Space

Nature’s Judgment?

Paul Dietz points out (in comments) that if Frances hits the cape as a Cat 4 or greater, none of the major facilities are designed to take it. If the VAB, OPF and LC-39 are significantly damaged, it could mean that the Shuttle will retire even sooner than the current plan (i.e., it will never fly again). It would be a strange end to the current trajectory of our four-plus-decade manned space program, but it might be an opportunity for a clean start, since there won’t be an opportunity for a rear-guard action to save the Shuttle (and it may even finally put to rest notions of Shuttle derivatives, though that’s probably asking too much).

[Update a few minutes later]

As Paul mentions, he found the info at the new and improved NASA Watch, now with an infinite percent more permalinks.

Space

Nature’s Judgment?

Paul Dietz points out (in comments) that if Frances hits the cape as a Cat 4 or greater, none of the major facilities are designed to take it. If the VAB, OPF and LC-39 are significantly damaged, it could mean that the Shuttle will retire even sooner than the current plan (i.e., it will never fly again). It would be a strange end to the current trajectory of our four-plus-decade manned space program, but it might be an opportunity for a clean start, since there won’t be an opportunity for a rear-guard action to save the Shuttle (and it may even finally put to rest notions of Shuttle derivatives, though that’s probably asking too much).

[Update a few minutes later]

As Paul mentions, he found the info at the new and improved NASA Watch, now with an infinite percent more permalinks.

Space

JIMO And VASIMR

Emailer Ken Talton asks:

I’m curious about the VASIMR engine, its performance and maturity. I understand you are working on Prometheus via JIMO and was wondering if the VASIMR technology is going to be used on that mission. For that matter how close to an actual space engine is this? What I’ve seen in print indicates that it has performance throttleable between ion engine efficiency and thrust like a chemical rocket. How does this compare to, say, a Spaceshuttle engine? Could it be used in a launch vehicle for instance? How big a breakthrough is it really?

JIMO is planned to use ion propulsion, a technology that is currently in use (in communications satellites and in Deep Space 1), and only requires scaling up. VASIMR is an entirely different kind of electric propulsion. Both types work by accelerating charged particles with electromagnetic fields, but ion propulsion is driven by electrostatic forces, whereas VASIMR accelerates a plasma using electromagnetic forces. It has the potential for much higher thrust (though lower specific impulse, so the fuel efficiency isn’t as good), but it’s only in the preliminary development stages. Neither type of engine would have high enough thrust/weight ratio to be used as an engine on a launch system–they’re only useful in space. There’s a good tutorial on the subject here.

Political Commentary

A New Direction

Rich Lowry points out that many people polled want the country to go in a “new direction.” He also points out the vapidity of the assumption of many in the press that such folk, like those who think the country is on the “wrong track” or disapprove of the president’s job, will be Kerry voters. I’ve also pointed this out before.

I disapprove of the president’s performance, on many levels, think the country needs a new direction, and is on the wrong track. Am I going to be voting for Kerry? Of course not, because I’m afraid he’ll derail the train completely.

I was amused yesterday, driving down the coast of Florida, as I listened to Sean Hannity’s “man (and woman) in the street interviews” in which none of the Kerry supporters could identify a single accomplishment in his career, or a single position that he took that they agreed with, that would cause them to vote for him. Many didn’t even know the name of his running mate. It was simply sufficient for him to not be George Bush. If I’d been doing the interviews, I’d have asked how they knew that they wouldn’t be making things worse by electing a guy they admittedly knew absolutely nothing about. But Sean is never quite that quick on the uptake. In any event, one suspects that many of the empty vessels he interviewed won’t bother to vote, despite their stated support for Kerry.

Anyway, this foolish tendency of the media to translate in their minds unhappiness with George Bush into automatic support for Kerry is one of the reasons that they continue to fool themselves about the latter’s prospects in November. I suspect they’re in for a shock.

Political Commentary

Sneaky

Richard Holbrooke has a column on Vietnam in yesterday’s WaPo, and how it shaped his (and Kerry’s) generation’s world view. Greg Djerejian has some comments on it (and more importantly, on the potential implications of Kerry’s Senate testimony in 1971–one more reason that he would be a dangerous CinC), but I noticed that he has (at least) one disingenuous sentence in it:

His personal saga embodies the American experience in Vietnam. First he was a good hero in a bad war — a man who volunteered for duty in the Navy and then asked for an assignment on the boats that were to ply the dangerous rivers of Vietnam…

Yes, he volunteered for Swift Boats, and yes, they were (eventually) to ply the dangerous rivers of Vietnam, but my understanding is that at the time he volunteered, he didn’t know that–they were only plying the much less dangerous coastal waters at the time. This is a point that many (all?) Kerry defenders somehow conveniently leave out (just as they ignore the fact that the National Guard in which George Bush enlisted actually was doing duty in Vietnam at the time he signed up).

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!