Monday, December 05, 2005
Space: Burt Rutan, Gene Krantz, Rick Tumlinson
After going to the Xprize last year, somehow I missed Burt Rutan's remarks. - Over the last 25 years it has become increasingly, increasingly obvious that the kids who dream—and I consider myself still a kid—that they can go up and see these views [of Earth from space] have diminishing hope, diminishing dreams. I look at all those little kids who are excited about going to space and who want to be an astronaut: there are a lot of them still out there, but you look at them and think, “What am I going to tell them? What are his chances?”
- I understand the tragedy inherent in risk-taking; I witnessed the fire aboard Apollo that killed its three crew members. It filled us with anger at ourselves and with the resolve to make it right. [...] Does the "quit now" crowd really believe that abandoning the shuttle and International Space Station is the way to keep America the pre-eminent space-faring nation? Do they really believe that a new spacecraft will come without an engineering challenge or a human toll? The path the naysayers suggest is so out of touch with the American character of perseverance, hard work and discovery that they don't even realize the danger in which they are putting future astronauts. Not to mention our nation.
Gene still believes NASA can do the job. Others don't. There's been a bunch of good op-eds in the space press this past week - Rick Tumlinson, full of vitrol:
- I humbly [ha! ed] offer a couple of observations and ideas for what to do next. First, regarding the so-called Apollo on steroids (or as I call Apollo old, fat and ugly): It's dead Mike. That horse won't run. That dog won't hunt. The fat lady has sung. Or, to bring it closer to space, I'll quote Bill Paxton in the film Aliens: "Game over man!"
The bloated, business as usual, cost-plus, pork-based, design-bureau use-it-and-throw-it-away approach to space is a failure. The excitement and momentum that might have existed when the president aimed us toward the Moon, Mars and beyond has been squandered. It has been worn down by the dumping of vision in favor of pork, and the jettisoning of the President and Aldridge Commission's declarations that frontier infrastructure building based on commercial enterprise is a prime goal.
And Jeff Bell chimes in with a detailed analysis that I'd link to if I could find it this morning. Bell has become something of a beta noir of the alt.space community, his articles spark debate (to say the least!). Jon Goff has a detailed counter-proposal...
And the Russians claim to be able to make the moon for $2b. Bravado?
Whatever the heck we do in space, let's make it right. I like the gathering support for a fuel dump as the next interim goal of interplanetary flight... and I wish all the rocketheads would pay more attention to momentum-exchange tethers... ¶ 8:15 AM
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I have tried to read your blog. I keep getting, "Page not found".
Did you stop blogging? Are you an aerospace engineer? You sure sound unhappy. Is there anything you do like? I worked on the Apollo Project. You probably will hate me, too. :o).
http://www.InsideTheApolloProject.com. P.S. Life is grand. Be happy. You will live longer. Sara
Did you stop blogging? Are you an aerospace engineer? You sure sound unhappy. Is there anything you do like? I worked on the Apollo Project. You probably will hate me, too. :o).
http://www.InsideTheApolloProject.com. P.S. Life is grand. Be happy. You will live longer. Sara
You won't believe this but I have been talking to both Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (the Director of the Hayden Planetarium), David Levy and Rusty Schweickart (Apollo 9) among other Astronomers and scientists. We are ALL concerned about NEOs and particularry The Asteroid Apophis. It is NOT true that people are unconcerned. You just need to find the right people. I have several other blogs but I need to do some housekeeping. Check out: http://www.SaraStellarScience.com I have 2 books for sale and one is about Apophis. Thanks, Sara
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