A weightless dog.
He (or she) doesn’t seem that upset about it. Probably not the first time.
[Via Stephen Gordon]
Category Archives: Space
Is It Dead?
…or just resting? Bill Nelson is trying to resuscitate heavy lift. As many commenters point out, it makes no sense, and is fiscal madness. And he’s probably doomed to failure.
[Update a few minutes later]
Particularly idiotic is Nelson’s attempts to tie continued Ares development to national security, for at least two reasons: the DoD has no need for solids of that diameter and if it did, there would be cheaper ways to get it. Not to mention that if it’s for national security, the money should come out of the Pentagon’s budget, not NASA.
Simplifying The Job
I’m working on a piece along these lines for PM or PJM, but Jim Oberg beat me to the punch:
The plan to reshape the Orion spaceship as a standby rescue vehicle for station crews has profound implications for the requirements of the commercial taxi and its cost. This strategy means the taxis won’t have to last for six months “parked” in space, like Russia’s Soyuz spaceships. The simplification of the taxi’s mission will allow its hardware to be significantly less expensive to build and to validate.
The crucial systems for the taxis have mostly already been built and are available as off-the-shelf technology — which means the spaceships could be much cheaper, much smaller and much more reliable.
The FUD being spread by defenders of the status quo has been almost palpable, and it’s all unjustified.
[Update a few minutes later]
I should add that I doubt very much if the commercial contractors are going to use the Orion abort system. It’s overkill, in both weight and cost. In fact, for a much lighter vehicle, as a taxi would be, it would probably kill the occupants from the acceleration.
A Useful Space Tutorial
…from Brian Swiderski, over at DKos. I’m glad that, like Ferris Valyn, he’s trying to engage his fellow “progressives” on the issue.
Barack Obama’s Conservative Space Program
I have a response to Robert Costa’s piece from last week, over at National Review Online.
Orbital Is On Board
Here’s the release from David Thompson in support of the new policy. Orbital was a loser, in that they were the subcontractor to Lockmart’s Orion contract for the Launch Abort System. If Orion isn’t going to carry crew into space (the new plan is for it to be a return vehicle only), then it doesn’t need one. I guess they’re just sucking it up and hoping that they’ll get a lot more cargo delivery business under the new plan.
Shocking News
Lunar craters may be electrified:
The researchers created computer simulations to discover what happens when the solar wind flows over the rims of polar craters. They discovered that in some ways, the solar wind behaves like wind on Earth — flowing into deep polar valleys and crater floors. Unlike wind on Earth, the dual electron-ion composition of the solar wind may create an unusual electric charge on the side of the mountain or crater wall; that is, on the inside of the rim directly below the solar wind flow.
Since electrons are over 1,000 times lighter than ions, the lighter electrons in the solar wind rush into a lunar crater or valley ahead of the heavy ions, creating a negatively charged region inside the crater. The ions eventually catch up, but rain into the crater at consistently lower concentrations than that of the electrons. This imbalance in the crater makes the inside walls and floor acquire a negative electric charge. The calculations reveal that the electron/ion separation effect is most extreme on a crater’s leeward edge — along the inside crater wall and at the crater floor nearest the solar wind flow. Along this inner edge, the heavy ions have the greatest difficulty getting to the surface. Compared to the electrons, they act like a tractor-trailer struggling to follow a motorcycle; they just can’t make as sharp a turn over the mountain top as the electrons.
“The electrons build up an electron cloud on this leeward edge of the crater wall and floor, which can create an unusually large negative charge of a few hundred Volts relative to the dense solar wind flowing over the top,” says Farrell.
One more thing to worry about. Could it be discharged with a big aluminum mesh net? Lots of aluminum on the moon…
More Space Access Conference Coverage
I didn’t notice Doug Isbell there, but apparently he was, because he has a report on the conference at Space News. And I haven’t seen much from Leonard David, who I know was there.
Time To Get Serious
It’s really the end of the Shuttle program, Florida. You’ve had six years to prepare. Deal with it.
“We’ve Been There”
While in general I think that the new space policy is a vast improvement over the previous one, it is marred by the disdain that the administration displays toward the moon as a useful goal. Paul Spudis (who else) defends the moon against the foolish arguments opposed to it. There may be good reasons not to go back to the moon, but I haven’t heard any, and “we’ve been there” certainly isn’t one. I know for sure that that I haven’t been there.
Paul also asks, why wait for heavy lift?
This new document indicates that work will proceed on development of a heavy lift launch vehicle, with a decision on what vehicle to build coming in 2015 (note well: not building a vehicle, but making a decision on what vehicle to build). How will our decision on heavy lift be more informed in five years than it is now?
If there’s anyone who doesn’t speak for this administration, it’s me, but my answer is: if we start doing the necessary tech demos for autonomous docking/mating, propellant storage and transfer, we may be informed enough to finally convince everyone except the die-hard Apollo cargo cultists and giant penis enviasts that we don’t need a heavy lift vehicle, at least any larger than natural growth versions of what currently exists.