StuG

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• Commented on SLS Industry Day Charts Online

  I find it funny (& disturbing) that Lockheed and Boeing just got contracts from DOD to work on flyback/reuseable boosters, but NASA is acting like the stoned Roman soldier in "History of the world" shooting arrows straight up in the...

• Commented on There is Something Amiss with MSL's Drill After All

  "Contamination is a big deal." It is not THAT big of a deal. The drills were sterilized, then inspected in an extremely clean clean-room. The people doing the checks would have definitely been fully garbed with full face covers &...

• Commented on Retro NASAWatch

  When you do the Saturn V "experience" at KSC, as the tour guide passes the launch control center (actually the real deal, but moved) the tour guide tells you "Everything in the launch control room is absolutely Authentic and looks...

• Commented on First Orion Flight in 2014?

  "Isn't aerobraking a possibility? Then in theory you wouldn't use any energy other than whatever maneuvers are required to line up for each aerobraking pass." Absolutely! Look up "Balute" and see what you find. It would be conceivable to have...

• Commented on First Orion Flight in 2014?

  "Not true. LEO is not representative of BEO and not even close. BEO mission do not have thousands of temperature cycles. The radiation environment is not the same." Actually, the radiation environment in LEO is WORSE than in Deep Space,...

• Commented on First Orion Flight in 2014?

  "Lots of margin too. The Falcon Heavy could probably lob Orion right around the Moon, Apollo 13 style, for a real test." You read my mind when SpaceX announced the first launch of falcon 9 Heavy, but didnt mention a...

• Commented on NASA Point of "Contact" - Please Don't Call Me

  https://people.nasa.gov/ Meyer, Claudia M claudia.m.meyer@nasa.gov 216.977.7511 Stu Editor's note: I posted that information last week....

• Commented on What Would Wernher Do? What DID He Do?

  "Then there was the Mars probe that crashed on the surface of Mars because Martin-Marietta (or was it Lock-Mart by that time???) was working with English units of measure and JPL was using NASA-standard metric!" "The problem was with a...

• Commented on White House: No E.T. - Yet

  "Nobody knows the odds of life developing in the first place, even when conditions are perfect for it. " Actually I believe the opposite: How many solar systems do we know in detail - ONE How many of those solar...

• Commented on Video: Shezhou Docks With Tiangong-1

  "NASA has never accomplished an unmanned docking." Not only did the Orbital Express System perform multiple autonomous dockings, but it also removed components from one satellite and install them on the other. The two spacecraft also transferred fuel between each...

• Commented on Did China Hack U.S. Satellites? (NASA Update)

  On a similar note: This is not the first time this has happened (maybe we should be blaming Russia) "In 2008, NASA investigators were reported to have found that the ROSAT failure was linked to a cyber-intrusion at Goddard Space...

• Commented on Did China Hack U.S. Satellites? (NASA Update)

  The command system for MOST U.S. satellites are well documented under the international CCSDS standard, therefore it is not too hard to figure out how to format the commands. What IS hard to figure out what the "command dictionary" looks...

• Commented on NPOESS in Space (Finally)

  "I can't believe this incredible rocket system is being discarded-what a waste." There are still enough pieces to launch about 5 more delta-2s in storage. ULA just needs the NASA contract. The real problem with this system is parts obsolescence....

• Commented on NASA's Ongoing (But Closely Held) Interest In SLS Alternatives

  "By releasing the engineering design for the "truck", anyone can build it " If we want to participate in ANY international effort to "standardize", then share the design, then we need to repeal ITAR. It is one of the biggest...

• Commented on Understanding House Science Committee Republican Deficit Recommendations

  "Of course the Republican staffers on this authorizing committee could have picked any mission with a similar cost range to cut but they chose OCO-2 because its mission is directly related to global change issues." OR maybe they are punishing...

• Commented on NASA Studies Show Cheaper Alternatives to SLS

  "Please fill me in. To the best of my knowledge, the MARIE experiment (Mars Radiation Environment Experiment) aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the only experiment to date that has actually flown in space (outside geospace) and made relevant...

• Commented on NASA Studies Show Cheaper Alternatives to SLS

  "Do they? Outside geospace? Outside of Earth’s magnetic field? Point to the data and tell me where it came from." What we DO know is the incidence of the damaging radiation. That is because we fly a lot of interplanetary...

• Commented on NASA Studies Show Cheaper Alternatives to SLS

  There is one point most on this thread do not appreciate about the hazards of shielding humans from cosmic rays. If you do not shield 100% from the cosmic rays, it causes MORE HARM than good. When a cosmic ray...

• Commented on NASA Studies Show Cheaper Alternatives to SLS

  Apollo100 I do not work for SpaceX, but WAS interviewed by Elon Musk, and turned down the offer for a job on Dragon. Does that count? However I DO work for a major NASA contractor and live daily under the...

• Commented on NASA Studies Show Cheaper Alternatives to SLS

  "A fuel producing lunar base with a reusable lunar lander is the best way to reduce launch cost for the SLS since it would require only one SLS launch per mission." AND dont forget that without lunar refueling we will...

• Commented on X-37 Variant To Launch Crews?

  Seems like a waste of effort for Boeing to develop TWO different crew transports. They should have just gone straight to the X37-C instead of messing with the CST-100. It seems like the best of both worlds: Just like shuttle...

• Commented on NASA Study: Why SpaceX Can Build A Rocket Cheaper Than NASA

  "SpaceX estimates that every dollar sent out of the company actually costs between $3 and $5 based on subcontractor overhead and profit" That is not always true. Being a NASA contractor, if we build one cable in house, we have:...

• Commented on SLS Design Unveiled

  They failed. As I stated before, the intelligent approach would have been: 1 - A core stage capable of lifting the orion to the space station (or orbital rendezvous) using NO SOLIDS. 2 - A 130MT vehicle that uses solids...

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

  "For $63 billion dollars Spacex could set up enough infrastructure in cis-lunar space to create a permanent foothold from which to settle the solar system." And what is funny, they can legally claim land on the moon if they get...

• Commented on Robbing Human Space Flight To Bail Out Webb

  "what was that last line spoken to the commander of the Red October just before his own torpedo shot his own boat?" 'You arrogant ass. You've killed *us*!' BTW - Alan, Hows Ralph doing? I think I am sitting in...

• Commented on Webb Costs Continue To Swell

  CB450SC , "I am a member of the astronomical community, and I think it would be better to drive a stake through JWST now." So what would you do with the 90% of the most expensive parts of the telescope...

• Commented on Webb Costs Continue To Swell

  "And this is far from the first time this particular company has low-balled cost estimates to win a contract." You forgot to mention NPOESS......

• Commented on Max Launch Abort System Is Alive And Well

  Have a look at this: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-04/spacexs-new-launch-abort-system-saves-both-imperiled-crews-and-money The LAS is integral to the reaction-control/delta-V system used on orbit, or moon landing, or mars EDL, earth hard landing, etc. It's not a tower that is expended every mission, needed or not....

• Commented on Max Launch Abort System Is Alive And Well

  "Why is NASA continuing to develop an alternate launch escape system for Orion " Because they figured out that SpaceX was smarter than they are in developing a dual use LAS that you dont throw away with every launch. Now...

• Commented on Juno Leaves Earth On A Trip To Jupiter

  Congats to the Juno team! Here is a little trivia about previously proposed Jupiter Missions: In April of 2001, Ball Aerospace was awarded the study contract for "Inside Jupiter". It was to be a Solar Powered, Magnetometer, radio science mission...