Eric Berger has the latest installment of his series on NASA’s drift (which is likely to become a book, I think):
NASA’s rank-and-file believe America wants a space program pushing outward, and upward.
“We don’t think of our jobs here as white-collar welfare,” Kramer said. “We have a real passion for what we do.”
Of course you don’t. You have to motivate yourself to go to work. But that doesn’t make it untrue.
I weep to think what that billion dollars per year could be doing if applied to something useful.
[Update a while later]
I should note that I have worked on many projects that I considered a pointless waste of money, because it was my job assignment. While I’m probably more cynical than most, I did eventually tire of helping Congress waste the taxpayers’ money, which is why I quit the mainstream industry two decades ago.
“You have to motivate yourself to go to work.”
I truly don’t get this statement, Rand.
If they really believed that what they were doing is pointless, it would be hard to go in and do a good job. So they have to convince themselves that all the agency propaganda about the program is actually true.
Who said we believe our work is pointless? I just read the article in discussion, and I don’t recall anyone projecting such a sentiment. Of course, it is entirely possible that I missed it in there somewhere. I have personally known some pessimists in our ranks, but either they’ve left, or the remaining people are more irritated that we have potential without budget to pursue it.
I’ll grant you, I want to see a real mission for the Orion spacecraft to sink its operational teeth into, but then again, it has never meant to be a one-trick pony either. The asteroid mission seems a at least a little trivial in some ways, or at least publically it has that perception. Personally, I’d love to see us return to the Moon, and Mars is even more interesting from a “sizzle” perspective, though the program to achieve those missions was killed. So we are putting together a system that is meant to do many things and go many places, short of landing. The work itself is motivation.
Who said we believe our work is pointless?
No one said that. Including me.
I guess you didn’t exactly, though I thought that was the implication. Perhaps my reading perception is poorly calibrated this morning.
As I said, or myself tried to imply, I don’t need propaganda to keep me moving. I think that the work we do on Orion is important and interesting, all on its own. My expectations for the technology are high, and my view of the importance of a successful EFT-1 flight may be different than yours.
Clearly it is. I think that both SLS and Orion are a poor use of NASA’s limited funds. But Congress is unlikely to fund anything useful in any event.
So we are putting together a system that is meant to do many things and go many places, short of landing.
This meant as a sincere, non-hostile question, though in these Internet days it’s hard to pull that off.
However: It would be useful to get a listing, just illustrative, of what those things and places are. Also what evidence exists that NASA means to do them under its currently assumed budget constraints.
Me, I’d love to see SLS/Orion used to support establishment of a space station in cislunar space, EML-2 or DRO, as a way of developing the long-duration habitats that will be essential for true deep-space missions. NASA has occasionally said things about doing that, but where are the program and funding paths from here to there?
It’s a job program. If the point has anything to do with space it is pointless. Why?
As a spacecraft it’s not economically fit for ANY mission. It’s sold as a long duration vehicle. It is not. It’s far more expensive and less capable than commercial alternatives.
Craig, don’t settle for a job. You could be making a real impact on the future of humanity. When we look back on this time of big government people are going to be amazed we didn’t believe enough in ourselves to cut the apron strings.
Free enterprise works in space as the next few decades will prove. Government isn’t going to be able to hold us back much longer. The wealth of the solar system must be taken… the government can’t do that for people.