On 5/20/2019 12:56 PM, wrote:
Developed by the agency's senior human spaceflight manager, Bill
Gerstenmaier, this plan is everything Pence asked for—an urgent human return, a
Moon base, a mix of existing and new contractors."

See:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019...lunar-outpost/


Given the current political climate in DC I'd say this plan is even more
still-born than was Constellation and President Bush's VSE a decade + 5
years ago.

I agree with VP Pence's sense of urgency but it is disingenuous at best
to think that the DC establishment and NASA in particular has the means
or skills today to drive this effort. Making SLS a key component of this
plan just exposes it as the fantasy it is.

I know this is harsh. Too bad. I feel sorry for the senior leadership at
NASA. Their hearts are in the right place, they are good people. They
just don't realize that their methodology belongs to a long lost past
that will not return.

We'd be better served if NASA acted like an investment bank and Congress
gave it the funds necessary to buy the desired end goal with as little
micro-management as possible. That has not been the established paradigm
and is not evident in this work of fiction either.

Dave