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.

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, 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

"Hipupchuck" wrote in message
...
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?

We should run the Mar exploration operation from a moon base. We could get
much bigger ships off the ground from there.

Which first we have to build. Which basically means lifting up a lot of
mass to the Moon in the first place.

Probably a lot simpler to build them at LEO first.



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

:"Hipupchuck" wrote in message
m...
: 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?
:
: We should run the Mar exploration operation from a moon base. We could get
: much bigger ships off the ground from there.
:
:Which first we have to build. Which basically means lifting up a lot of
:mass to the Moon in the first place.
:
:Probably a lot simpler to build them at LEO first.
:

All depends on how fast you think you need to go there. If you can't
wait, then 'flags and footprints' direct from the Earth are the order
of the day. If, on the other hand, you're looking for something more
sustainable, I would suggest that you need to get a sufficient
presence on the Moon to be doing manufacture of structures there. It
saves you lots of mass budget if you can make most of your structure
out of stuff smelted on the Moon.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw

On May 11, 7:08*pm, Hipupchuck 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?

We should run the Mar exploration operation from a moon base. We could
get much bigger ships off the ground from there.

Far better yet from the Selene L1, whereas unlimited volume and mass
can be launched on it's way towards Mars with hardly any energy (a few
watts would do the trick per 1000 tonne payload).

You do know this, don't you?

~ BG

On May 11, 8:43*pm, Fred J. McCall wrote:
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

:"Hipupchuck" wrote in message

m...: 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?
:
: We should run the Mar exploration operation from a moon base. We could get
: much bigger ships off the ground from there.
:
:Which first we have to build. *Which basically means lifting up a lot of
:mass to the Moon in the first place.
:
:Probably a lot simpler to build them at LEO first.
:

All depends on how fast you think you need to go there. *If you can't
wait, then 'flags and footprints' direct from the Earth are the order
of the day. *If, on the other hand, you're looking for something more
sustainable, I would suggest that you need to get a sufficient
presence on the Moon to be doing manufacture of structures there. *It
saves you lots of mass budget if you can make most of your structure
out of stuff smelted on the Moon.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
*man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
*all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --George Bernard Shaw

And you are obfuscating by way of avoiding the Selene/moon L1 because?

~ BG