David44149

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• Commented on The Next Time You Hear Mike Griffin Complain ...

  "What, precisely, are the precautions that we would take to safeguard a human crew that we would deliberately omit when launching, say, a billion-dollar Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission?" Well, for starters, how about the entire life support system and...

• Commented on What Would Elon Do?

  Can you cite one instance where NASA competes rather than helps or subsidizes private space industry? heck, SpaceX got a lot of their tech from NASA either directly or as a derivative product even if they do nto care to...

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

  There is also the matter of the research centers having their funding siphoned off for this venture. Why should we starve existing centers to create another one? If Colorado wants a R&D center, then by all means let them create...

• Commented on More USA Layoffs Ahead

  I feel sorry for these people, but there was no guarantee of lifetime employment. The program is ending, and these people are no longer needed. Any future capability will need to have a much, much smaller ground support crew if...

• Commented on Video: A Shuttle Tribute

  Matt Melis did a great job the combining of the engineering video images into an interesting and visually often stunning video. The video is not copyrighted, and the DVD can be copied and distributed freely, BTW. You also have the...

• Commented on More Plutonium 238 Production Pressure

  I agree that the Pu-238 is the obvious choice, but when you have none the other isotopes suddenly look a lot better. We will have to live with the consequences of extra mass, a minor issue if we have Ares...

• Commented on More Plutonium 238 Production Pressure

  Sending a letter to NASA asking for more Pu-238 production is just preaching to the choir. The people to talk to are DoD, DoE and Congress. More likely we will have to use different isotopes in the future or end...

• Commented on Using Existing Rockets for Future Human Exploration

  Given the very long history of private business over-promising and under-performing (look up when SpaceX was supposed to be flying Dragon under COTS), why does everyone seem to just accept that Lockheed Martin can do what they are proposing without...

• Commented on Confusion at GRC Over Security Tests and False Alarms

  The situation was a bit chaotic and scary at times, especially when the reports of a shooting started to circulate, but the Center, Security and the police departments handled it well given the information available at the time. I also...

• Commented on On The Train to Crazy Town With Fox

  Assuming a velodity of 7 miles per second (approximate escape velocity), it would take less than 60 days to travel 35 million miles. At 5 mps, the approximate orbital speed of the ISS, an astronaut travels 35 million miles in...

• Commented on Dave King: Old Ways Of Thinking Still Persist

  Dave King brings up the 800 pound gorilla in the commercial spaceflight room. Long term, who is going to pay for all these flights, and what are they going to do to keep bringing in customers? Space tourism for multi-millionaires...

• Commented on A Pledge to America = Flatline for NASA?

  I will believe that Republicans will cut spending only after it actually happens and a few years pass so we find out whar was kept out of the budget. Why am I so skeptical? Representative Boehner recently stated that he...

• Commented on Europe Whines About Subsidies But Keeps On Giving Them

  Given the Ariane and Airbus were both setup by the EU for the sole purpose of taking business away from the USA, I find their complaint highly hypocritical, and I would urge Obama to ignore the WTO finding....

• Commented on Should Congress Design the Next Big Booster?

  Congress wants NASA to develop a replacement for the Shuttle. When the paper studies and even test flights are done, Congress looks at the cost and cancels the project because it "costs too much". Said cost is often much less...

• Commented on Dragon Tests Its Parachutes

  It is important to remember that said small team is relying heavily on 50+ years of NASA work. There is no way that SpaceX or the other small commercial launch companies could start with absolutely nothing and get to where...

• Commented on KSC Wants To Buy A Cornish Robot To Greet U.S. Visitors

  Not so minor point. the solicitation is for "...a 5'9" Life-Like Robot, brand-name Engineered Arts Limited, RoboThespian, or equal." Those last two words are critical since it means that NASA has found something that it likes, but other companies are...

• Commented on It Is Time For Charlie Bolden To Stay Home

  Okay, here is a question for you who are so up in arms that Charlie Bolden is doing outreach to the Muslim world. What would you have America do? Start yet another war? I think we can all see how...

• Commented on Progress 38P Docks With ISS

  The "forgotten company", Orbital Sciences, which, unlike SpaceX, has flown plenty of space missions, and their Cygnus module might have a few things to say about your scenario. There are also about a half dozen other American companies plus the...

• Commented on Shields Up: PETAnauts Head for KSC

  I notice that no one is commenting upon the experiments that PETA is protesting. Despite their often boorish and stupid actions, PETA is correct in this case. The experiments are barbaric and unnecessary. If you are going to kill an...

• Commented on Building Orion

  And they will require at least 36 months (their own estiamte0 from receipt of order to upgrade Dragon to manned capability. Add in the time they have already put into the Dragon, and all of a sudden they are taking...

• Commented on Falcon 9 Launch Totally Successful

  SpaceX took a huge step forward today, but it is very premature to call the launch a total success. They appear to have lost the booster, and the upper stage may have had roll stability issues. These are teething problems...

• Commented on OSTP's New STEM Guy Is Out Of Synch With Upper Management

  GK, you got it right, and that is why I and a lot of other NASA engineers contribute their time and effort to going out to schools and trying to interest students in STEM. It may be poorly coordinated in...

• Commented on Work Continues On Cancelled Rocket

  You pegged it dead on. If Congress wants Constellation stopped now, they need to pass a law saying so. Otherwise NASA would be breaking the law by NOT working on it. And i personally think that Constellation has at least...

• Commented on ESMD Gets Back To Basics

  My recollection is that Steidle wanted to shrink NASA to 200 CS and give all the money to industry using the (failed) DoD model of system development and acquisition. Had we followed his plan we would have even worse cost...

• Commented on SpaceX Sees Something Big Ahead

  I think that what Elon sees is a big, fat government paycheck that SpaceX does not have to work very hard to get. If they do the job, great. But I say if we are serious about turning space into...

• Commented on NASA Procurement Pays Gourmet Prices for Hotel Snack Food

  Having been both participant and organizer for various events, I agree with CB450SC. Most venues are tightly closed shops. You show up and have to pay whatever they want to charge you, and they charge you a lot for everything....

• Commented on Nelson's Compromise Emerges

  I cannot help but wonder at times like this what would happen if we went back to the NACA model where money was given to NASA and they decided what was important to pursue. We would certainly have a lot...

• Commented on Bolden Stands His Ground

  I agree that there are commercial launch companies quite capable of designing, building and launching manned spacecraft. The obvious question then becomes, why are we not using them instead of SpaceX and, to a lesser extent, Orbital Sciences? SpaceX in...

• Commented on Plan B For Outer Space

  But using your argument, if we get three years into the program and Elon says "No mas!" because it costs him too much we are left with billions spent and years lost. A government program like CxP would at least...

• Commented on Plan B For Outer Space

  It happens every two to four years. It si why smart researchers now work with a one-year-and-out mentality. Any funding for something beyond the endo of the year is too tenuous to rely upon it....