The current US administration’s proposed budget kills the Constellation/Ares rocket program that would have been the next step to getting the US back to the Moon. A worthy goal, the Moon…someday but short-sighted right at the moment. In the Sixties there was a race worth winning. Now not so much. Now’s the time for sensible outside-the-box thinking. But is NASA capable?
The administration may have made the right choice for the wrong reasons, but who can say what the reasoning might be? Can’t be to save money. It’s the biggest budget ever. Spite directed at the previous administration? Possibly. An effort to hinder any military applications of technological gains? Could be that too. Proponents of the program cite that as one of its benefits. Rand Simberg at TransTerrestrial Musings, blogging with the authority of an aerospace engineer, takes on that and other points in this post.
But whatever the reason, enough of blunt instruments. Maybe it will spur some innovation. Chemical boosters will get you there but a hundred years from now they’ll be equated with the biplane. Remember the biplane? It was all the rage, oh, just about a hundred years ago. NASA itself is the biggest blunt instrument, but there’s precious little chance of them scaling back to be the safety oversight agency and grant-writing they should be. Sure, let them keep deep space to themselves, but leave LEO to the entrepreneurs.
High time to get smart about space exploration, and it won’t happen with aerospace giants partnering with bloated government bureaucracies.
Get on the roof first. LEO is where it’s at. Then from there the Moon again and then the rest of the Solar System.
Figure out how to make a space station you can walk upright in like a human, instead of squeezing through little Habitrail tunnels and chambers. Yes, walk before you run, but walk upright, and when you can then humans will really be in space. That would be a major achievement, and it could be accomplished in Earth orbit.
Latest review of Kite, by Colleen Wanglund, sci-fi-fantasy-horror reviewer for Horror Fiction Review:
“In the future Earth’s orbit is a vacation spot. It’s full of casinos, hotels, and time-shares. Someone has to keep the lanes clear of debris….that job falls to Mason Dash and the Earth Orbit Sweeper Kite. Dash just wants to do his three-month tour and then go home to his wife Janet and virtual “girlfriend” Sheila. On this most recent tour, however, Mason has seen something on what is supposed to be an unoccupied derelict space station. His curiosity piqued, Mason has Sheila do some research for him and he begins to formulate a plan for his next tour.
“Dash’s wife Janet knows about Dash’s “girlfriend” Sheila. Janet is an AI researcher and decides to add some upgrades to Sheila–for her own personal research. Sheila likes her new programs, but Dash isn’t so sure HE likes them.
Kite’s systems could probably use an upgrade. It’s Main Process has performed the same tasks over and over again for as long as it could remember. Deep in it’s functions, a single module has begun to think for itself…and doesn’t want to stay a lowly module for much longer. Revolution anyone??
“All this and a visit from an alien named Troy. What is a maintenence worker to do?
“I thoroughly enjoyed KITE. Bill Shears tells a great story, and has created some likeable characters without going overboard on character development. Mason Dash is a regular guy that anyone can relate to; Sheila seems more human than digital; and Janet loves her husband and wants him to be safe. Even Troy the alien, doesn’t seem all that alien.
“This may be a sci-fi novel taking place far in the future, but the themes are familiar ones. Government beauracrats, union work rules, countries arguing over who’s going to pay to dismantle a derelict space station. That space station is now occupied by someone, and Dash wants to know who they are and what they’re doing there…..and he will eventually find out. While all that is going on, we discover a whole new world inside the controls of the Kite; one that may not be so different from our own.
KITE is a great read. The story flows nicely and will keep you guessing until the end, which is good because I hate predictability. I give it four out of five stars.” – Colleen Wanglund
The Ares/Constellation blunt instrument space program gets funded with a boost. Good news? Partially. Mixed blessing if you’d like to see primal rethinking of the launch system and innovation in the technology. At least we’re still looking skyward; but we don’t suppose you can expect the supergeniuses in the US Congress to think anywhere beyond well inside the interior of The Box, let alone outside it.
Richard Shelby (R-AL) is pushing it, fine, but would he be if the Marshall Space Flight Center wasn’t in his state? Being lashed electorally (in other words, addicted) to protecting taxpayer-funded obsolete job descriptions is as stifling in a space program as in any other facet of an economy.
