Gerst is showing this chart at the NAC meeting today.
He’s saying he doesn’t have to make decisions about Phobos versus orbit versus surface until 2020.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Here are the solar electric options.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Lois Lerner’s Hard Drive
The curious case of the physical damage to it:
TIGTA’s testimony states that the laptop as a whole appeared undamaged. When Lerner’s laptop was first inspected by both an assigned IT specialist and Hewlett Packard contractor they both stated that “they did not note any visible damage to the laptop computer itself.”
The testimony does not speculate how the hard drive was “scored” while the computer itself remained visibly undamaged. However, given these facts it seems logical to question what — or who — caused the damage to the hard drive.
Hey, “accidents” will happen.
The F-35
I haven’t been following the fiasco that closely, but Richard Fernandez has some thoughts:
The reality of modern day information combat is that China can win a war without killing a single person or disrupting a single reality TV show. What if America could lose World War 3 and not even know it, especially if it relies on its politicians to tell it an attack has occurred.
Sadly true.
The Commercial Crew Budget
Jeff Foust has the story from yesterday’s NASA Advisory Council meeting on the issues.
[Update a few minutes later]
Congress: "Comm Crew behind schedule, cut the budget!' "SLS/Orion behind schedule, increase the budget!" http://t.co/hsyGdq7uxi
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 29, 2015
The New Lunar Plan
I missed this on Monday, but Jeff Foust has a report on last week’s announcement. A lot of comments there, including the usual ignorance from Marcel Williams.
SpaceShipTwo’s Final Moments
Spaceflight Now has the video released by the NTSB.
[Update a while later]
Wayne Hale: Pilot error is never the root cause.
[Afternoon update]
Dough Messier has broken down the crucial seconds frame by frame.
Blood Vessels
Some evidence that they can actually improve with age. Interesting.
NASA Advisory Council, Day Two
I’m going to switch from listening to NTSB meeting to hear the status on exploration systems at 9 AM PDT. Phil McAlister will be discussing Commercial Crew status later this morning. I would note that in this morning’s meeting in the House, Chairman Culberson was very enthusiastic (as expected) about the Europa mission, but he still insanely imagines that SLS is the solution to it.
The NTSB Meeting On SpaceShipTwo
I’m listening in live now, but Leonard David already has a story up.
[Update a few minutes later]
Doug Messier has the executive summary. Full report won’t be available for a couple weeks.
[Update a while later]
Temporary adjournment to wordsmith final findings. Sumwalt wants to make clear that while it was pilot error (Finding 1), it was an institutional failure at Scaled that made it possible for such an error to be catastrophic. There also seems to be some (IMO, undue) criticism of FAA-AST, and talk of “political pressure” to prematurely issue licenses/waivers. People (including NTSB) need to understand that AST currently has no statutory authority to regulate safety of the spaceflight participants, including crew, and they are chronically under-resourced to carry out the responsibilities that they are authorized to do. In fact, George should be careful what he wishes for, because if the learning period expires this fall, he still won’t have the budget he needs to expand his authority.
One thing that’s not clear yet (to me): If part of the problem was inability to read instruments due to vibration under thrust. If there was a digital readout, that (and other critical information) should be replaced with an actual Mach meter.
[Late-afternoon update]
Here‘s Jeff Foust’s report.
Light Posting
I’ve been on a telecon all day on the NASA Advisory Council meeting at JPL. Some very interesting discussion on launch and technology issues. I’m generally impressed with the tech plans, except for the absence of serious ISRU.