Bob Mahoney

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• Commented on Apollo's Urban Legends

  Something Dr. Lanius does not address in his survey of past polls here is public engagement, i.e., how 'caught up' the public was in space endeavors, queries of their 'support' notwithstanding. Perhaps an accounting survey of above-the-fold newspaper headlines or...

• Commented on Paul McCartney Speaks Out Against NASA Animal Experiments

  Everybody's got something to hide 'cept for me and my monkey......

• Commented on Bobby Braun's Plan To Re-charge NASA Technology

  If the US govt committed (and I do mean COMMITTED...like the 'old' days) to achieving a crewed mission to land on Titan (and return, of course) by 2035, I bet THAT would bring about some game-changing technologies. And such a...

• Commented on Fighting For Shuttles

  I don't know if such an option is practical, but it is a pretty neat suggestion. Maybe this should be the role of Enterprise once it is replaced at NASM by Discovery. It had done similar duty in the early...

• Commented on EVA Plans Hit A Snag

  And the headlines are sooooo crowded with the ongoing 'achievements' occurring at the NIH, Lawrence Livermore, Fermilab,and Los Alamos, etc, not too mention the thousands of other laboratories, public and private, around the nation. I would suggest that your understanding...

• Commented on What is the Space Shuttle's True Legacy?

  Thanks for a nice piece, Frank. I conveyed some of my most heartfelt observations just last week over at The Space Review, but it would be difficult to fit so much more (and there is much more) here on...

• Commented on Political Commentary Disguised as a Video Game Review

  While I haven't tried the game myself, my oldest son (not quite a teenager) has enjoyed it. Glancing over his shoulder, I saw that the graphics were pretty good. The only "political" irony my son noted was the obvious one:...

• Commented on Critical ISS EVA Now Planned For Saturday

  The importance of this EVA cannot be overestimated, especially as it occurs amid so many transitional currents in space operations. If we're ever going to do really big things in space in the coming years, such hardware replacements and related...

• Commented on Kepler Co-Investigator Spills The Beans: Lots of Earth-like Planets

  What exactly is the control for this data? I would be much more comfortable with the headline "Kepler data suggests hundreds of earth-size planets; confirmation underway" Let's hope the instrument isn't being fooled by some other phenomena....

• Commented on Keeping Our Eyes On The Prize

  It's the element of PEOPLE that links us emotionally. As I pointed out explicitly in my ancient essay. "Gotta be able to see their faces" was one of my observations....

• Commented on Keeping Our Eyes On The Prize

  I hate (no, honestly I don't) to drag out my ancient TSR essay addressing this, but the core challenge is to engage the folks (especially the young 'uns) with effective storytelling, because EVERYBODY loves a good story, even if it's...

• Commented on STS-135 Is Almost A Certainty

  Now, RC, there you go flaunting your ignorance of government logic. Since when does something the govt does have to actually make sense or be consistent?...

• Commented on Commercial Space Proponents Respond

  Yet another manifestation of the us/them - venomous mentality that has permeated our culture and society. Demonize 'the enemy' and go on the attack. Doesn't matter what the issue is; 'common ground' is a territory that has sunk forever underneath...

• Commented on Space Technology Industry Forum

  Aside from the vulnerability to easy cancellation of so many different projects (versus one coherent goal-oriented program), I wonder if consolidation of the effort at HQ is another serious risk to the intent of the entire thing. Cutting down on...

• Commented on Three New Centennial Challenges

  Interesting thought exercise: I wonder how the sixties and seventies might have gone, in terms of space development and operations, if NASA had gone this route for their tech development instead of as they did?...

• Commented on Space Technology Industry Forum

  What I've seen of this on NASA TV thus far has not impressed me, except perhaps in a negative way. It has the vibe of Amateur Hour in both its content and presentation. This is the future? How sad....

• Commented on Senate Rejects Obama's Space Plan

  This is a compromise in the sense that the current Administration employs 'compromise'...it just happens to come down on the other side from the WH's preference. And as someone suggested above, if we're serious about 'commercial' operations, then here's the...

• Commented on Former CAIB Members Support White House Space Policy

  Why did only part of the CAIB sign this letter?...

• Commented on Asteroid Lutetia Revealed by Rosetta

  Given that it's the era when we are free to redesignate the terminology for solar system bodies (planet, dwarf planet, etc), I think it's time to rename the Asteroid Belt to something more accurately descriptive: * The Potato Belt *...

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

  Just one more indication that this administration doesn't really know what NASA is about. "Amateur hour" indeed. You would think that they would at least read the Space Act, wherein one will not find any expectation of targeting specific nations...

• Commented on Has China Been Formally Invited to Join the ISS Program? (Another Update)

  we never asked the Soviets to come to the Moon with us Well, actually, we did, when Kennedy addressed the UN on Sept 20, 1963 (http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03_18thGeneralAssembly09201963.htm): Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have...

• Commented on Kepler Withholds Data While NASA Struggles To Be Relevant

  ...it'll take nothing short of putting human-filled boots on another celestial body to generate the kind of enthusiasm... Even doing that won't generate much sustained enthusiasm unless it gets presented to the public more engagingly....

• Commented on Going Nowhere and Everywhere

  How many times must we hear that all these 'great' plans are meeting the resistance they are because they have not been 'effectively communicated' to us? Perhaps the plans are faring so poorly because they are poor plans....

• Commented on Kepler Data Dump - And NASA Ignores it (Update)

  NASA is obviously trying to hide something by obfuscation through incompetent PR. They must have found irrefutable proof of extraterrestrial intelligence and its obvious connections to Roswell, the Philadelphia Experiment, the faked moon landings, and the Amityville Horror...not to mention...

• Commented on Why Isn't The Rest Of America Upset About This?

  Dennis, I find your descriptions of positive feedback encouraging (even if such audiences may be pre-disposed to a certain degree), but I wonder if they are merely reflecting enthusiasm for space exploration/exploitation as a general concept versus their actual understanding...

• Commented on Why Isn't The Rest Of America Upset About This?

  Keith, Your imbedded question in the comments regarding why the Falcon 9 launch made more of a media splash than Constellation cancellation (a very relative thing, of course...it wasn't THAT big of a splash, just like most space news) is...

• Commented on Space Tugs

  The ISS orbit isn't the best for supporting geosync satellite servicing. Doable, but I wonder if the there-and-back propellant overhead would be too high to support a business case for establishing such an infrastructure. Aerobraking and tether boosts would help,...

• Commented on Why Isn't The Rest Of America Upset About This?

  Space exploration is below the radar for most Americans and has been for decades. They weren't paying very close attention when Bush launched the VSE (only insomuch as it was a response to the Columbia tragedy...the import of the ISRU...

• Commented on Space Station Freedom Deja Vu All Over Again

  One shouldn't characterize Astropat's description as 'a complete lie'. It would better be described as an oversimplification of history. There is no denying that Freedom was begun by a Republican administration and significantly downsized by a Democrat one, and certainly...

• Commented on Failing Queen Visit 101

  Keith, Offering commentary on Griffin's current anti-Obamaspace commentaries, etc is obviously appropriate for nasawatch; attaching it to this completely unrelated video is another thing: unprofessional. You lessen the respect others hold for you by posting it. I pray that something...