JonathanN

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• Commented on Large NASA Programs: Located In Florida = "Jobs", Out of State = "Boondoggle, Pork"

  If a historically behind schedule, $8.9 billion space telescope (originally priced at $4 billion) that only sees only in infrared, is unserviceable with a 5-10 year lifespan, and will only ever be used by several hundred researchers, isn't by definition...

• Commented on Details Of NASA's Emerging Budget

  Honestly seeing the name "James Webb Space Telescope" is just becoming offensive now. I'm convinced now that the only reason to build it is the engineering advance of the mirror and putting it at L2. Nothing it could possibly discover...

• Commented on Apollo on Steroids Redux: Big Rockets Are The Only Answer

  How about both? Really. Big rocket now, orbiting gas station later. Turn super -heavy lift into ultra-heavy lift. Sorry I don't see space infrastructure over the long term being built on the back of rockets that can loft 30,000kg and...

• Commented on Senate Votes To Fund Webb - But Other Missions Will Suffer

  Not to beat a dead horse here since its clear the boat (the boat being the Titanic) has already sailed but... ... what could the JWST possibly discover that will be worth $8.8 billion and scaling back / delaying /...

• Commented on NASA IG Sends Cops in Flack Vests After 74 Year Old, 4'11" Grandmother

  Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. But at the same time, it's pretty amazing how much like a space shuttle a Storm Trooper looks like if you throw the meatball on it.......

• Commented on NASA Exploration Ideas - With Added China Bashing (Update)

  What's wrong with China bashing? I mean this is the country that conned its way into the WTO, and then once in, decided to ignore most of the rules. This is the country that has spent a decade in an...

• Commented on SLS, Saturn V, And Ares V Color Schemes (Update)

  Now you see, that's a better argument. Saying the SLS should use something that's been developed, that there is already extensive infrastructure and manufacturing tooling for is a perfectly reasonable line to say. Frankly, I did not think of the...

• Commented on SLS, Saturn V, And Ares V Color Schemes (Update)

  Okay I'll lay it out plainly, because bringing up liquid boosters again is silly. Here is why there are no Liquid boosters yet. 1) They have lots of SRBs on hand lying around. 2) They have 5 segement SRBs in...

• Commented on Found Tatooine, We Have

  I figured it was either going to be a desert planet or a planet with two suns. I didn't think it was gonna be the Death Star. Okay maybe I hoped a little it would be....

• Commented on SLS Design Unveiled

  Which is fine. Having a rocket that launches infrequently but can be frabricated on demand for those really big things that need to be lifted is perfectly fine. If we're talking going to the ISS, I agree... the SLS is...

• Commented on Big Rocket - But Where Will It Go?

  Looks good to me. Just a few comments: -So its painted to look like Apollo / Saturn to "sell it". So what? Dressing things up to sell it is a fact of life. Kids learn how important it is in...

• Commented on Webb Team Fights Back (Update)

  "As the dust has settled, it's important to step back for a moment to reflect on why we want to build such an audacious telescope." There are many adjectives I would use other than "audacious" to describe this money sink....

• Commented on Constellation on Steroids: What NASA Thinks Congress' Architecture Might Cost

  A few scattershot comments.... 1) $65 billion over the next 15 years is roughly what was spent over the same period on the US contribution to the ISS. The difference is, this will give the US a heavy lift rocket...

• Commented on A Fading NASA, Afraid Of Its Own Shadow

  That's something that needs to change. There was that anecdote a few years ago at some NASA event, I think from when Bolden just took over. Someone made a comment about Americans going to Mars and all things in space,...

• Commented on New Magazine: Space Quarterly

  This is an exceptional periodical, especially for a first issue. The broad swath it covered was very informative and really informative. For example, I was under an apparently far outdated understanding of what Blue Origin was trying to do. I...

• Commented on A Fading NASA, Afraid Of Its Own Shadow

  Fundamentally NASA just has to lay out what it is going to do, stick with it, and then defend it from all who challenge it (while being open to enhancement). That means from Congress. That also means from third column...

• Commented on DARPA's 100 Year Starship

  It'll be successful if it gets people start thinking about one-way trips to certain destinations or at a certain point after initial exploration. That discussion needs to be had. The first new world explorers and global circumnavigation started for economic...

• Commented on Nelson & Rubio Letter to Obama on SLS

  It's really to the point of a letter from Senators or Congressmen about once a week now, isn't it? Is NASA hoping they go away for something? Because if NASA is banking on putting SLS cuts into the 10% budget...

• Commented on Restoring Confidence in Soyuz

  Pete, respectfully, that's a stock answer. One we've been fed for years. I really get that some important long term, long duration HSF technology development needs to and will be done on the ISS. I completely get that.The ECLSS is...

• Commented on Restoring Confidence in Soyuz

  Let me play devil's advocate here. The ISS is de-crewed. So what? What is lost? Well basically two things, both of them of fairly dubious value. 1) Continuous Human Presence in Space, ongoing since Expedition 1. That's a "feat", but...

• Commented on More Sour Grapes From Mike Griffin

  Let's call a spade a spade. Ares I was Griffin's terrible idea. Orion is needed. Orion on a Delta IV (or Atlas V) was always the smart idea. Unfortunately, for some reason with their "American Soyuz", the Ares I plan...

• Commented on JWST and SLS: Dueling Giant Money Sponges

  Well I mean, there isn't exactly an assembly line (in the conventional sense) for a Nimitz class carrier either. They are all different from each other to varying degrees, especially the more recent ones I named. They are all built...

• Commented on Bolden's Evolvable SLS

  Considering that the liquid boosters won't fly until after 2030 if the leaked roadmap is legitimate, how about we have this particular fight/discussion say, around 2025ish? I mean, I'm all for road maps and long lead in times, but a...

• Commented on JWST and SLS: Dueling Giant Money Sponges

  You forgot the Mars Science Laboratory. No list of money spounges can be completely without our nation's nuclear powered, women's fragarence named Martian boondoggle, likely the only American rover/lander of the 2010s. Granted I am an equal lover of Martian...

• Commented on Ares 1 Deja Vu?

  I agree with a lot of what you said, and I really appreciate more fully now that the EELV really is a DoD-first vehicle. Easy thing to forget. I really don't want to come off as rigid. I view the...

• Commented on Webb Costs Continue To Swell

  Well to be fair, they're bad, but the worst of the worst is Lockheed Martin. Someone should ask them how their pitch of $55 million F-35 JSFs balloned to $126 million a copy, only to magically fall back to $67...

• Commented on Ares 1 Deja Vu?

  Well if you read my post above, I guess you can understand how *I see* why the SLS is necessary. I agree, launching the MPCV on the SLS to the ISS is tremendously wasteful when a Delta IV Heavy can...

• Commented on Ares 1 Deja Vu?

  I really appreciate your post, and I think you're generally right and I have been rather haphazard in the specific requirements for the system. I completely understand what you are trying to say. Maybe I should elucidate how I see...

• Commented on Webb Costs Continue To Swell

  Please, just cancel it and serve Northrop a 5 year contracting ban. This is outrageous. If they can't offer remotely accurate cost estimates before fabrication, they should get out of the business. And this is far from the first time...

• Commented on Ares 1 Deja Vu?

  SLS doesn't have a mission? Ummm being the country's super heavy lift vehicle, part of our standard inventory, is a mission unto itself. Here's the thing. Let's say we don't build the SLS until we have a mission... how about...