Obama to axe Ares Rocket?

[taurusowner]

Why is human civilization unlikely to live for 500 million years?

Personally, I am a strong believer in evangelical Christianity (though I'm terrible at practicing it).  I'm not ashamed to admit I think He will end this form of the world long before we are off fighting the Dominion in the Beta Quadrant.  But I still think scientific progress in space is something the be sought after.  Just because I think it's unlikely we'll ever full achieve it doesn't mean it's not worth trying.  That's like me saying I know I'm not going to be alive in 2100, so I might as well kill myself now.

[AZRedhawk44]

My talk radio host in the morning (Barry Young on KFYI) explained what I was feeling, perfectly.

We're having a BIRTHRIGHT as Americans taken from us.

We're the nation that put men on the moon.  We're the leaders in space.  The Russians are such a distant second it's not even funny.  "We are number 1.  All others are number 2."

I almost feel like my country is being completely and utterly destroyed, deliberately.  By a thousand pricks, the biggest of which is in the White House and directing the rest of the pricks. 

Obama is WAY too chummy with China.  Look at all the campaign money that came from anonymous donors whose phone numbers trace to various Chinatowns across the US.  Then there's the deliberate run-up of the national deficit.  China is making mock protestations but I think they're actually happy with the situation:  They'll destroy us with their banking hold over us and it will be cheaper than a war.

He's screwing up these terror trials deliberately, too.  Holder's guarantees of a conviction WILL result in a mistrial and every single one of these bastards will be acquitted.  To add insult to injury, we'll probably get sued and the bastards will get damages from us, then use that money to orchestrate new attacks.

Then there's health care.

Now the space program?  The EU and Japan are the only sophisticated players in the game right now; Russia is like a space-trucker - unsophisticated but reliable.  No goals, but they'll go from point A to point B if someone else pays for it.  China and India are racing to catch up, and frankly I'm rooting for India to stay ahead of China.  But it ain't gonna happen.

Taking my space program and turning it into a place to institutionalize AGW into a bureaucracy takes the current crowning achievement of our nation and of MANKIND and makes a mockery of it.

If NOTHING drives you to act to save the country... can't this?

NASA was created with a military and defensive purpose during the cold war, true... but in its heyday it embodied everything finest in man's exploratory nature.

If it is dismantled... the talent of the entire space/aerospace industry will disperse.  All that generational knowledge, institutional teamwork, the art of spacecraft design, the courage to step into a craft, the trust and faith between ground support and astronaut staff... it will evaporate and disappear.  The technological cost alone will be terrible.  The psychological blow...worse.

And:  if the laws of statistics don't protect us and something comes hurtling towards us in the next decade?  With a mothballed shuttle system and its support structure completely dismantled, no Ares/Constellation, and the aerospace infrastructure LEGACY that is our birthright destroyed: we'll be doomed.  Such a challenge is currently outside of the scope of NASA... even 1970's NASA (which was greater than today's agency).  With no NASA at all, we'd be so far behind the curve as to be without hope.

[MicroBalrog]

Uh. Guys?

You're not 'dismantling' the shuttle. You're funding SEVERAL working alternates.

On NASA's advice, millions of millions of dollars are given to companies like Bigelow Aerospace (which is developing a private habitable space station and has two fully-functional prototype habitats already in space), Space X (intended to replace the Shuttle and working on the private moon probe), and so on, and so forh. It's not enough, sure. But it's probably more effective than what you were doing previously.

[AZRedhawk44]

Uh. Guys?

You're not 'dismantling' the shuttle. You're funding SEVERAL working alternates.

On NASA's advice, millions of millions of dollars are given to companies like Bigelow Aerospace (which is developing a private habitable space station and has two fully-functional prototype habitats already in space), Space X (intended to replace the Shuttle and working on the private moon probe), and so on, and so forh. It's not enough, sure. But it's probably more effective than what you were doing previously.

There are no working alternates.  Let's not kid ourselves.

SpaceX cannot even achieve LEO yet, let alone dock with the ISS or a similar construct.

Bigelow's structure up there is a giant inflated tube with about 10 watts of electrical consumption.  It might be a proof of concept... but it is a long ways from anything useful.

By "millions of millions" (literally trillions) I suppose you actually meant "millions and millions."  Even 50 million or 250 million is a far cry from a 20 billion dollar budget.  250 million doesn't get you launch and lift facilities, nor does it get you the ability to dock with the ISS.

It's not the right time to step back.  Private industry has not matured to a point where it has proven compatibility with existing goals.

It kills me to see the ISS thrown aside, too.  It just got finished.

[MicroBalrog]

SpaceX cannot even achieve LEO yet, let alone dock with the ISS or a similar construct.

Space X has been getting commercial payloads to orbit since July 2009.

Bigelow's structure up there is a giant inflated tube with about 10 watts of electrical consumption.  It might be a proof of concept... but it is a long ways from anything useful.

It is habitable (if only by mice), and they're launching a complete, human-habitable, space-station next year.

[taurusowner]

Space X has been getting commercial payloads to orbit since July 2009.

And THAT is the ticket.  Turn what they do into a product.  Success (barring govt intervention) can only follow.

[Balog]

I'll just say that whatever your reason for wanting it, funding NASA to do actual space stuff is a good idea. Killing the Shuttle would also be a good idea, but that's more a policy thing.

[AZRedhawk44]

MB:  Sorry, in my excitement I got SpaceX confused with SpaceShip1.

[longeyes]

Don't worry, we're not giving up on manned space exploration just yet.  It just means we'll have to run in the back of the bus, and the bus will be driven by Russians or Chinese or Indians...