Obama's Space Policy

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?

LauraM wrote:

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?

Obviously if he's having Norm Augustine do a review of Constellation
then the program is irreparably broken. Shuttle derived SRB powered
heavy lift is insanely expensive, has a very low flight rate at a very
high cost per flight, the SRBs are toxic, and probability of any one
flight failing is very high. Plus the moon and Mars are idiotically
expensive and unsustainable destinations in the near term - 2016.

Of course he's going to pull the plug, the question is what is he going
to replace it with. Obviously they'll switch to EELVs as a first step,
but my guess is we'll be looking at an equatorial commercial spaceport
serviced in the very near term by a reusable SSME powered EELV derived
launch vehicle, using Ares I upper stage technology, precisely as I have
previously published in my COTS proposal :

http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/

An equatorial spaceport will bring the Star Trek era to low Earth orbit
and can serve as a staging point for the rest of the solar system, which
in any case is Phobos and Deimos, the asteroids and the planet Ceres.

The moon and Mars, not until after 2020, when he'll be out of office.

Nobody in their right mind would continue to support Constellation.

On May 11, 3:45*pm, kT wrote:
LauraM wrote:
A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. *Has anyone heard this?

Obviously if he's having Norm Augustine do a review of Constellation
then the program is irreparably broken. Shuttle derived SRB powered
heavy lift is insanely expensive, has a very low flight rate at a very
high cost per flight, the SRBs are toxic, and probability of any one
flight failing is very high. Plus the moon and Mars are idiotically
expensive and unsustainable destinations in the near term - 2016.

Of course he's going to pull the plug, the question is what is he going
to replace it with. Obviously they'll switch to EELVs as a first step,
but my guess is we'll be looking at an equatorial commercial spaceport
serviced in the very near term by a reusable SSME powered EELV derived
launch vehicle, using Ares I upper stage technology, precisely as I have
previously published in my COTS proposal :

http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/

An equatorial spaceport will bring the Star Trek era to low Earth orbit
and can serve as a staging point for the rest of the solar system, which
in any case is Phobos and Deimos, the asteroids and the planet Ceres.

The moon and Mars, not until after 2020, when he'll be out of office.

Nobody in their right mind would continue to support Constellation.

Perhaps if we outsourced everything to India (ISRO), our moon and Mars
could be accomplished for ten cents on the dollar, and in half the
time none the less.

~ BG

LauraM wrote:
A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?

No.

On Mon, 11 May 2009 15:36:02 -0700, LauraM wrote:

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?

It would be a little bit of good news.

On May 11, 3:36*pm, LauraM wrote:
A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. *Has anyone heard this?

BHO will have to restart our NASA from scratch before we can
accomplish any trillion plus dollar added debt for accommodating that
mission to/from Mars. So, it kind of depends on just how poor-house
broke you intend to make the next few generations.

Can you afford your fair share of an extra trillion in debt, plus
compounded interest?

~ BG

On May 11, 6:51*pm, BradGuth wrote:
On May 11, 3:36*pm, LauraM wrote:

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. *Has anyone heard this?

BHO will have to restart our NASA from scratch before we can
accomplish any trillion plus dollar added debt for accommodating that
mission to/from Mars. *So, it kind of depends on just how poor-house
broke you intend to make the next few generations.

Can you afford your fair share of an extra trillion in debt, plus
compounded interest?

*~ BG

Hey, why not? We're spending like a cash cow anyway...why not get
something out of it for "our grandchildren".

LauraM wrote:
On May 11, 6:51 pm, BradGuth wrote:
On May 11, 3:36 pm, LauraM wrote:

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?
BHO will have to restart our NASA from scratch before we can
accomplish any trillion plus dollar added debt for accommodating that
mission to/from Mars. So, it kind of depends on just how poor-house
broke you intend to make the next few generations.

Can you afford your fair share of an extra trillion in debt, plus
compounded interest?

~ BG

Hey, why not? We're spending like a cash cow anyway...why not get
something out of it for "our grandchildren".

I'm sure they'll enjoy your footprints on Mars while they're huddled in
their pathetic shacks, with 10 billion other dirt poor uneducated fools.

On May 12, 8:26*am, kT wrote:
LauraM wrote:
On May 11, 6:51 pm, BradGuth wrote:
On May 11, 3:36 pm, LauraM wrote:

A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. *Has anyone heard this?
BHO will have to restart our NASA from scratch before we can
accomplish any trillion plus dollar added debt for accommodating that
mission to/from Mars. *So, it kind of depends on just how poor-house
broke you intend to make the next few generations.

Can you afford your fair share of an extra trillion in debt, plus
compounded interest?

*~ BG

Hey, why not? *We're spending like a cash cow anyway...why not get
something out of it for "our grandchildren".

I'm sure they'll enjoy your footprints on Mars while they're huddled in
their pathetic shacks, with 10 billion other dirt poor uneducated fools.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

ROTFL!! I hope you know I was just being very cynical with my humor.
But I have to admit, my footprints are pretty cute. :^)

LauraM wrote:
On May 12, 8:26 am, kT wrote:
LauraM wrote:
On May 11, 6:51 pm, BradGuth wrote:
On May 11, 3:36 pm, LauraM wrote:
A couple of times, on different news shows, I've heard that Obama is
very interested in space ventures and that he may forgo going to the
moon in order to go to Mars. Has anyone heard this?
BHO will have to restart our NASA from scratch before we can
accomplish any trillion plus dollar added debt for accommodating that
mission to/from Mars. So, it kind of depends on just how poor-house
broke you intend to make the next few generations.
Can you afford your fair share of an extra trillion in debt, plus
compounded interest?
~ BG
Hey, why not? We're spending like a cash cow anyway...why not get
something out of it for "our grandchildren".
I'm sure they'll enjoy your footprints on Mars while they're huddled in
their pathetic shacks, with 10 billion other dirt poor uneducated fools.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

ROTFL!! I hope you know I was just being very cynical with my humor.
But I have to admit, my footprints are pretty cute. :^)

As long as you don't place it on my butt, I'm ok with that.

Maybe in 10 million years someone will find your lovely footprint
fossilized in mud, that's a lot more probable than finding it on Mars.