Comments on: Bolden’s “flaky” explanation of NASA’s asteroid redirection mission

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 02:49:55 +0000

At Coastal Ron,…..If they’re smart, and they eventually build a lunar lander, and banish all the ridiculous phobia against building one, that seems to’ve gripped all the Flexible Path adherents, then they’ve got the basic building blocks for resolving every one of the obdurate issues which are currently blocking an actual interplanetary expedition from taking off. NASA badly needs experience with planetary surface operations. Further decades spent exclusively in LEO will NOT yield the much-needed data!
The so-called Inspiration Mars crewed planetary flyby proposal, sounds farcical & ludicrous, considering just how little deep space experience we’ve got——the closest of which is more than 40 years ago! Where’s the life-support system that could withstand 501 days, without resupply or earth-sent-maintainance?——just to name one big item. The people promoting this “project”, are living in a fantasy world, in my view. Can you really envision such a mission’s launch, ready & on schedule to be launched in January of 2018, to meet the opportunity window?! Think about it: Zero experience since 1972, with sending a manned spacecraft via an earth departure stage, out of LEO. Remember that once they are far enough outbound, beyond cislunar space, that the crew will be inescapably commited to the huge 501 days away from Earth. Could the NASA of a mere four & a half years from now, be prepared to keep such a far-deep space crew alive for that giant span of time?!
The gloomy reality is that NASA will NOT even have launched another manned American capsule, to mere LEO, by January of 2017, when BO leaves office. Just how much new flight experience dealing with brand new spacecraft hardware will they’ve got before that momentous January of 2018 big expedition start?

By: Dave Klingler

Dave Klingler — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:17:59 +0000

I’ve looked hard, and I truly don’t believe anybody in Congress knows anything about space exploration or could string together the words “geopolitical strategy” along with “NASA”. None. If you know differently, please name him or her or them.

By: Dave Klingler

Dave Klingler — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:12:42 +0000

To my knowledge Bolden is the first guy to run NASA with a space background. O’Keefe had a reputation for being a ruthless cost cutter and he was brought in to count beans. It’s possible that’s what NASA needed, because although I didn’t think O’Keefe was that knowledgeable about anything space-related I did like his non-nonsense EELV-based Moon program before Griffin came in and canceled it.

I’d much rather have Bolden than O’Keefe, but if was up to either one of them we’d already be on the Moon and beyond, using EELVs, nuclear rockets and propellant depots.

By: Dave Klingler

Dave Klingler — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:06:51 +0000

I read the same program to which you’re referring, and I didn’t get any sense of “kick the can down the road”. I did get a sense of naivete. Obama thought he could just ask his space advisors what they wanted and give it to them.

My friends in the nuclear rocket office were ecstatic. They were told they were finally going to get some money. The orbital depot guys were told the same thing. Obama’s space policy advisors thought they could put together a space program that was designed to advance space exploration once and for all.

Boy, was that naive.

What happened next was a repeat of what happened when Richard M. Nixon thought he could cancel on the entrenched interests (it was actually Mayo, Erlichman and Schultz, to whom he had delegated space). Congress hated him and sought retribution, even the GOP side.

In the same way, Obama touched off a firestorm. And the rest became a negotiated compromise..

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 18:17:44 +0000

Chris Castro moaned: "In short, China will be THE NATION that first grapples with all of the basic, unsolved problems of manned interplanetary flight. " What a laugh. They have problems bending sheets of aluminum for their upcoming Long March 5 rocket, and you think they are poised to conquer the solar system? WHAT A LAUGH!!

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 18:14:26 +0000

Chris Castro said:

“Those â€œdesperately lonely lunar outpost residentsâ€, will be solving each & every one of those prickly problems posed by hypothetical interplanetary space-flight!”

And how do you imagine they will be solving those prickly problems with far less logistical support and raw materials than what the practice locations have had?

Your lack of real-life experience means you really have no idea how hard it will be for doing ANYTHING in space, which is what the ISS has been showing us for over a decade.

For instance, raw material for seals can’t be made out of any raw material that is on the Moon, and seals will be wearing out constantly because of the abrasive composition of the lunar dust. No amount of ingenuity can solve a lack of basic raw material.

The fantasy that people living on the Moon can be self-sufficient is just that – a fantasy. The Moon will never be self-sufficient, mainly because it lacks an atmosphere and the complex compositions that are required to support life as we know it. Of course maybe you are not human…

By: Jim Nobles

Jim Nobles — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:11:34 +0000

Or Robert Bigelow?

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:01:13 +0000

Or Golden Spike?

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 15:00:21 +0000

The commercial boys so far, show NO interest in the Moon

How ignorant and idiotic. Have you never heard of Moon Express, or Shackleton Energy Company?

By: Chris Castro

Chris Castro — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:42:49 +0000

@Hiram,…..Those “desperately lonely lunar outpost residents”, will be solving each & every one of those prickly problems posed by hypothetical interplanetary space-flight! Innovative new solutions to on-planet stays, beyond the Earth’s ionosphere, will spring about, because of the real-time challenge of having to grapple with the up-until-then unresolved issues. Renewed Moon expeditions will shed light on all of this.
Again, camping in the Arctic wilderness, & playing Marsonaut, in supposed “Mars analog bases”, has some severe weaknesses in terms of dealing with the actual conditions of far-deep space. The same goes for bio-domes & LEO stations: None of these things will be adequate for practicing/rehearsing the nitty-gritty of that stage play called “Staying Alive on a Six-Months-Trip-Away, Distant Planet”. (Actually, it’s even worse than that, because of the complexity of waiting for proper planetary alignments, it would mean NO week-to-week, alternating launch windows to return-to-Earth; to start a return-journey. Hence, the would-be Mars exile-time, inevitably would be way longer.)