DocM

Recent Actions

• Commented on EIAST and Bigelow Aerospace Sign Agreement

  ^^----- what he said. Government can lead, follow or get the hell out of the way. The latter begs for reasonable ITAR reform....

• Commented on HLV: NASA Says No, Congress Says Yes.

  Time to COTS the whole thing, then see who the innovators are. Otherwise we're doomed to depeat the whole last 2 decades....

• Commented on NASA and China: Chilly Congressional Reception Ahead

  As a first principle cooperation in space should be our goal, but that has to tempered by realism. In the really-real world China's military leaders have been calling us an "enemy," they've been rattling sabers and developing missiles that have...

• Commented on Supreme Court Overturns HSPD-12 Decision by Lower Court

  Let's take a look at the examples given - this after consulting a relative who is a retired police investigator and now does private security (lots of cops/military in this gene pool)  1. medical records.  No doubt includes prescribed drugs...

• Commented on Supreme Court Overturns HSPD-12 Decision by Lower Court

  Easy to understand - NASA is a govt. agency where ITAR and other sensitive or propriatory information could be compromised. Other agencies investigate their employees, and with the number of leaks and espionage cases the last couple of decades why...

• Commented on James Hansen Continues To Have Special Privileges

  Putting an exclamation point on the zealotry argument, yet another climate study bit the dust today - http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-climate-significant-error-experts.html...

• Commented on SpaceX Pushes Ahead Toward The ISS

  Vertical propulsive landing has been done by the DC-X team in the 90's, many of which are now at Blue Origin & demo'ed it there, Masten and Armadillo. I seriously doubt SpaceX's engineers are less skilled as to how to...

• Commented on STS-133 Crew Member Injured

  Hopefully those sourses are wrong, but in either case lets hop/pray he recovers soon and well....

• Commented on Certifying Spacecraft - Then and Now

  Agreed, but this is just one example of how over-zealous govt regulation mucks up the markets. Don't get me wrong; reasonable standards are fine & necessary, but hypocritical ones do more harm than good....

• Commented on More Delays for STS-133?

  Still having to do major structural problems how many years into the program? These birds should have been replaced and in museums 20 years ago but nooo.... This reminds me of the guy with a '63 Corvair who keeps trying...

• Commented on Congress Still Funds a Cancelled Rocket

  Not speaking for Larry bu as an interested taxpayer - a. further fund commercial crew & cargo to get them off the ground b. help or use Bigelow or whoever to establish more places to go c. accelerate electric propulsion...

• Commented on A New "Branch" of NASA in Colorado? (Updated)

  A budgetary bargaining chip; "we'll give up Colorado if we can keep x, y or z"?...

• Commented on Senate CR Proposal Is Not Good News For NASA (Update)

  ^^^^---- what he said, but this financial irresponsibility problem isn't just NASA - for >30 years it's been endemic in government. And it's not just the Feds - just look at what its done to California, New York, Illinois, my...

• Commented on Senate CR Proposal Is Not Good News For NASA (Update)

  One hates to see NASA workers suffer for what shortsighted management & congressional leadership have done, but here we are. When even the mainstream media starts reporting the monies wasted (no, not too strong) by Constellation, and viable programs that...

• Commented on Senate CR Proposal Is Not Good News For NASA (Update)

  The bottom line is that the House leadership botched the delayed the budget process, not even holding hearings on much of it, because they knew they were in an electoral hole & decided to just stopped digging. Plan was to...

• Commented on SpaceX Dragon Mission Summary

  Makes one wonder what would happen if they incorporated guidance tech like Masten or Armadillo are using into the avionics for use when landing. There would be your helipad capability....

• Commented on SpaceX Dragon Mission Summary

  In their update check out the new CG image of Dragons retro-fire. Look closely and you'll see that the 4 - Draco cluster has been split into 2 clusters of 2 each with a rectangular panel in the center (compare...

• Commented on New Crew Transportation Requirements NASA Won't Let You See (Update)

  "There may be an unanticipated surprise coming here. Anything that limits crew transport for one must limit it for all, regardless of how worded. Any lawyer of any stripe can force that. So lets say they build it up, it...

• Commented on Virgin's VSS Enterprise Makes First Manned Glide Flight

  Very cool news :) While following the tweets from Popular Mechanics I couldn't help but speculate: what if you made one about twice large with a SABRE engine (presuming it works)? Now that would be even cooler.......

• Commented on SpaceX Gives a Preview of Falcon X and XX

  I think the Merlin 2 and Falcon X are inevitable regardless if SpaceX gets the nod to do the HLV, though it's very smart of them to get out there and let the blogosphere do the viral marketing. Also wouldn't...

• Commented on The Cape Week in Review - Next F9 Launch Announced, Discovery Prepped for STS-133

  IIRC that was reported within a day or two of F9-flt1's launch, so how is it now being "hidden" by SpaceX? Just asking.........

• Commented on NASA Reauthorization Bill Provides ATK with a Glimmer of Hope

  Wouldn't a link have sufficed? Anyhow - if the usual rules for any govt. project apply the specs will change 5 times, the cost will triple or worse and by the time NASA gets anywhere someone else will have already...

• Commented on Why Didn't Bolden Just Say So In The First Place?

  Disgusting. Stupid. I could go on for days. Off to count how many days to Election Day, November 2012....

• Commented on Video: Reason.tv: Porker of The Month: Pigs In Space

  While certain details can be nit-picked and others are omitted, the crux is correct - Shelby is less interested in NASA's work than in his district getting it's cut of the pork. This is not a party thing, both parties...

• Commented on John Glenn Has Something To Say

  "Being a hero in the 1960s does not make you right forever." Certainly doesn't, and that holds true for Armstrong et al too....

• Commented on SpaceX Wins Half Billion Dollar Deal With Iridium

  IIRC there was to be another announcement pretty soon as well. So much for the haters indeed....

• Commented on More Commentary on Constellation Closeout

  IMO a government space program should limit its exclusive activities to defense and move to cooperation with commercial interests for civilian projects like research and exploration....