Comments on: FAA 2012 budget proposal includes space access prize

By: Rich Robins

Rich Robins — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:05:46 +0000

I think that this FAA launch prize would make for an EXCELLENT start. Notice how the FAA, unlike NASA, doesn’t have operations that would compete with prize contestants? Thus, we’d not be as likely to see FAA bureaucrats jealously work behind the scenes (in cahoots with Congressional pork-barrel spenders) to keep the prize small during future years in the same way that some at NASA have been sneakily working to keep launch-related prizes nonexistent at: http://www.Challenge.gov .

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 12:52:04 +0000

Does anyone out there in Blog-land dream of going to another world at all?! Do you? Because all you seem to be doing is shilling for the Shuttle political industrial complex, which will not be able to fulfill your stated dream. More hovering in Low Earth Orbit for yet ANOTHER fifteen or twenty years? That's what SDLV would do for you. On Russian spacecraft. Not that there's anything wrong with Russian spacecraft, but I doubt that is what you want. Or claim you want.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 12:51:15 +0000

@Rand Simberg wrote @ March 5th, 2011 at 11:53 pm

“What human life is worth a billion dollars?”

‘Nuff said.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:53:27 +0000

Coming from someone who thinks satellites are worth more than human lives

What human life is worth a billion dollars? That’s what satellites cost.

Very few, and certainly not NASA astronauts.

What you’re saying is that we’re not doing anything important enough in space to risk an astronaut’s life.

By: VirgilSamms

VirgilSamms — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 22:00:05 +0000

“I wouldnâ€™t be that thrilled to have the confidence of two of the biggest loons in this comments section.”

Coming from someone who thinks satellites are worth more than human lives and posts a truly vast amount of insults and low brow remarks- I take that as a complement. Thanks Rand. As long as a fool like you keeps making those kinds of remarks about me- I know I am doing something right.

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:51:49 +0000

@Rand Simberg;…..Yes, I’m in good company! I suppose these are the “loons” who are eager to see some REAL space exploration done! Instead of more merry-go-rounding about the Earth! Look boys, NASA didn’t need an ISS when it broke the bonds of planet Earth forty years ago! This idiotic plan—-called Flexible Path/ Obamaspace—-centers all our future eggs in one basket, the ISS. You and I both know the ISS is just another bigger & mightier-seeming MIR, and that sooner or later it will be a larger problem to maintain than it is worth. The space taxis that the amateurs are planning to build in order to reach it, will all have ZERO-to-nothing capability of leaving LEO for deep space. Fifteen years from now, under Flexible Path, the U.S. will have NO beyond earth orbit capability. All this simply because the Flexible Path-ers wanted the Moon removed as a destination, in favor of asteroids and lagrange points. Worse still: the Chinese might just do nothing more than copy us—-STAGNATING with their own LEO space station. Where has our sense of wonder & exploration of the unknown gone? [ A vast, enormous percent of the Moon’s surface remains unknown. So don’t you even give me that gibberish about “we’ve been there already”.] Bases were built in the Antarctic way after explorers had already reached it. Plus, astronauts have “already been” to LEO, many hundreds of times; whether in capsules, shuttles, or space station modules.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:16:25 +0000

@ VirgilSamms & DCSCA;â€¦..Hi you all. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

I wouldn’t be that thrilled to have the confidence of two of the biggest loons in this comments section. If abreakingwind agrees with you, you’ll really be in trouble.

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:36:07 +0000

@ VirgilSamms & DCSCA;…..Hi you all. Thanks for the vote of confidence! And yes, I do now sense that this forum is majoritied by the LEO space tourist would-be crowd. Does anyone out there in Blog-land dream of going to another world at all?! More hovering in Low Earth Orbit for yet ANOTHER fifteen or twenty years?! Is THIS your idea of ‘space exploration’?! When are we ever going to get this LEO space station monomania behind us?? The very same people who are jumping up and down, because Space X launched, orbited, & landed an unmanned Dragon capsule—-they are one and the same the same people who would be saying “So What;” if the Chinese would send the Shenzou craft into a Lunar orbit trajectory. The Obamaspacers seem intent on putting down the extraordinary just to uphold the mundane.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:23:58 +0000

@Chris Castro wrote @ March 2nd, 2011 at 12:21 am
“I am not against capitalism, I am just against the erroneous notion that private corporations are really up to the task of human spaceflight in this era.”

Precisely. Well said, sir.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:22:05 +0000

VirgilSamms wrote @ March 2nd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Original configurations for Soyuz lunar mission planning required the cosmonaut to spacewalk from the Soyuz to the lander. The spacecrafts base design was originally for liunar flights albeit quite crude compared to Apollo and the spaceious vehicles we expect today. Soyuz has been a very robust design with four decades of service. Like the VW beetle, it’s ugly, but it gets you there.