Stumble It!
Shubber Ali, of Space Cynic fame, is apparently against all human spaceflight. I didn't realize that. He wants to start a anti-blitz blitz against the NSS and Space Exploration Alliance 2008 Legislative Blitz to tell congress to stop all human spaceflight (particularly to the Moon and Mars). He won't bet any help from yours truly.
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space (spās)
n.
1. space beyond the atmosphere of the earth.
Staff
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prag·ma·tism (prgm-tzm)
n.
A way of approaching situations or solving problems that emphasizes practical applications and consequences.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
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4 comments:
Shubber Ali, of Space Cynic fame, is apparently against all human spaceflight.
That's a bit of a broad generalization from what I actually wrote, and you appear to have missed the reason I put in there - that right now we must (if we really want to open the heavens up to the masses) focus on ONE thing: CRATS. Until that is solved, the overpriced and pointless STS/ISS/VSE architecture is just that: pointless.
Shubber is apparently being a political naif. Does he seriously think that if VSE were to be cancelled that we would concentrate on CRATS? What would actually happen is that we would wind up concentrating on NASA's choke hold on human space flight. Getting NASA out of low Earth orbit operations is an absolute preregisite to commercial space development.
As much as it pains me to say it, it is not NASA's job to make CRATS happen (That is Cheap and Reliable Access to Space for those who didn't know). It is NASA's job to let it happen and use it when it is, but in my not very humble opinion, VSE is what NASA should be doing (maybe with a different architecture). Buiding bases on the Moon, exploring the
Mars and the outer moons. CRATS is the domain on private industry.
All that being said, Mark is right, if you kill the VSE in NASA, you only give them the option of flying our obit for the next 20 years (again). The people that work for NASA are going to space, one way or another. That is why they accepted the (realively) low pay to do this work. If you keep them around Earth, they are going to make sure they are the only game in town.
Does he seriously think that if VSE were to be cancelled that we would concentrate on CRATS? What would actually happen is that we would wind up concentrating on NASA's choke hold on human space flight.
Wrong. What vehicle do you believe NASA will be flying to LEO if VSE is canceled? The Shuttle?
Think again. That is slated for retirement in a few years - they (a) won't keep it flying for another 10 years, and (b) don't have an alternative LEO vehicle in development that we've all been unaware of.
What will likely happen is that manned spaceflight will be put on hiatus until a program DOES get sustained funding - and if that takes 10-15 years before someone figures out that they should focus on CRATS, or perhaps 50-100 years, so be it.
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