Bob Mahoney

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• Commented on NASA OIG Review of NASA's Selection of Display Locations for the Space Shuttle Orbiters

  The clearest indication that Houston getting passed over was a political decision (and a particularly nasty jab to boot) can be found in the "two-penny tip" rule. No tip left for a bad waiter/waitress in a restaurant doesn't send a...

• Commented on Choir Practice With Bullhorns at NASA

  I think I'll have to disagree with you, Steve, that kids are different today...at least down in their substrate (if I'm not misunderstanding your final point). My kids LOVE watching movies over and over again, if they're good movies. [My...

• Commented on Choir Practice With Bullhorns at NASA

  Some very interesting points raised above. As for engaging the public better, I've said my piece before (and it ain't just about TV coverage): http://www.thespacereview.com/article/802/1 http://www.thespacereview.com/article/807/1 NASA (and the rest of the space community) need to get immensely better at...

• Commented on Mary Lynne Dittmar Asks - Where are we, and how did we get here?

  @ Papa The money comes from Washington. This declarative statement says much more about why the USA is in big trouble than many folks realize. The money, in case anybody is paying attention, actually comes from the taxpayers...or China, etc....

• Commented on Earth View Helps Mental Health

  A feint blue dot? As in a fake or false move?...

• Commented on Mike Griffin is Still Unhappy

  Griffin is now an eminent scholar... Is this some sort of official title? Like, wow....

• Commented on President Obama Announces "Capture the Flag" in Space

  If anyone is going to disturb the historicity of the Eagle landing site so significantly (by re-raising the flag), then why bother with preserving any of the rest? The Apollo 11 site on the Moon should remain as is, the...

• Commented on On-Orbit Crew Press Conference (Update)

  Keith, I'll give you an 'A' on the core query of your question but a 'C' on its delivery/packaging. When questions go on & on to the point of being longer than the answers they seek (and CDR Ferguson certainly...

• Commented on President Obama Announces "Capture the Flag" in Space

  And, apparently, the President's announcement walked all over CDR Ferguson's desire to keep this tidbit secret until their departure ceremony and so add to its solemnity, of which he hinted during the crew's press conference earlier today. Thanks, Mr. President....

• Commented on Video: Hank Talks to NASA About the Space Shuttle

  Joe, Based on your reply I think you misread the main thrust of my posting. You will find no stronger defender of the shuttle program's accomplishments than I nor someone as willing to acknowledge its genuine faults and limitations. And...

• Commented on Video: Hank Talks to NASA About the Space Shuttle

  These are wonderful promises about what will soon come to pass, a revolution in spaceflight that will enable us to accomplish amazing (excuse me, awesome) achievements in space far beyond what we were able to accomplish with that old, dated...

• Commented on Marching Armies Vs Sprinting Platoons

  Keith, I am all for the success of commerical operations, but your dichotomous question was built on a falsehood: you stated that NASA's operations require a marching army while "the private sector can do it with a sprinting platoon." The...

• Commented on Looking Back at the Shuttle Program

  Quibbling or not, Steve, even your distinction is too broad. My car is reusable but I refurbish it every 30,000 or 60,000 or 120,000 miles (new hoses, belts, fluids, plugs...and a rebuilt transmission along the way). Airliners, too, get refurbished...

• Commented on Looking Back at the Shuttle Program

  I think if the original designers had known that it would end up costing $1.6B per flight, they would have gone another direction. Well, and this isn't a personal attack, Duh! But maybe not. Considering the Saturn V lunar missions...

• Commented on Is the Sun's Cycle set to help Space Exploration?

  Thanks for the...illumination. I likely misunderstood the "severity" of what I had seen...or they overhyped it which is all too often the case in popular science reporting. Tinker, the Earth's magnetic pole flips are unrelated (as far as I know...could...

• Commented on Raffaello Cargo Module Gets Prepped for Final Shuttle Flight

  They might have left it on the port to which they will attach it during the mission, Harmony's nadir. Doesn't the HTV normally berth at the Harmony zenith? And what about the Tranquility open ports, particularly its zenith? Durn shame...

• Commented on Orion, oops I mean NASA's MPCV Does Tour

  What's the matter, Marc? MIP-CUV isn't catchy enough for ya? Picky, picky, picky. What about Phoenix-Orion? Phorionix? Or maybe Lazarus? Just a few possibilities......

• Commented on Is the Sun's Cycle set to help Space Exploration?

  The global catastrophe doom story that worries me more than all others is the shifting of the Earth's magnetic poles, which happens with a relatively high frequency on the geologic time scale...and I believe we're overdue. If I heard/read correctly,...

• Commented on MEPAG Set for 1st International Meeting

  I know it is accepted wisdom that international collaboration in spaceflight is a way to save money and conserve expended resources, but has anyone actually performed a top-to-bottom assessment of this supposed truism? My impression from the inside (albeit from...

• Commented on Building Upon Kennedy's Space Legacy - Half A Century Later

  I am most curious. I know what an aerospace engineer is, and I know what an aerospace technician is. What's an aerospace technologist?...

• Commented on Building Upon Kennedy's Space Legacy - Half A Century Later

  Nicely, and respectfully, put. Bravo....

• Commented on The Space Station's Window Above The World

  While they obviously serve a genuine need, I always thought the retracting window covers made the entire idea of this expansive bay window (and all the imagery of it from outside) a tad inelegant. Tis a shame when real engineering...

• Commented on Buzz Aldrin's Take On Space Policy

  I find it amusing (or is it tragic?) that pundits are declared as coherent and genuinely contributing to the discourse when they agree with the poster's desires, while any folks who propose otherwise are labeled as muddled in their thinking...

• Commented on Commercial Lunar Missions Ahead

  I have always considered the Moon's "not-too-far-from-commercial-reach" as one of the selling points of focusing on the Moon as the first beyond-LEO stepping stone to the rest of the solar system. Once commercial entities establish themselves as consistently competent in...

• Commented on Cislunar Space Rationale

  Mr. Swift, Call me Bob. I guess we must have been reading different essays of his, 'cause I recall quite a few that speak of the critical role that lunar development will/should play in conquering cislunar space (and beyond). In...

• Commented on Cislunar Space Rationale

  Mr. Swift, You must not have been paying attention while reading Dr. Spudis's previous essays. I can't recall one he's written about return to the Moon in the past five years that hasn't described it as being a steppingstone to...

• Commented on Why Does JSC Hide Their Cool Stuff?

  Keith, From the public outreach team that brings you NASA TV's ISS/shuttle mission coverage (absolutely the most mind-numbing presentation of genuinely exciting subject matter ever to hit the airwaves) you expect something that will actually engage the public? No, JSC...

• Commented on Product Placement on the ISS (Update)

  One of the reasons that NASA is so touchy regarding such things is the Apollo 15 stamp debacle, when the crew made a private deal with a seller in Germany (I think) to sell stamps cancelled in flight during their...

• Commented on Discovery Returns From Space For The Last Time

  Again if there are changes in your environment you either "evolve" or you disappear. Your statement here is generally false and is only specifically true in certain (albeit numerous) instances, and if it reflects your understanding of evolution in toto...

• Commented on Discovery Returns From Space For The Last Time

  I did not mean to enter the details of evolution. Whether or not you intended to 'enter the details of evolution' is irrelevant. You suggested an inappropriate analogy that called into question your understanding of both disciplines. However our environment...