I like the website a lot, though there are a number of other points it could also concisely make to really push home the message. The cost difference between Ares 1 and Falcon 9 for example, and why Falcon 9 is not even the low cost launch vehicle of the future.
As for the “20 Years Stuck Circling Earth?” this was always an irrelevant point. Spending 20 years in LEO was never the problem, doing nothing in LEO for 20 years was/is the problem. No depots, no Moore’s Law getting launch costs down, no incremental development of space infrastructure, no tugs, no large space stations with many people in LEO, no large assembly projects, self sufficient greenhouses, and so on. We still know next to nothing about living in space – something we need to first learn in LEO.
LEO is not the thriving base camp it should be and nothing much is going to happen in space until it is. Spending 20 years making it a thriving base camp would be/have been 20 years well spent.
I’m not fond of the shady campaign ads. If this message is so important, then whoever paid for it should put their name(s) on the website.
Paul, if you’re after a reason to oppose HR 5781, look no further than Bart Gordon’s letter on the 6th. He can’t see any reason to send a robotic precursor to the Moon, and specifically mentions ISRU as unnecessary.
Ah, finally – how to design the perfect camel. After so many false starts I am proud of the achievement of congress in becoming rocket scientists!
Less rhetorical gas , more commercial activity: don’t forget; the population still owns this country – not the government!
BTW, in case anyone has forgotten or the thought has just got lost in the noise; ” The politicians in office and the legions of bureaucrats supporting them are still SERVANTS OF THE PUBLIC”. They exist by consent and for no other reason.
Trent, can’t let that slide. For one, the FY 2011 budget request doesn’t specify which Lagrange points, if any, NASA intends to target. Two, Gordon doesn’t say that ISRU is unnecessary, he says it is premature to consider such a mission when the President hasn’t clarified the objectives for national HSF.
Moreover, we’re missing one pretty glaring piece of malpractice committed by the Administration (and, unfortunately, her cheerleaders on this issue). No one has given an accounting for why we need to increase government spending for commercial crew. All we’ve been given a vague hint that some other players–heretofore unnamed (but we can all guess) wish to get on the bid (perhaps not for the first time).
Ultimately, what’s going to sell Congress on commercial crew and cargo is a working rocket that’s cheap and delivers human beings to space at the advertised price. If you think COTS is insufficient, instead of wasting time fighting Congressmen you better get on the horn to whoever you know at ULA, Boeing or whoever else wants a piece of the action and get them to make the case. That’ll go a hell of a lot farther than a stupid letter writing campaign and a dumb web site.
“20 Years Stuck Circling Earth?”
Brilliant!
And Obama’s plan would keep us circling Earth for at least another 15 years.
HR 5781 Delays Space Exploration Until 2030 or Later
That’s an improvement of one year over the new HEFT report, which shows the first NEO mission in 2031:
http://www.nasawatch.com/images/heft2.pdf
I like the website a lot, though there are a number of other points it could also concisely make to really push home the message. The cost difference between Ares 1 and Falcon 9 for example, and why Falcon 9 is not even the low cost launch vehicle of the future.
As for the “20 Years Stuck Circling Earth?” this was always an irrelevant point. Spending 20 years in LEO was never the problem, doing nothing in LEO for 20 years was/is the problem. No depots, no Moore’s Law getting launch costs down, no incremental development of space infrastructure, no tugs, no large space stations with many people in LEO, no large assembly projects, self sufficient greenhouses, and so on. We still know next to nothing about living in space – something we need to first learn in LEO.
LEO is not the thriving base camp it should be and nothing much is going to happen in space until it is. Spending 20 years making it a thriving base camp would be/have been 20 years well spent.
I’m not fond of the shady campaign ads. If this message is so important, then whoever paid for it should put their name(s) on the website.
Paul, if you’re after a reason to oppose HR 5781, look no further than Bart Gordon’s letter on the 6th. He can’t see any reason to send a robotic precursor to the Moon, and specifically mentions ISRU as unnecessary.
Ah, finally – how to design the perfect camel. After so many false starts I am proud of the achievement of congress in becoming rocket scientists!
Less rhetorical gas , more commercial activity: don’t forget; the population still owns this country – not the government!
BTW, in case anyone has forgotten or the thought has just got lost in the noise; ” The politicians in office and the legions of bureaucrats supporting them are still SERVANTS OF THE PUBLIC”. They exist by consent and for no other reason.
Trent, can’t let that slide. For one, the FY 2011 budget request doesn’t specify which Lagrange points, if any, NASA intends to target. Two, Gordon doesn’t say that ISRU is unnecessary, he says it is premature to consider such a mission when the President hasn’t clarified the objectives for national HSF.
Moreover, we’re missing one pretty glaring piece of malpractice committed by the Administration (and, unfortunately, her cheerleaders on this issue). No one has given an accounting for why we need to increase government spending for commercial crew. All we’ve been given a vague hint that some other players–heretofore unnamed (but we can all guess) wish to get on the bid (perhaps not for the first time).
Ultimately, what’s going to sell Congress on commercial crew and cargo is a working rocket that’s cheap and delivers human beings to space at the advertised price. If you think COTS is insufficient, instead of wasting time fighting Congressmen you better get on the horn to whoever you know at ULA, Boeing or whoever else wants a piece of the action and get them to make the case. That’ll go a hell of a lot farther than a stupid letter writing campaign and a dumb web site.