LockMart Wins CEV Contract - NASAWATCH

Rand Simberg wrote:
On Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:57:27 GMT, in a place far, far away, Monte
Davis made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

(Henry Spencer) wrote:

The world of manifest destiny and wide-eyed dreams is also
a world of competing private projects on tight budgets

And, inevitably, considerable duplication of effort as the corollary
of something good: many innovators trying different solutions.

That's how capitalism works. Having two gas stations across the
street from each other is obviously "duplication of effort."
Socialists see it as waste--capitalists see it as competition. Guess
which view generates more wealth, and plunges more prices...

That's how new ideas develop, be it private or public. When there are
lots of ideas, interest and money, there are new rockets, new gas
stations and dot-com companies. When enthusiasm wanes, programs are cut
back, stations close and companies fold.
Having several programs just means there is as yet no clearly best way
to do it, but there is enough money to try anything.

John Halpenny

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
That's how capitalism works. Having two gas stations across the
street from each other is obviously "duplication of effort."
Socialists see it as waste--capitalists see it as competition. Guess
which view generates more wealth, and plunges more prices...

I know a guy at work who cringes when I order something online. He goes on
and on about how globally inefficient it is for a company like Amazon to
ship books all over the globe by, of all things, FedEx, UPS, and even the
USPS! It would be far more efficient for me to shop at the local bookstores
and take advantage of their globally more efficient distribution system...

Too bad the local bookstores never carry the, admittedly obscure, books I
need to do my freaking job! I could waste my time trying to track these
things down locally, but why when I can get the book I need in my hands
usually by the next business day if I pay for overnight shipping?

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
That's how capitalism works. Having two gas stations across the
street from each other is obviously "duplication of effort."
Socialists see it as waste--capitalists see it as competition. Guess
which view generates more wealth, and plunges more prices...

I know a guy at work who cringes when I order something online. He goes
on and on about how globally inefficient it is for a company like Amazon
to ship books all over the globe by, of all things, FedEx, UPS, and even
the USPS! It would be far more efficient for me to shop at the local
bookstores and take advantage of their globally more efficient
distribution system...


Huh, and how does he think the bookstores get their books? They magically
appear on the shelves?

"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...
I know a guy at work who cringes when I order something online. He goes
on and on about how globally inefficient it is for a company like Amazon
to ship books all over the globe by, of all things, FedEx, UPS, and even
the USPS! It would be far more efficient for me to shop at the local
bookstores and take advantage of their globally more efficient
distribution system...

Huh, and how does he think the bookstores get their books? They magically
appear on the shelves?

No, but he feels that they're shipped by more fuel efficient means than by
overnight air. He does have a point there. If I always paid for ground
shipping, the fuel usage would be lower.

The part he's missing is that those thousands of bookstores are themselves
largely inefficient. Trying to locally stock thousands of books and
expecting them to be an exact match for local demand is wishful thinking.
In the end, the books that don't sell are either given a steep discount to
move them off the shelves, or they're shipped back to a warehouse where
they're sold to book liquidation stores, shipped to their warehouse, and
finally shipped to local discount stores where they're sold at a steep
discount.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

Rusty wrote:

LockMart Wins CEV Contract - NASAWATCH

http://www.nasawatch.com/

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/new...thewritestuff/

-Rusty
Looks like lockmart is getting all available aerospace bound taxpayers
money. After awarding all military planes contracts to lockeed is the
government trying to kill the competition in the space arena too? Aviation
Week states that the choice was made because "they promised to fly sooner".
LOL. That reminds me of the ATF competition when YF-22 was selected
because "closer to production standard". 15 years later USAF fielded their
first operational F-22. A promise is just a promise, should not be among
selection criteria. So American taxpayers will pay 8 billions for a scaled
up Apollo replica. One would say: let's choose the ones who made the
original hardware. Nope. Let's choose lockmart design whose "only
resemblance to the original Apollo CM stops at the service module". In fact
it is solar powered and it's arrays are shaped like round pizza pans
instead of long rectangles. I am astounded by the courage shown in this
incredible innovation.

In article ,
Stefano wrote:
...One would say: let's choose the ones who made the
original hardware. Nope...

Not an option. North American Aviation is gone, and so are almost all of
its people -- certainly all of the ones who had high-level design roles,
since they were mostly fairly senior even then.

Its corporate heirs have very little connection with the 1960s company.

Let's choose lockmart design whose "only
resemblance to the original Apollo CM stops at the service module".

As has been noted already, the top marks in the Apollo CM competition went
to Martin Corporation, the Mart in LockMart.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:15:56 +0200, Stefano
wrote:

That reminds me of the ATF competition when YF-22 was selected
because "closer to production standard".

....Read: "It doesn't look as cool as the YF-23". I'm still convinced
the Air Farce should have found a way to secure both planes, because
both were superior designs.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:15:56 +0200, Stefano
wrote:

Nope. Let's choose lockmart design whose "only
resemblance to the original Apollo CM stops at the service module". In fact
it is solar powered and it's arrays are shaped like round pizza pans
instead of long rectangles. I am astounded by the courage shown in this
incredible innovation.

....Mark my words: those solar arrays will be rectangular by the time
the first test article gets launched.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 06:15:31 -0500, OM
wrote:


...Mark my words: those solar arrays will be rectangular by the time
the first test article gets launched.

AvWeek said something about the pizza-pan arrays being more stable in
maneuvers, so maybe not.

Brian

Brian Thorn wrote:
On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 06:15:31 -0500, OM
wrote:


...Mark my words: those solar arrays will be rectangular by the time
the first test article gets launched.

AvWeek said something about the pizza-pan arrays being more stable in
maneuvers, so maybe not.

Brian

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/co..._contract.html



Lockmart is building the Mars 2007 Phoenix lander. Guess the shape of
the solar arrays.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/multi...ander_nobg.jpg

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/multi...=1&image_id=32

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/techn...spacecraft.php


Rusty