Comments on: Huntsville comes to Washington

By: Space Politics » Obey no longer, and other notes

Space Politics » Obey no longer, and other notes — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:58:15 +0000

[…] week businesspeople and others from the Huntsville area came to Washington to lobby Congress about Conste…; now, it’s Colorado’s turn. A 100-person delegation from Colorado will be in Washington […]

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:39:18 +0000

@Rand Simberg….Flexible Path—Obama’s space plan, IS precisely Flags & Footprints & Nothing More!! Remember Buzz Aldrin’s Rule: We NEVER can visit a planetoid more than once. Once that glorious first landing/ docking mission is complete, we’re done with THAT place forever! Mark that place as already visited. Hence, there will be NO bases NOR resource utilization ANYPLACE, since we are now forbidden from EVER returning! Flexible Path stinks!! Anyone with any futuristic sense of what is needed for a space-faring tomorrow, can see the horrible effects this “plan” will have. Again, even Robert Zubrin can see just how bad it reeks!

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:35:31 +0000

Skipping the Moon, just to do one-time-only Flags & Footprints landings on asteroids will NOT get us any closer to resource-utilization NOR an Antarctic-type of base foothold ANYWHERE.

That’s not what the plan is. Are you people posting this nuttiness from a parallel universe?

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:08:58 +0000

Mr. Bohdan Dejmuk should be speaking out, about the long-term wisdom of a Lunar Return—-ahead & before ANY asteroids. Neil Armstrong should’ve spoken out, WAY sooner! Constellation is STILL the way to go, and we need to continue the campaign to save this project in Congress. Even Robert Zubrin, that tireless stalwart for Mars missions in OUR time, can read through all the bunk & deception in President Obama’s space plan—-and he condemns it! Skipping the Moon, just to do one-time-only Flags & Footprints landings on asteroids will NOT get us any closer to resource-utilization NOR an Antarctic-type of base foothold ANYWHERE. Because THAT kind of space vision REQUIRES that you in fact DO go back to where you’ve been! There’s nothing wrong with return expeditions, to expand on the knowledge that you’ve previously uncovered, as well as to expand the logistics & scope of your operations on the frontier!

By: MrEarl

MrEarl — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:33:01 +0000

One person I would very interested to have his opinion is Bohdan Bejmuk. He was a member of the Augustine Committee who I got to meet and was very impressed with. I found him to be excited about all forms of human space flight and quite knowledgeable.

By: common sense

common sense — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:38:16 +0000

@ SpaceMan wrote @ April 27th, 2010 at 8:27 pm

“James Cameron would be one of the first to consider since he has been a Mars Society member”

I don’t think James Cameron has what it takes. He sure makes impressive movies but it is far from enough. One will need charisma AND technical credibility As for being a member of the Mars Society, so what? What does that tell the public?

Let me ask again: How do we turn “space/HSF/NASA” into an “iPod”? If you can answer that then you have a case for public interest, otherwise…

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:35:29 +0000

@ Red…..Pure sensationalistic bunk: all that talk about Constellation’s heavy-lift vehicle taking multi-decades to build! With PROPER FUNDING, the Aries 5 would easily have been up and running before this decade was out! The Augustine Commission just had an ax to grind about the Moon being Destination One. Constellation’s rockets, spacecrafts & infrastructure could subsequently have put together a later mission to dock with an asteroid—keeping the Moon as its primary goal. What do you think happens AFTER that Guinness Book of World Records stunt mission to the asteroid?? Remember Buzz Aldrin’s Rule: We never ever visit a planetoid more than once! We just place a flag, collect a few rocks, and we’re done with THAT place forever! (Flags, Footprints, & Nothing More: that’s Flexible Path—that’s Obama’s space plan!)

By: red

red — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:50:50 +0000

Chris Castro: “With the Aries 5, we could have had launched a Skylab-type of station that wouldâ€™ve cost far less to maintain, and couldâ€™ve been easily serviced by the fully-developed Orion craft, for intermittent crew stays.”

How would this be affordable, given that Ares V isn’t affordable? How could we do this, when Ares V won’t be built until ~2028 at current estimates, and this would leave no money to develop a space station to put on it? How could it be easily serviced by the fully-developed Orion craft, when that and its launcher are too expensive to develop and operate, too?

I’d suggest that a big part of the ISS expense was due to Shuttle expense and delays. I do think we should be looking into smaller, possibly intermittently-crewed, specialized stations launched and serviced by existing rockets at this point, though.

“ALL the Soviets, and eventually Russians, have EVER done since the 1970s has been LEO space station stays!”

A lot of the Constellation supporters are suggesting that the new NASA plan lets the Russians leave us behind. I think you have a much more realistic version here of the Russian side (although we probably don’t agree on the NASA side, where I think the new plan will move us ahead much better than Constellation would).

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:38:40 +0000

@ Almighty Wind……Your comment is right on the money! The ISS IS costing us billions of federal budget dollars, even with nothing more ambitious being planned. With the Aries 5, we could have had launched a Skylab-type of station that would’ve cost far less to maintain, and could’ve been easily serviced by the fully-developed Orion craft, for intermittent crew stays. I always lamented that the original Skylab was allowed to crash to Earth before the U.S. got newer spacecraft, in the 70s. NASA might very well have gotten over all that LEO station mania just-to-copy-the-Soviets thing, long ago. ALL the Soviets, and eventually Russians, have EVER done since the 1970s has been LEO space station stays! Since the Salyut and Mir days, on to now. If only America could’ve just got some serious international competition in placing astronauts in deep space, way back then! Things would’ve been so different. Or even now, then there would be NO WAY that President Obama could get away with wrecking Project Constellation!

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:33:22 +0000

Stephen C. Smith wrote @ April 27th, 2010 at 7:17 pm

National polls continue to show that a majority of Americans want less government spending on space, and want the private sector to pay for it instead….

What most space groupies cannot seem to figure out is that most Americans really DONT CARE about human spaceflight. IN the scheme of things Obama’s perceived support or non support of human spaceflight will affect some areas but they are mostly ones he was losing already.

What is going to be interesting to see is how the forces shape up running into the election. We have had two major events occur in the body politic and I suspect that the consequences are going to be fairly entertaining.

Robert G. Oler