T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
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272.1 | It's all relative | 15704::DLONG | Ex-Priest; Temple of Syrinx. | Thu Mar 26 1987 10:30 | 6 |
| The contrast can be expressed mostly in dollars [rubles?].
Reagan once said that the American public spends more on pizza [$9b]
than they do on the space program [$6b at the time]
Does anyone have the figures for what the Soviets spend?
|
272.2 | | MONSTR::HUGHES | Gary Hughes | Thu Mar 26 1987 12:34 | 19 |
| The Soviets usually don't publish such things :-)
They do not seperate their military and civilian space programs
so it would be very hard to compare unless you rolled US military
space spending into your your figure (and they spend more than NASA
does).
I think it is more than just dollars. The Soviets seem to be more
capable of working towards a long term goal in space than the US.
They are certainly not as subject to the amazing shortsightedness
of the general public and their elected officials as NASA is. As
I have said elsewhere, the Russians are also more inclined to use
existing technologies when appropriate while NASA seems determined
to invent new wheels at every opportunity.
However, I suspect the main reason is that Russian pizza isn't as good
as American pizza.
gary
|
272.3 | Soviet/US expenditures | CAADC::MARSH | Jeffrey Marsh, DTN 474-5739 | Thu Mar 26 1987 22:01 | 15 |
| It is very difficult to compare what the Soviets spend on something
to what the U.S. spends on the same thing. In the U.S. labor is
relatively expensive and equipment relatively cheap. But in the Soviet
Union labor is relatively cheap and equipment is expensive. So even
if they did publish what they spent, the comparison wouldn't mean much.
I think it is pretty clear, however, that they are spending a bundle.
I am reminded of something Arthur C. Clarke wrote:
May 29, 1965:
Soviet Air Attache visited set [of 2001]. He looked at all the
little instruction plaques on the spaceship panels and said,
with a straight face, "You realize of course, that these should
all be in Russian."
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272.4 | 2010 did it right | VMSDEV::FISHER | Burns Fisher 381-1466, ZKO1-1/D42 | Fri Mar 27 1987 12:18 | 4 |
| Clarke learned his lesson and fixed the labels in 2010! :-)
Burns
|
272.5 | 1 Billion + my estimate | IMNAUT::BIRO | | Mon Mar 30 1987 09:20 | 26 |
| to give an idea of the $ that the CCCP is spending try this
in 1986 the CCCP had 103 mission to reach earth orbit of which
91 carried 114 payloads,
now consider this
the CCCP is offering the following launcher
Proton launch $24 Million
Soyuz launcher (SL4) can be purchased for only $10 - $12 Million
even if all were only $10 Million units
$10 e-6 * 103 = 1.03 Billion
now change 10 or so for a Proton launch units so add anoter 120 Million
oh yes if the launch fails you go for half fare next time
about 30 percent were Photographic Reconnaissance
about 25 percent were Communications
about 10 percent were Electronic Intelligence
about 10 percent were Navigation/Geodesy
about 8 percent were Early Warning
about 5 percent were man-related
rest 22 percent were meteorlogy/remote sensing, minor military,
scientific or unknown about equal share of
the 22 percent or 5 percent eacht
jb
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