Henry Spencer’s thoughts on the passage of the authorization bill.
Category Archives: Space
Non-News In Space
People are making too big a deal of Lori’s statement yesterday that we are not abandoning the moon. This is not any different than NASA has been saying since February, though the message has been badly garbled, and the president didn’t help with his flip and foolish comment about how “Buzz has already been there.”
Flexible Path always meant just that — flexible, and that flexibility included the ability, eventually, to go to the lunar surface, just not as a first destination.
Now, as it happens, I don’t think that it’s as expensive to build a lander as NASA and the Augustine panel seemed to think, particularly if you have a depot at L1 or L2, and we could have even retained the VSE plan of return to the moon first, but it doesn’t really matter now, because some future administration and Congress is going to make that decision. The important thing for now is to focus on developing the technology and building the hardware that’s necessary for all BEO missions, regardless of ultimate destination, while the opportunity exists. And one thing that doesn’t include is a heavy-lift vehicle, but at least until we can get a sensible Congress (perhaps next year, but there’s a lot of education to be done on that front), we will have to waste money on it. But as long as there’s enough left over to do the things that do need doing, and we don’t starve them for funds (Mike Griffin’s greatest sin), at least we won’t have to waste any more time.
The Power Of Transterrestrial
I see that all four of the Republicans that I called out yesterday ended up voting for the Senate bill.
Is There An ISS Expert In The House?
Ignoring the lifeboat issue, what is the real crew capacity of the system, and what would it take to expand it (e.g, ECLSS)? How many could it comfortably support? What are the fundamental limits? I assume that power is not one of them, and hab volume could still be expanded.
[Update late afternoon]
OK, maybe I haven’t phrased the question properly. My question is not about requirements, but about design. That is, if I wanted to expand crew far beyond that currently designed for, and (once again) ignoring the lifeboat issue, what are the constraints? Dennis implies that it is power (presumably because, admittedly, that would probably be the hardest thing to expand much, absent a nuke in LEO). But if we wanted to (say) triple it, would that be possible, and what would we have to do, and what would be the first things to upgrade, and what would it cost?
The Senate Bill Passes
Thanks to everyone who did citizen lobbying to make this happen. Henry Vanderbilt offers his thanks as well, and discusses events to come (the next battle will be over the 2011 NASA appropriation). Clark Lindsey has thoughts there as well, and a lot of links here.
[Update a while later]
Lori Garver is going to do a press conference in a few minutes. You’ll be able to stream it here, at least in theory.
Conservatives In Name Only
I have a piece up at PJM this morning about space pork.
Who Would Have Guessed?
Mike Griffin is opposed to the Senate bill. That right there makes me support it. Kind of like how I vote for issues that I don’t know much about by going the opposite from whatever the LA Times endorses.
Mike Griffin should just take his own advice, and shut up.
The NASA Fight Isn’t Over
It’s looking like the House will vote tomorrow, but it needs two thirds to pass the Senate bill. The emphasis up until now has been on killing the House bill. Now we’re trying to get the Senate bill passed and signed. Clark Lindsey has details.
[Update, early evening in CA]
Jeff Foust says that the vote may be close. Call your Congressperson.
Bizarro World
As I’ve been pointing out for months, space policy is one of the few areas in which the Obama administration isn’t socialist by inclination.
First Contact
Just for the record, I think that the UN is about the last entity that I’d like to have that job.
And yes, per comments, it is pointless to ask someone how long it would take the Shuttle to get to the nearest star. I would have no idea how to go about answering that question with anything but a “forever.” As other commenters said, it’s like asking how long it would take to get to the moon with a bicycle, or a submarine.
[Via Alan K. Henderson]
[Update a few minutes later]
More thoughts from Kevin Williamson:
I do not propose to test the hypothesis that it would take 5,000 times the recreational dosage to overdose on marijuana, but I would like to know how much bazooka one has to smoke before deciding to appoint a UN representative to alien civilizations. Is there data on that?
I’m not sure I want to know the answer.
[Update mid afternoon]
Even more thoughts from Claudia Rossett:
…if the Malaysian head of OOSA ends up doubling as a UN envoy tasked with crafting a program for representing the “sensitivities” of all mankind to aliens, it would be nothing more than normal UN procedure should she end up huddling with Talebzadeh, head of the Iranian space agency, to draft a plan for the planet. That might be less worrisome were Malaysia and Iran a tad less cozy these days — but as it is, Malaysia was one of the three countries which last November at the UNs International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna voted against rebuking Iran over its sanctions-busting nuclear program.
Just a coinkydinky, I’m sure.