continent could develop them, Argentines program accomplished next to nothing and they couldn't afford it now or for the next ten years.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-23 02:25pm

Well, while its sad to see 20 dead on something like this, they are at least trying. It could be good for the US programe. We have lacked competition for too long and our space programe is in tatters because of it, imo.

If we get some compitition, then perhaps some good shit can come from it.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-08-23 02:49pm

Knife wrote:If we get some compitition, then perhaps some good shit can come from it.

These guys are almost a half century behind us. I don't see any competition coming from there any time soon.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-23 03:17pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:
Knife wrote:If we get some compitition, then perhaps some good shit can come from it.
These guys are almost a half century behind us. I don't see any competition coming from there any time soon.

Who knows. China wants to land a guy on the moon. Thats forty years behind us but if they do, do you think that the US would sit up and pay attension?

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-08-23 05:03pm

Knife wrote:
Wicked Pilot wrote:
Knife wrote:If we get some compitition, then perhaps some good shit can come from it.
These guys are almost a half century behind us. I don't see any competition coming from there any time soon.
Who knows. China wants to land a guy on the moon. Thats forty years behind us but if they do, do you think that the US would sit up and pay attension?

Only if they don't have to get away from the newest Survivor or American Idol episode

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-08-24 01:01am

Wicked Pilot wrote:
Knife wrote:These guys are almost a half century behind us.

True. Unfortunately, we spent most of that half century doing jack shit. We haven't really set a new benchmark since the moon landing in 1969, and we haven't advanced one damned bit in the twenty-plus years since the Space Shuttle made it's debut.

Reinventing the wheel after you've already seen it in action is easier than coming up with it for the first time. Give Brazil, China, and India twenty years to work, and see where they are.

In any case, in a strange sort of way I can't help but admire Brazil's "We'll keep building rockets until one doesn't explode! Space at any cost!" attitude.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-08-24 01:17am

While we haven't done anything revolutionary since the Space Shuttle, what we have done is a lot of evolutionary stuff.

We now have extremely high-efficiency solar panels for probes. We've developed a working ion engine, which will make long-term solar system flights easier.

But I think part of the problem is that NASA's mostly lost the public's interest. Nothing "exciting" is happening. Watching probes fly around the solar system is rather boring. Watching people land on the Moon is exciting.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-24 02:30am

GrandAdmiralPrawn wrote:
Wicked Pilot wrote:
Knife wrote:These guys are almost a half century behind us.
True. Unfortunately, we spent most of that half century doing jack shit. We haven't really set a new benchmark since the moon landing in 1969, and we haven't advanced one damned bit in the twenty-plus years since the Space Shuttle made it's debut.

Reinventing the wheel after you've already seen it in action is easier than coming up with it for the first time. Give Brazil, China, and India twenty years to work, and see where they are.

In any case, in a strange sort of way I can't help but admire Brazil's "We'll keep building rockets until one doesn't explode! Space at any cost!" attitude.

Which in a round about way is my point. While we have refined what we knew 40 years ago, we haven't done anything 'noteworthy' since. If the Brazilians get in orbit or China goes to the moon, it will force us to put up or shut up in space.

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-08-24 08:42am

That somehow reminds me of the end of the Soviet moon-project in 1968. They tested thier new giant rocket for thier moon expidition, when it exploded, and the burning fuel splasher over the whole area. Commentary from one of the survivors:
"The marshall who was resposible for the project was fully hit with burning fuel. All what was was left of him, when the fire was out was his marshall star."

Some things happen again.....

LordShaithis · Post by **LordShaithis** » 2003-08-24 08:58pm

Yeah, let China land on the moon and suddenly the public will be much more receptive to showing them up by landing on Mars.