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OT: killing the shuttle program was the best thing for NASA
 

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walter
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4391
Location: metro-motown-area

8/6/13 3:49 PM

OT: killing the shuttle program was the best thing for NASA

it's forcing the agency to INNOVATE.

the shuttle and ISS are basically jobs programs, keeping engineers employed but not advancing space exploration at the rate we saw during mercury/gemini/apollo.

now that there isnt an easy (albeit unsafe) way to get us into orbit, scientists and engineers are figuring out innovative ways to advance exploration of the solar system and beyond -- maximizing *both* remote sensing *and* the potential for manned exploration.

if STS were still flying it would be gobbling up all of the available dollars and a fair number of astronauts...all in pursuit of lobbing cargo into low earth orbit. yawn. STS was a dinosaur and it's time had come.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241406/NASA_working_on_tech_to_take_humans_to_Mars_and_bring_them_back

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ErikS
Joined: 19 May 2005
Posts: 8337
Location: Slowing boiling over in the steamy south, Global Warming is real

8/6/13 5:44 PM

My issue is;

The program has no clear goals or target. With each administration change, things change at NASA. The goal has to be set because it takes so long to develop the program and we have to stick to it for the long term.

I still think SpaceX is the best hope for long term goals to be met. The SLS will end up defunded and the Falcon Heavy lift variant will be king because of the dual role as a commercial lift and manned lift using the same hardware.

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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield

8/6/13 6:47 PM

Shuttle was a good concept that hypnotized us collectively.

NASA back then had a problem with the scale of implementation. In the planning heyday of the Apollo era Von Braun was talking 100 Apollo missions a year. A big part of that plan was reusing boosters, just like Space-X. It's just back then we were in a race and we couldn't be concerned with reusability. Then Shuttle came along as a compromise between science, engineering and congressional earmarks.

This is what we were promised for Shuttle processing:

This is what we got:


But if we had not done it people would still be clamoring that a space plane like that would be the holy grail. And we really learned a lot about how to put people and cargo into space (and how NOT to!)

Falcon heavy is great. There's room for NASA and commercial vehicles.

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