NASA's future post Columbia

h (Rand Simberg) wrote in message . ..
On 28 Aug 2003 17:29:16 -0700, in a place far, far away,
(Al Jackson) made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

Everyone at the moment is considering what NASA should be doing
post-columbia. With Mars at its closest approach in 60000 years, shining
brightly overhead - is it really so hard to put two and two together?

NASA should be invading New Jersey?

Hmm, that would certainly explain all the new Social Security numbers being
issued in Grover's Mill.

What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

Errrmmm...

No. Have you ever read any H. G. Wells?

Have you ever heard of Orson Welles?

"Al Jackson" wrote in message
om...

Have you ever heard of Orson Welles?

"No man is an island.... but he came damn close."





























Rosebud

Robert Casey wrote in message ...
NASA should be invading New Jersey?

Maybe NASA can fix the car insurance situation here in NJ. Nobody else has
been able to.

Clearly, NASA needs a gecko guiding them. ;-)



"No sex,no drugs, no wine,
No women, no fun, no sin.
No you-know-when until it's dark.
Everyone around me is a total stranger,
Everyone avoids me like a Cyclone Ranger."

- "Turning Japanese" by the Vapours

Paul F. Dietz wrote:
Al Jackson wrote:
What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

No matter where you go, there we are.

Warning, John Schilling, the humans are onto us.
Is your transport pod ready?


-george william herbert

h (Rand Simberg) wrote in message . ..
On 29 Aug 2003 05:52:49 -0700, in a place far, far away,
(Al Jackson) made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

Errrmmm...

No. Have you ever read any H. G. Wells?

Have you ever heard of Orson Welles?

Yes.

Good, now you can connect the dots.

(George William Herbert) writes:

Paul F. Dietz wrote:
Al Jackson wrote:
What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

No matter where you go, there we are.

Warning, John Schilling, the humans are onto us.
Is your transport pod ready?

I will categorically state for the record that I have met both
George and John in person, and that for all intents and purposes
they look perfectly human.

(There. That ought to keep them lulled for a while).

--
Phil Fraering
home page: http://thenostromo.com/pgf/weblog/

(George William Herbert) writes:

Paul F. Dietz wrote:
Al Jackson wrote:
What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

No matter where you go, there we are.

Warning, John Schilling, the humans are onto us.
Is your transport pod ready?



Yes, but the overthruster is on back order, and YoyoDyne is
being entirely unhelpful. I'll have to ask John Carmack if
he has a spare.


--
*John Schilling * "Anything worth doing, *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP * is worth doing for money" *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner * -13th Rule of Acquisition *
*White Elephant Research, LLC * "There is no substitute *
* for success" *
*661-951-9107 or 661-275-6795 * -58th Rule of Acquisition *

"Joann Evans" wrote in message
...
Blurrt wrote:

Everyone at the moment is considering what NASA should be doing
post-columbia. With Mars at its closest approach in 60000 years, shining
brightly overhead - is it really so hard to put two and two together?

Nathan Rogers

Not when that two and two are billions of dollars.

Mars is cool at the moment (and comes almost as close, *much* more
often), but convince Congress to spend the money (at a time when Federal
pay raises are being reduced, to pay for rebuilding Iraq), and NASA
would *love* to do another big manned space project.

But do not hold your breath while waiting.

Others will argue (and reasonably) that an agency that can't even get
to Low Earth Orbit with sufficent safety, can't be trusted to go to
Mars....



Billions of dollars spent on expanding the frontier is better than billions
of dollars going up and down for the sake of it. Risking life on a mars
mission is much more worthwhile than risking it in Earth Orbit. NASA needs
to get out of the earth-to-orbit business all together. It needs to say to
the aerospace industry - "design us a vehicle that can do what the shuttle
does for less than $100m per flight and we will award a four flight per year
ten year contract to the cheapest, safest design that is ready within five
years".

Blurrt

Blurrt wrote:

"Joann Evans" wrote in message
...
Blurrt wrote:

Everyone at the moment is considering what NASA should be doing
post-columbia. With Mars at its closest approach in 60000 years, shining
brightly overhead - is it really so hard to put two and two together?

Nathan Rogers

Not when that two and two are billions of dollars.

Mars is cool at the moment (and comes almost as close, *much* more
often), but convince Congress to spend the money (at a time when Federal
pay raises are being reduced, to pay for rebuilding Iraq), and NASA
would *love* to do another big manned space project.

But do not hold your breath while waiting.

Others will argue (and reasonably) that an agency that can't even get
to Low Earth Orbit with sufficent safety, can't be trusted to go to
Mars....


Billions of dollars spent on expanding the frontier is better than billions
of dollars going up and down for the sake of it. Risking life on a mars
mission is much more worthwhile than risking it in Earth Orbit. NASA needs
to get out of the earth-to-orbit business all together. It needs to say to
the aerospace industry - "design us a vehicle that can do what the shuttle
does for less than $100m per flight and we will award a four flight per year
ten year contract to the cheapest, safest design that is ready within five
years".

Blurrt

Not quite. Get such a vehicle (and pay not one cent until it's
undergone numerous test flights, just as you would in comercial aircraft
development) and then NASA can simply buy whatever number of units it
needs, outright. (just like the 747 and T-38s they operate)

And so could anyone else, government agency or not.

Phil Fraering pgf@AUTO writes:

(George William Herbert) writes:

Paul F. Dietz wrote:
Al Jackson wrote:
What the heck is going on!
We have 3 or is it 4 Buckaroo Banzai fans posting here!!?

No matter where you go, there we are.

Warning, John Schilling, the humans are onto us.
Is your transport pod ready?

I will categorically state for the record that I have met both
George and John in person, and that for all intents and purposes
they look perfectly human.


That's just because the field electroshock treatment never was all
that reliable - you should have *told* us you still weren't seeing
clearly. Fortunately, we don't do that any more. Some guy named
"Nada" sold us a crate of fancy sunglasses, said he didn't need them
any more. They work much better, there are no lingering migranes,
and they're stylish to boot. We'll get a pair out to you ASAP.


--
*John Schilling * "Anything worth doing, *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP * is worth doing for money" *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner * -13th Rule of Acquisition *
*White Elephant Research, LLC * "There is no substitute *
* for success" *
*661-951-9107 or 661-275-6795 * -58th Rule of Acquisition *