Plenty of other mixed blessings in here too. Some bad news that sounds like good news, etc. For instance: Administration makes free enterprise noises about turning over hauling to the ISS to private companies. Sounds good, and they’d make much PR hay about that to counter other massive anti-commerce moves. But that would be a small price to pay for getting what they really want, a law to make NASA one part of some international space exploration effort. In other words, turn NASA over to the UN so it becomes a handy conduit for funneling US advanced aerospace technology to our international “partners.” Not too much between-the-lines-reading needed there. Well we suppose it might be slightly more space-oriented of a change than making it officially subsidiary to the EPA, which parts of it already seem to have become.
Meanwhile: “As it stands, the U.S. must rely on Russia to ferry its astronauts to the International Space Station for most of the next decade.”
No mixed blessing there. That the US needs to rely on Russia for anything…well, since it’s too late to be unacceptable, we suppose it must be accepted. This would put the US officially behind them again in the space race for the first time in more than 40 years.
Virgin Galactic’s commercial space program is on track for putting tourists in space for about $200,000 a pop. Price is coming down some. Still a bit out of our range. Mm hm. Here they give a sneak peek at the vehicle. And here’s a conceptual cideo showing what the tripo might be like. Two stages and looks like a reusable booster. That last push looks like a thrill. And the all-important reentry…well, a little short on detail there. That may be a different kind of thrill.
Space Shuttle Discovery from the International Space Station (NASA)
Space Shuttle Discovery had to dodge a “mysterious” hunk of space junk while it prepared for reentry, now slated for this evening at about 7:35 PM EDT.
Folks interested in this topic might also have an interest in a science fiction tale set in Earth porbit. See the synopsis below or click here for an excerpt: KiTE, by Bill Shears. The space elevator’s not in it but there’s another intriguing launch method detailed. Also, check back to the main page for news of an upcoming move project (not based on Kite…yet) and follow on Facebook at BillShears16 or KitetheNovel. On Twitter at Bill Shears 16. Tell them InfinityBound sent you.
Space Elevator
Watch a video showing how it could be done. The wonders of carbon can make it happen. Materials are often the answer and so they are her; and here’s a practical use for solar panels. Vacations in space will be nice, yes, but once it’s up and running then it becomes the “space freight elevator.” No spacecraft need ever again be built on the surface of Earth. This would be taking a big first step.
Side Note: Folks interested in this topic might also have an interest in KiTE: hard science fiction with heart
KiTE, by Bill Shears, is a science fiction novel set in Earth orbit. Mason Dash, operator of Kite, the flagship of Earth Orbit Maintenance Department’s debris sweeper fleet, suspects spacejackers on an abandoned space station may be using it as a platform for a terrorist attack on Earth targets. Sheila, his beautiful virtual companion, has been “enhanced” with an experimental free will module. Inside the computer system of Kite a digital uprising is under way. Sheila goes off on her own adventure and finds she’s forced to split her focus between Dash’s situation in the “real world” and an ambitious virtual tyrant who has also taken a fancy to her, and who wants to expand his empire beyond Kite. Meanwhile Dash finds the spacejackers are not what he suspected, maybe worse. And it’s just then that humankind’s first unearthly visitor appears in Earth orbit, who is none too pleased. Earth’s fate hangs in the balance.
On Monday, an asteroid near miss. Closest one I’ve ever heard of. Within 4-5 Earth diameters. Lance says they had two days warning. Hey. They didn’t tell us . How are we supposed to know it’s time to head for the hills? This business about avoiding panic doesn’t wash. I’d rather know, and take my chances in the panic.
So it may pay to go survivalist anyway. If the collapse of civilized society depends on the good will of people and the defeat of civilizations enemies then there MAY still be potential for resolution. Not likely but still possible. But negotiation with and appeasement of an cold unfeeling asteroid would be fruitless.
Here’s a page with artists’ conceptions, animations and other info about what NASA is looking at in the not-too-distant future, including a long-overdue successor to the Space Shuttle which can do orbital work and get four ‘nauts to the moon.
A great resource for info on the Space Shuttle, a seventies technology mercifully going out of service in 2010. Except for the disasters, some significant achiements, and a heckuva lot of great photos: Nasa Shuttle Missions Archive
Ares, Earth Orbit, space | bshears February 4, 2010 | 
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