No room for Star Trek mentality that destroys lives

Star Trek was(is??) a wonderful show based on DRAMA, which details a
solo mission of a space craft. In the real world however, we don't
condone scuba divers diving alone, but in a minimum of pairs.

In the real world of life support realities, space exploration will
have to be accomplished in a minimum of pairs, if not fleets of
spacecraft. The costs of playing to the "drama" mentality are clear
if we do not observe such nuances.

If we can't afford to do that, then we need to figure out what the
problem(s) are, perhaps we are not ready for space exploration in very
ambitious terms.

I expect NASA officials to live in the real world, not Hollywood
(which has to create drama to keep folks entertained).

"stargazer" wrote in message
om...

Google does it yet again...


--
Alan Erskine
alanerskine(at)optusnet.com.au

Iraq - America's new Vietnam?

"stargazer" wrote in message
om...
Star Trek was(is??) a wonderful show based on DRAMA, which details a
solo mission of a space craft. In the real world however, we don't
condone scuba divers diving alone, but in a minimum of pairs.

In the real world of life support realities, space exploration will
have to be accomplished in a minimum of pairs, if not fleets of
spacecraft. The costs of playing to the "drama" mentality are clear
if we do not observe such nuances.

If we can't afford to do that, then we need to figure out what the
problem(s) are, perhaps we are not ready for space exploration in very
ambitious terms.

I expect NASA officials to live in the real world, not Hollywood
(which has to create drama to keep folks entertained).


You so funny!!!

"stargazer" wrote in message
om...
Star Trek was(is??) a wonderful show based on DRAMA, which details a
solo mission of a space craft. In the real world however, we don't
condone scuba divers diving alone, but in a minimum of pairs.

You're right. I mean after all major aircraft and water craft never operate
alone.

Why I can't think of the last time I didn't hear about SSN's and SSBN's
travelling in pairs.

It's so obvious.



In the real world of life support realities, space exploration will
have to be accomplished in a minimum of pairs, if not fleets of
spacecraft. The costs of playing to the "drama" mentality are clear
if we do not observe such nuances.

If we can't afford to do that, then we need to figure out what the
problem(s) are, perhaps we are not ready for space exploration in very
ambitious terms.

I expect NASA officials to live in the real world, not Hollywood
(which has to create drama to keep folks entertained).

Von Braun was an advocate of the *space armada* paradigm (see his 1952 book
*The Mars Project*) because of his concern over risk. But von Braun was a
very risk averse person (Keith Glennan, the first NASA Administrator,
remarked that von Braun was the most conservative engineer he had ever met).

When I worked on the ill-fated and somewhat hokey Space Exploration
Initiative (SEI) in 1989-91, NASA and the SEI contractors dragged these old
Mars armada concepts out of filing cabinet, dusted them off, and used them
to back up the cost estimate for the manned Mars effort, $400-500B in
today's dollar. This, of course, was a strategy designed to kill the SEI
since NASA had more than enough on its manned spaceflight plate with the
post-Challenger return-to-flight of the shuttle, NASP and the nearly
terminally ill Space Station Freedom (SSF) program. The last thing Dick
Truly, the NASA Administrator at that time, wanted was another humongous
program like a manned Mars project eating up his already overly stretched
manned spaceflight budget. No surprise that SEI bit the dust in early 1993
when Clinton squashed it.

During the last years of the 20th century, NASA became fixated on Bob
Zubrin's Mars Direct paradigm, which is the direct opposite of a space
armada concept. Mars Direct is more like Apollo in that single spacecraft,
alternately manned and unmanned, are used on a series of missions spaced 26
months apart with the goal of eventually building up a chain of manned bases
on the Martian surface. JSC estimates that the first three Mars Direct
missions (unmanned, manned, unmanned) to the Martian surface could be done
for $50-60B in today's dollars, about half of the $102B cost of Apollo.

See Chapter 52 of my book on U.S. manned spaceflight in the 20th century for
more info on this fascinating subject.

Later
Ray Schmitt





"stargazer" wrote in message
om...
Star Trek was(is??) a wonderful show based on DRAMA, which details a
solo mission of a space craft. In the real world however, we don't
condone scuba divers diving alone, but in a minimum of pairs.

In the real world of life support realities, space exploration will
have to be accomplished in a minimum of pairs, if not fleets of
spacecraft. The costs of playing to the "drama" mentality are clear
if we do not observe such nuances.

If we can't afford to do that, then we need to figure out what the
problem(s) are, perhaps we are not ready for space exploration in very
ambitious terms.

I expect NASA officials to live in the real world, not Hollywood
(which has to create drama to keep folks entertained).