Nancy

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• Commented on The Moon Has Much To Offer

  Truly game changing! The LCROSS gamble has paid off with results that are much better than any of us could have seriously hoped for. If there is one thing that we learned from the Augustine Panel it is that space...

• Commented on Charlie Bolden: Stealth Middle East Diplomat?

  I'm disappointed that so many commenters here fail to see the benefit of adding a new, important value proposition to NASA's goals. Sure, helping to secure a more stable world through outreach to Muslim countries is different from the "win...

• Commented on Charlie Bolden: Stealth Middle East Diplomat?

  Why not engage the Muslim world in the continued robotic exploration of the Moon? We need to continue to return to the Moon to determine the extent to which lunar resources can make exploration more affordable. There's no reason why...

• Commented on PETAnauts Are Persistent

  I haven't studied the test -- and don't consider myself qualified to determine it's scientific merit anyway. However, I suspect that part of the issue is dollars. Spacecraft can be designed that isolate the human compartments from radiation by covering...

• Commented on Falcon 9 Nails Orbit - First Stage Slams Hard into Atlantic

  Rats. I thought that I was the first today to bring up the comparison to Henry Ford and what Elon Musk is trying to do......

• Commented on Falcon 9 Nails Orbit - First Stage Slams Hard into Atlantic

  IMO, the question isn't whether Elon Musk is the Wright Brothers. It is whether he can become Henry Ford. By redesigning the automobile for assembly-line manufacturing, Ford transformed its cost dynamics from a circumstance where only a rich man could...

• Commented on Did NSS Try To Stiffle PeTA - or is PeTA Making Things Up?

  Ian, it sounds like you missed my point. Characterizing General Bolden's response as simply being stylish or smooth misrepresents his response. Personally, I'd prefer the clarification that I provided: General Bolden handled the incident "with content that demonstrated principles and...

• Commented on Did NSS Try To Stiffle PeTA - or is PeTA Making Things Up?

  Ian said "very few people in this conversation know if Gary Barnhard is lying or not" and "sure Bolden handled the interruption pretty smoothly but style points don't let one off the hook". I would have put it another way:...

• Commented on Did NSS Try To Stiffle PeTA - or is PeTA Making Things Up?

  It's a shame that the video cuts off just as Bolden is beginning to respond to the disruption. As a member of the audienc, attending my first NSS event, all that I could say about this demonstration is that I...

• Commented on PeTA's 30 Seconds With Charlie

  Boy, that story is inaccurate. The PETA individual spoke for only several seconds -- not minutes -- before NSS conference organizers ushered her off the stage. Cheers? As she was leaving, members of the audience loudly shouted "Shame on you!"...

• Commented on ESMD Gets Back To Basics

  I'm sure that there are NASA technologists that think it would be really cool if they could use tax dollars to work on the five sets of technologies listed here. But wouldn't it be novel if NASA first asked the...

• Commented on NASA's Exploration Enterprise Workshop

  Truthfully, it does create a problem when you give very little notice of the meeting and schedule it adjacent to another (but in another region of the country). I'm sure that NASA managers will be able to make it to...

• Commented on NASA's Exploration Enterprise Workshop

  It's too bad that they couldn't provide better notice of this meeting so that people would have a greater opportunity to make plans and attend....

• Commented on Just Do It

  Mikeshupp -- I think you may be onto something, but let's change a few words in what you said. Perhaps we have a shortage of vision. Instead of suggesting that the people that run the government don't think NASA does...

• Commented on Just Do It

  Sentiment appreciated; what remains is the political reality. The current political equilibrium (for whatever reason) is that, as a nation, we seem to be able to provide about $15-20B to NASA each year. If NASA was able to sign up...

• Commented on OSTP Space Conference: Ignoring the Locals

  Darmok, I'm not sure that we even want to get KSC back to the level of shuttle employment. ETO costs too much money. We need to transition to systems that do not require armies of support personnel on the ground....

• Commented on Tug of War Over Commercial Space Safety?

  I can't see NASA as being sufficiently independent to be the regulator of commercial spacecraft safety....

• Commented on Bolden Stands His Ground

  Excellent speech!...

• Commented on Rep. Green: We're Only Speaking English on The Moon

  Remember how they spoke English in the Firefly sci-fi television series, but resorted to Chinese for cursing? I kind of liked that approach......

• Commented on Space Policy: Everyone Has A Different Opinion

  It's difficult to escape the feeling that, to most politicians, NASA is just a jobs program. It's quite sad to observe such an absence of vision....

• Commented on More Water on the Moon

  Ben the Space Brit said: "I have always been opposed to using lunar water for 'throw away' applications like propellent production. I never thought that there was really a large enough quantity or that it was generated quickly enough to...

• Commented on More Water on the Moon

  Okay, please check my math: Using Spudis' clarification that the estimate is 608x10^6 metric tons, I get about 1.60x10^11 gallons. Or 160,000,000,000 gallons. The comment that we need to consider economics is correct of course. The economic question becomes: What...

• Commented on More Water on the Moon

  As a reminder... Solar energy can be used to convert water into the most efficient chemical propellant mix known through a simple process known as electrolysis. The big deal about lunar water is the potential to use it to displace...

• Commented on Bolden: Mars Is The Destination

  For me, the goal is to bring value back to the Earth and its citizens. We have plenty of problems on the Earth and there's no reason to think that NASA can't help provide solutions to some of them. As...

• Commented on And The Children Shall Lead

  Wow, you would think that the gap in the USA's ability to launch humans into space is the fault of the current administration! Has everyone forgotten that this is the consequence of the decisions to shut down the Shuttle *and*...

• Commented on NASA and the future of space exploration: what do YOU think?

  I agree with Frank. After studying and considering the Administration's plan the last few weeks, I believe that it is a great improvement over the previous program of record. Rather than killing the future of human spaceflight, it might just...

• Commented on OpEd's Around the U.S. Take Issue With Obama Plan

  Yes, the Administration has proposed to cancel Constellation. But no, it hasn't turned its back on human space flight. Instead of rushing back to the Moon -- something that NASA hasn't been doing that well the last few years anyway...

• Commented on Taking Space Exploration Beyond Traditional Partnerships

  I'm amazed that anyone would be against using the space program to reach out to our Muslim neighbors. Budgets for NASA were much larger when the cold war was it's main raison d'etre. Denying opportunities for the space program to...

• Commented on Space Policy: Go Boldly

  I have two cents worth of thoughts to add here. First, I agree with a lot of what Jeff said. Constellation was rapidly losing support and was developing much more of the look and feel of a jobs program. If...

• Commented on Creating Starfleet Academy (Ongoing)

  Conley Powell asked, "Why are all these people discussing this...?" Conley, I think it's because Keith raised a set of questions that interested them. It's loosely based on the President's interest in STEM education for kids and the fact that...