Re: NASA moon trip video

Wesley Struebing (strueb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:
On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 06:37:44 +0000 (UTC), dg411@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(Andre Lieven) wrote:

Wesley Struebing (strueb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) writes:
On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 02:31:51 +0000 (UTC), dg411@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<snip>

(and, please, that is NOT taking away from the planetary probes. I
think they are wonderful and useful science. But I also firmly
believe that mankind MUST "go out there")

Indeed. But that has nothing to do with NASA, which has no interest
in sending up anyone other than their employees and whoever else
they can be pushed to vet. Note that they opposed any paying
passengers flying a Soyuz to the ISS even entering US controlled
ISS modules.

Oh, agreed. I wasn't necessarily tying that part of it to NASA in
particular, but in this country, for the time-being, it's NASA or
nothing.

Indeed. Which means, for the purposes of any members of the non-
NASA-employee public, its... nothing.

Hoping that such will change with the awakening of interest and
capital from private industry...

See my other post on this point. Its worth noting that, even in the
50s, when Boeing developed the 707 out of the militarily paid for
KC-135, doing so in the civilian market was betting the whole
company on the thing.

Now, try that in the modern 24/7 financial teevee networks, a
widely owned stock market, and NO payoffs for at leats a decade...

(and I firmly believe that a good part of NASA's reluctance is the
brow-beating it has been taking for many years about manned
spaceflight, and the funding (or lack thereof) for such.)

NASA is caught between several opposing forces. One, major
projects, not all of them manned, carry a political risk, such
that screwing up several of them ( Lower threshold in manned
flight instances ) carries the threat of major cutbacks/firings/
end of NASA. No NASA successes can offer a countervailing
reward that can mitigate such an ongoing political and PR risk.

Next, NASA got comfy with the 60s budgets, and has never
grasped that they're never going to return, and that those
who pass the budgets, do not care what technological risks
that such shrunken budgets politically force upon NASA.

Next, NASA's internal mindset is that of a research
organisation, like the NACA that NASA was built from.
When it comes to routine, repeated operational mission
ops, they're not very good at it. Researchers don't
tend to have to consider and understand production
lines. And, thats fine when it comes to flying one or
two space probes of any given design. Thats not fine
when it comes to trying to operate what amounts to a
regularly scheduled airline, for non-test pilots.

If you want a more detailed history of these issues,
I would recommend reading "... the Heavens and the
Earth; A Political History of the Space Age ", by
Walter McDougall and " Lost In Space; The Fall Of
NASA And The Dream Of A New Space Age ", by Greg
Klerkx.

Andre


.

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