Time to Reconsider the Entire Purpose of Nasa

Ground the Shuttle forever!


As of now the 'Nasa Dream', as envisioned by our
elected leaders, is a grand plan for colonizing Mars.

I would say most people would agree that such a vision is
well...nice. It'd be 'neat and all' they'd say.
But this lofty goal doesn't show the public much
tangible return for the enormous time and effort.
So it doesn't inspire and move the American people
since the idea is limited only to pure exploration, and
not balanced with real world needs.

I suggest an entirely different vision for Nasa.

The greatest threats to humanity in this century is energy, pollution
and climate change. Dependence on fossil fuels is the
elephant in the room.

Space Solar Power
http://spacesolarpower.nasa.gov/

But if the 'dream' were instead to turn America into the next
'Saudi Arabia' for the rest of this century, the public
would be galvanized. As such a goal would provide
clear benefits, it would be certain to immediately 'dazzle the eye'
of almost everyone. And this goal would be balanced with hope
and discovery as unlimited energy would dramatically
improve billions of lives, most yet to be born.

Nasa needs a reliable transportation system.

Nasa needs a large platform in space
..
Nasa needs to be able to build large structures in space.

So that solar power could ...RAIN DOWN...
from the sky as our tv signals do now.

Everything else Nasa does...everything... must be
considered a luxury only afforded after our future
has been secured. Colonizing Mars does NOT
secure our future. Even a child could tell you so.

I'd be content if this is the last shuttle flight so that
a replacement would become urgent. And so Nasa
has the time to think about something other than
....loose ground wires....


Jonathan


s

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

Ground the Shuttle forever!


That's a heartbreaking line.

---------------------------------------------
DW

"Darkwing (Official Disinformation Agent of Usenet)" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote
in message ...

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

Ground the Shuttle forever!


That's a heartbreaking line.


Sorry~

But I think Nasa's aspirations and infrastructure are drifting away
from it. All the way 'round Nasa seems....Lost in Space!

Sorry again~

Incremental change cannot go on forever. Nasa needs a new goal.
A ..single... goal that is a balance between awe ..and... tangible rewards.

Any goal that is limited to only one of those extremes is not
only unwise but doomed.



Jonathan

s









---------------------------------------------
DW

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 22:30:07 -0400, "jonathan"
wrote:
Ground the Shuttle forever!

As of now the 'Nasa Dream', as envisioned by our
elected leaders, is a grand plan for colonizing Mars.

I would say most people would agree that such a vision is
well...nice. It'd be 'neat and all' they'd say.
But this lofty goal doesn't show the public much
tangible return for the enormous time and effort.
So it doesn't inspire and move the American people
since the idea is limited only to pure exploration, and
not balanced with real world needs.

I suggest an entirely different vision for Nasa.

The greatest threats to humanity in this century is energy, pollution
and climate change. Dependence on fossil fuels is the
elephant in the room.

Space Solar Power
http://spacesolarpower.nasa.gov/

Don't believe the NASA hype machine. It gave us the Shuttle, and
NASP, and VentureStar, and ...

You want solar power? It's far cheaper to do on the ground.

Frankly, they should strongly consider dismantling the human
spaceflight program. I don't see what purpose the government has
running one. If private enterprise can make money on space tourism,
great, but don't subsidize it with tax dollars.

--
Robb McLeod )
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a work station...

"Darkwing (Official Disinformation Agent of Usenet)"
theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote in message
...

"jonathan" wrote in message
...

Ground the Shuttle forever!


That's a heartbreaking line.


More like 'brainbroken'.

Darkwing (Official Disinformation Agent of Usenet) wrote:



Ground the Shuttle forever!




That's a heartbreaking line.





We might have gotten lucky here- we just got a big warning that it still
isn't safe despite our fixes, but we didn't (although I'll be happier
when they are back on the ground, safe and sound) lose a crew in the
process.
NASA was already discussing cutting the total flights to fifteen, and
retiring one orbiter in 2007- this could speed that slow retirement up,
but again it's preferable to ending up with another Columbia-type
incident on our hands, which would mean the quick exit of Griffin, and
complete chaos for any future manned flight plans- that could have
nailed the whole future space initiative in one fell swoop.
We've been looking for a polite way to get out of the ISS debacle, and
now we have the perfect excuse to do that while saving face.
If the Shuttle gets grounded permanently, we free up 14 flights worth of
NASA funds (and at around $600 million per flight, that's over eight
billion dollars), and can immediately start redesigning the pads for the
unmanned SDV cargo carrier and the Stick/SEV. We can use all the
existing SSMEs for the SDV and downsize the labor force at NASA since we
don't have to do the between-flight inspection and refurbishment of the
orbiters anymore- which will save money both in the short and long term.
Other than the fact we now almost certainly lose Hubble, this actually
could be a very good thing to happen for future space exploration.
The Shuttle had a great "gee-whizz" factor about it, but it's never been
anywhere as safe as it was intended to be, had a hard time launching on
schedule, and wasn't at all effective in the pound-to-LEO cost
competition against other unmanned systems.
It was an interesting experiment, and a marvel of engineering...like the
rigid passenger airship.
Let's start building some Ford Trimotors.

Pat

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 01:56:06 -0500, Pat Flannery wrote:

We've been looking for a polite way to get out of the ISS debacle, and
now we have the perfect excuse to do that while saving face.

Wow, we've come a long way since Sputnik. Giving up, rather than
meeting engineering challenges, is now a way of "saving face".

If the Shuttle gets grounded permanently, we free up 14 flights worth of
NASA funds (and at around $600 million per flight, that's over eight
billion dollars), and can immediately start redesigning the pads for the
unmanned SDV cargo carrier and the Stick/SEV.

Can you design pads for vehicles while they're still pretty much in the
concept phase?

Dale

Robb McLeod wrote:
You want solar power? It's far cheaper to do on the ground.

But there's far more of it in space, and it's far more reliable: it
doesn't go out at night, just to give one obvious example.

The benefits are significant: unfortunately, so are the costs.

Mark

I think you're right on calling the shuttle the equivalent of the
Zeppelin. While I don't think that winged spacecraft are an
evolutionary dead end, the current iteration of the space shuttle is.
I like the idea of canceling the shuttle and getting right to work on
the CEV/SDV right now instead of waiting for 5 years. We all know that
the next gen vehicle will fall behind schedule and over budget, so why
not give it a 5 year head start? Making lemonade from lemons.

Gene DiGennaro

Baltimore, Md.

In article ,
"jonathan" wrote:

As of now the 'Nasa Dream', as envisioned by our
elected leaders, is a grand plan for colonizing Mars.

No it's not. Dare I add, don't be ridiculous.

The greatest threats to humanity in this century is energy, pollution
and climate change. Dependence on fossil fuels is the
elephant in the room.

I agree with you there.

Space Solar Power
http://spacesolarpower.nasa.gov/

I agree with the importance of this too. But your whole essay got off
on the wrong foot by the ridiculous strawman at the beginning.

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