|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Question About Probes
"Chris Marriott" wrote in message
... "David Nakamoto" wrote in message ... If we have any national will to do space exploration right, we NEED both a truly reusable shuttle AND a set of medium to heavy lift expendibles. "We" (ie we Europeans) do have a heavy lift capability - Ariane 5, which has something like a 70% world-wide market share of the commercial launch business :-) Don't you think that it's a bit silly to bring "nationalism" into space exploration? Shouldn't "we" - the entire human race - be working together to achieve it, rather than talking about things like "national will"? Regards, Chris Sorry, but I was under the influence of George Bush there, but I got him exorcised for now, so I'm feeling a lot better now. ^_^ But there are good arguments for both sides of cooperation. While it should reduce the cost for all parties involved and make things possible that a single nation might find impossible or just difficult to do, it does carry the danger because changing national priorities. The Europeans have gotten burned on several NASA/European atempted collaborations in the past, thanks mainly to congressional spending packages that trimmed NASA's budget yet again (and again, and . . . ). And speaking of Arianne 5, an instrument I worked on got grounded along with the rest of the spacecraft when the Europeans finally admitted that there might be something wrong with the booster. That could have stopped the spacecraft right then and there, because it wasn't clear that NASA wanted to fund any sort of delay, and pulling out would have meant the spacecraft stays on the ground forever. I feel that once space exploration becomes more of a front-burner item than it is right now, for all governments involved, cooperation will be a better proposition, but for right now the situation is too politically shifty for this to work more often than not, based on my own experience working at JPL. |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Question About Probes
I think your goals and heart are in the right place, but in the real
world reducing competition in order to design something very rarely works to produce better products or lower costs. There is the argument to make about short term competitive waste, but in the long term competition is extremely healthy in developing technology and making it affordable. IBM needed a substantial competitive kick in the backside before it designed its PC. And if the government were in charge of developing and producing automobiles, we'd all be driving Trabi's and Lada's. Or horse buggies. I'm more concerned with the current government monopoly on the control of space exploration than I am about competition that may or may not be driven by nationalism. NASA, like all large bureaucratic monopolies, suffers from the rigor mortis of its "lifer" managerial class, forced to lick the boots of political appointees. I'm not unaware of the risks of unfettered capitalism in the race for space, but there should be some way that business and government can work in a more productive, free and cost effective manner than they do now. Cheers, Chris Chris Marriott wrote: Reading that last message, it doesn't say what I meant to say. Let's have another go... What I was trying to say is wouldn't it be more sensible for countries to cooperate in space exploration, rather than trying to "compete" for an out-moded concept of "nationalism"? The cold war is long, long over! ie, given that ESA has an excellent heavy lift vehicle in the form of Ariane 5, what would be the point of the US spending enormous sums of money to develop its own heavy lift capability? Would it not be more sensible to have international collaboration and (for example) the US to develop payloads for launch on ESA's launch vehicle? Regards, Chris |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Search for ET Probes | Hobbs aka McDaniel | SETI | 14 | February 6th 04 06:49 PM |
Moon key to space future? | James White | Policy | 90 | January 6th 04 04:29 PM |
ODDS AGAINST EVOLUTION (You listenin', t.o.?) | Lord Blacklight | Astronomy Misc | 56 | November 21st 03 02:45 PM |
"The Eagle has landed" NOT! | Mark McIntyre | Astronomy Misc | 1 | August 16th 03 02:08 AM |
PX question | Bored Huge Krill | Astronomy Misc | 4 | August 10th 03 02:54 AM |