Comments on: Foundation Urges Support for New NASA Space Plan

By: cookware reviews

cookware reviews — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:51:28 +0000

Hopefully the budget received will be used to good use.

By: D-Day for NewSpace, The House Front

D-Day for NewSpace, The House Front — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:26:22 +0000

[...] your space frontier future, just to preserve the Space-States’ status quo. Contrary to the White House’s request and recommendations of the Augustine Commission, Representative Bart Gordon’s proposed NASA [...]

By: The Constellation Hallucination

The Constellation Hallucination — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:29:33 +0000

[...] and will begin to see the true hope of what can be — if we exercise common sense and implement the plan before us. Yes, they have a few more tricks and poison pills up their sleeves (anyone want to buy an Orion [...]

By: Gary Oleson

Gary Oleson — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:51:21 +0000

The Orion CRV might provide some interesting economies of scale. As I understand it, the limit of two Soyuz at ISS imposes a hard limit of 6 on the crew size. An Orion with, say, 6 seats plus a Soyuz would raise that limit to 9. Then the crew limit would be set by things like power, volume, and life support that can be added in increments. (Does anyone know what the current ISS configuration could support without the CRV limitation?)

What makes this more interesting is that it takes about 3 crew to do maintenance & operations on ISS, so a crew of 6 really has only 3 free to do R&D or other value-producing activities. A crew of 7 would have one third more capability than a crew of 6, and a crew of 9 would have twice the capability. This makes an Orion CRV a very good investment even if it isn't developed later into the basis for a deep space craft.

By: VictorSmith

VictorSmith — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:04:43 +0000

The fact that NASA and the government are finally acknowledging, and actually promoting private space efforts is a major change in policy. This alone will result in more positive change and actual accomplishment on the space COLONIZATION front than any amount of NASAs runarounds. The X-Prizes started the ball rolling, getting NewSpace companies into suborbital flight, and, now with the Lunar X-Prize, involved with lunar landing and return. With the nod of the administration toward promoting NewSpace companies as one of the major players in providing LEO transport to and from the ISS, including at least a modicum of funding, I fully expect to see a greatly increased civilian presence in space. Given an opening, private sector aerospace companies are ready and willing to leap into the breach. Many, if not all, of the NewSpace companies share our vision of a spacefaring society and have been figuratively chomping at the bit to get any sort of official sanction, let alone funding, to help facilitate their programs. I believe that once we have private spacecraft regularly achieving LEO we will see a greatly accelerated program of industrialization in space, regardless of stated governmental goals. Once private industrialization of space begins in earnest we will see people living and working in space which will lead naturally to private missions to the Near Earth Asteroids, Luna and the Lagrange points for both profit and colonization.

By: red

red — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:59:27 +0000

"But my point is that it will require in the low billions, not millions, to build such a vehicle. That isn't forthcoming…"

Actually the 2011 NASA budget proposal includes $5.8B for commercial crew transport, so your low billions figure is met. That doesn't include whatever funds commercial vendors have to pitch in as "skin in the game".

Commercial crew already got a $50M CCDEV down payment.

The budget also includes $312M to enhance existing commercial cargo efforts. This might indirectly help commercial crew.

With the Orion Lite Crew Return Vehicle plan, commercial vendors shouldn't need to keep their spacecraft at the ISS for 6 months, which makes their systems technically easier to build and makes their business case easier if they have reusable systems that can be applied to other business.

The fact that the ISS will last until 2020+ and will be used a lot more gives commercial vendors an extra incentive to succeed.

The technology demo for inflatable habitats may lower the barriers for commercial space stations that could be new markets for commercial crew.

By: Frank White

Frank White — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:11:38 +0000

Rick is right that this policy is not perfect, but it builds on ideas many of us have been advancing for years. It is an effort to do something new, and that should be important to the space community. How might it change the debate if we looked at this policy not as an ending but rather as a beginning, a template on which other components might be constructed?

By: Bill B.

Bill B. — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:40:10 +0000

The President didn't give the order or funds to SpaceX or the other "NewSpace" to go develop a manned vehicle to get to the ISS. Until his or any other administration gives significant several billions of dollars in funds – not the measly $500M over several years offered up to now – and a specific order(s) to develop specific vehicles, nothing is going to happen.

About eight years back, a noted space author, and a friend, Bob Zimmerman, suggested that there should be an "X Prize" type of reward of $4B to whoever can get a crewed vehicle to the ISS, and return them safely to the earth. There was probably a lot more to it than that. But my point is that it will require in the low billions, not millions, to build such a vehicle. That isn't forthcoming…

By: NeuroGovernment » Blog Archive » Why Leave Out the Moon? Questioning President Obama’s Vision for the Space Program

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:36:16 +0000

[...] President Obama laid out an ambitious vision for American space exploration that included missions to an asteroid and to Mars while opening up routine launches to low-Earth orbit by private industries. It is a great vision and I especially like the mission to an asteroid because of the vast mineral wealth from Near-Earth Objects and to develop an ability to protect against asteroid impacting on Earth. It also appears that the plan has widespread support in the space community. [...]

By: Rick Tumlinson

Rick Tumlinson — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:19:14 +0000

Steve, study up my friend, we are pro settlement, and the changes in many ways reflect ideas we have fought for over two decades. They aren't perfect,m as it is after all a government program we are dealing with here. But they head in the right direction. You inferring we of all groups are fascistic is like saying Democrats march in straight lines.

We are always cool with someone "outfronitering" us. It's the other direction our swords are pointed…lol…
Rick
and I prefer to debate and discuss with folks who use their own real names…or sign their comments.