To send a man where many men (and women) have gone before:
The complex and dangerous three-day mission, dubbed “Chariot I,” is expected to pass through six states and include two brief transfers in Atlanta and Louisville in both directions, at a reported total cost of $360 dollars plus taxes and fees.
“For almost as long as our nation has existed, man has gazed upon a map of the eastern United States and dreamed of traveling to Cleveland, the largest metropolitan area in Ohio,” NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. said at a press conference announcing the agency’s first major initiative since the discontinuation of the space shuttle program. “Until now, the immense physical and psychological risks involved in any manned mission had put that dream sadly out of reach.”
They’d never be able to do it that cheaply, unless they use Greyhound. As Clark Lindsey notes:
Of course, this mission cannot be carried out with a commercial bus but only with NASA’s $20B SBS (Senate Bus System). NASA has many studies to confirm this.
Though somehow, we never actually see their results.
Proposed solutions:
a) high speed rail!
b) heavy lift!
c) All of the above
Why go back to Cleveland? There’s nothing there. We’ve been there before. We should scrap the program and pay for things like education. Lean In. Lean Forward.
NASA could not, and would not, attempt a manned mission to Cleveland for $360.
For $360 Billion spent on a 10 year program, however, NASA could put a man in Cleveland and then return him safely to… um… Orlando?
This actually makes as much sense as grabbing a very tiny asteroid and moving it into lunar orbit so it can be “studied” by a manned mission (a manned mission to an object SMALLER than the spacecraft!). They would learn far more by bringing a few tons of it to earth via an unmanned mission, at a tiny fraction of the cost.
Too much risk.
There is no NASA man rating on that bus. Not only that, there is no escape system in case the bus CATOs. There is some possibility, considering these missing systems, that this post is a troll from Americaspace touting things NASA claims they are going to do at some point in the indefinite future.
So there is an Grey Hound rocket that can go to the moon and Mars departing from every city and town in America? I’m afraid that this attempt at satire is just a little flat.
Non-Sequiturus Maximus.
…but what about muslim outreach?
Newsflash: It’s a kosher bus. Muslims offended. Bombing threats made.
Perhaps someday, in the far future, the nations of the world can combine their frontier exploration efforts and send an autonomous wheeled probe to Oregon.
We’ve sent computerized probes to Oregon — we know how that ends.
Lest we forget.
Actually, it’s not so far fetched that NASA might launch a mission to Cleveland. After all, the Russians have launched a couple of deep space probes to South America…
Preposterous!!! What is the point in landing in a hostile environment like downtown Cleveland? No one could survive there more than a few minutes.