NASA's budget: Help save space exploration!

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Vulpes, Apr 1, 2012.

  1. Robert D. Robot

    Robert D. Robot Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2009
    Location:
    Pre-Warp Civilization of Alaska
    This may, unfortunately, work against NASA. Science is hard, snobbish, rigid, mostly wrong, scary and against God, right?
     
  2. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
  3. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    ^Ah, a pdf from before constellation was cancelled. Just another powerpoint presentation. Get back to me when they start implementing something resembling Direct.
     
  4. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    The bottom line is that whenever they are ordered to prepare a manned Mission to Mars the Design Reference Mission will be where they start from and it is Mars Direct derived.
     
  5. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2006
    Location:
    Left Bank
    No. That's where they would have started from had the entire program not been scrapped.
     
  6. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    The NASA Design Reference Mission Was around a decade BEFORE Constellation.
     
  7. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2006
    Location:
    Left Bank
    And. It's. All. Been. Scrapped.
     
  8. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    Incorrect.
     
  9. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    ^Really? then show it to us on the current "open path".
     
  10. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    The current manned capsule that is being worked on was part of the Constellation program.
     
  11. Kelthaz

    Kelthaz Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2005
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    Fortunately explorers in the past didn't think as you do. We're always going to have earthly problems, so if you're waiting for the perfect time for funding space exploration it's never going to come.
     
  12. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    And?
     
  13. Caliburn24

    Caliburn24 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2005
    Location:
    Gig Harbor, Washington
    I'd prefer to disband NASA and incentivize commercial development in space. Government(any government) is too risk adverse, too bureaucratic, too inefficient, and too uncreative to be in charge of taking us into space.

    For all the lessons NASA learned, all the improvements in technology, materials and engineering, the price to put a pound of weight into orbit did not drop. In fact it increased once we moved from the Saturn Vs to the Shuttle. And that is a failure that should doom NASA to the ash-heap of history. And there have been many other missed opportunities.

    http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/time-privatize-nasa

    Get government out of the way and let the private sector have a try.
     
  14. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    Ah, the old external tank proposals. Didn't use of them in orbit turn out to be impractical? Basically, they were never designed to last in that environment and the argument that "with little additional cost" they could be modified wasn't anywhere near the truth.
     
  15. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    No one knows given that we never actually put external tanks into orbit.
     
  16. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2008
    Location:
    Just around the bend.
    Um, right, because no one knows how the tanks are made and what the conditions in orbit are like.:rolleyes:
     
  17. Caliburn24

    Caliburn24 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2005
    Location:
    Gig Harbor, Washington
    I'm no engineer, nor do I have any particular knowledge on the matter. But what orbital conditions could possibly stress an external tank more than that of the launch? And no it is not a rhetorical question, I'd genuinely like to know. Micro-meteorites? Containing an atmosphere?

    But that is a weak argument at best for getting rid of NASA, arguing what they have not done.

    The stronger argument by far is what they have done. They have made it much more expensive(even with inflation adjusted) to put stuff into orbit. That is government waste at its finest.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2012
  18. Venardhi

    Venardhi Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2002
    Location:
    The Great Wide Somewhere
    An economy based on innovation is the only economy with a reliable future. A well funded and highly motivated space program necessitates innovation like nothing else can. Americans are pretty damn good at getting shit done when they have the motivation and the resources available for them to do so.
     
  19. Pingfah

    Pingfah Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2005
    Location:
    Pingfah
    This is the ideal time to launch my drive for a crowdfunded mission to Mars.

    How much do you think i'll need? Can't cost more than a season of Enterprise, surely.
     
  20. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2012
    Location:
    Oklahoma
    Commercial interests are not known for financing exploration.