An article in a UK publication about the potential impact of Musk and Isaacson on the agency, with quotes from a few clueless scientists.
[Afternoon update]
An exit interview with Bill Nelson.
An article in a UK publication about the potential impact of Musk and Isaacson on the agency, with quotes from a few clueless scientists.
[Afternoon update]
An exit interview with Bill Nelson.
An exit interview with Bill Nelson.
-beep – Ballast, this is Houston. We show you ready for EVA other than your visor is still up. Can you confirm you visor is down? -beep-
-static-
-beep- Ballast, Houston. How do you read?
-static-
ROFLMAO!
Ditto!
Musk is competing with the US government, the Russian government, the Chinese government, the Indian government, and all of Europe, and he’s beating them. I’m not really sure what the Brits are doing.
The Brits are doing what has, sadly, become their norm – standing to one side as spectators only and viewing we Yanks with a mixture of annoyance and alarm.
If Britain was serious about space they’d try 3d printing a SABRE engine.
The problem of SLS/Orion has to be solved one way or another, and I don’t know how that will go in the face of Congressional opposition. Cancelling it and reappropriating its entire budge to Starship and Blue Moon is a big order. Hard to imagine.
As far as LEO destinations go, I still think salvaging ISS is a good idea, albeit unlikely. Phase II (Nodes 2 and 3, Columbus lab, Japanese Segment, and the Node 3 attachments) could be saved, and added to the first two Gateway elements (PMM and Halo), plus whatever bits of Axiom get built. If Sierra can add inflatables, so much the better. You could fill Halo with ECLSS to replace what ROS was doing.
I think the SLS problem might be solved by moving NASA Headquarters to Huntsville as a bribe to buy off the Alabama congressional delegation. It’s already under discussion (the move, not the bribe part…that’s just “understood”). Though Marshall is clearly a driving force sustaining SLS, it isn’t the only one – there’s also the Northrop Grumman lobby in Utah, West Virginia, and Maryland.
It’s not as clear what would be done about Orion, but it’s a minor player compared to SLS. But if NASA HQ were in Huntsville, it could at least control Marshall (it doesn’t now), and have a chance of killing SLS.
The problem of SLS-Orion can be solved by taking the misbegotten thing out back of the barn and administering the Old Yeller solution.
Given that the entire federal government is to be massively downsized, I don’t see the current SLS-Orion portion of NASA’s budget being repurposed within NASA. I think it will simply go away. NASA is already likely to lose several of its current “centers” to the bullDOGErs. Marshall richly deserves to lead that particular parade.
“Salvaging” ISS by sticking even more random bits onto it is a pointless exercise. Especially if some of said bits are from yet another pointless exercise, namely Gateway. ISS requires nearly its entire crew to be doing “George jobs” – warehousemen and janitors – full-time. Next-gen LEO stations will eliminate much of this via better design and automation. What’s left can be handled by live-in Optimus robots.
PPE-HALO should be auctioned off if two or more of the next-gen LEO station builders express any interest. If only one such does, hand it to them for a dollar. If no such interest is found to exist, see if Udvar-Hazy is interested. If not, go down the list of other space museums/rocket gardens. If there are still no takers, scrap the whole works.
“ORLANDO, Fla. — While Elon Musk suggests he is interested in going directly to Mars, NASA experts argue that lunar missions are essential before attempting any human expeditions to the Red Planet.
In a Jan. 2 post on X, the social media network he owns, Musk made clear he was not interested in at least a sustained human presence on the moon, or even any at all. “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction,” he wrote.
His comments were in response to a post that suggested producing liquid oxygen on the moon as propellant for SpaceX Starship missions to Mars, and not necessarily a wholesale rejection of human missions to the moon. ”
https://spacenews.com/nasa-emphasizes-role-of-the-moon-as-testbed-for-future-human-mars-missions/
Well, Lunar LOX could be too costly to be of any use for Mars exploration and/or settlements.
Or we don’t know if there is minable lunar water and there might be mineable lunar water but Lunar LOX could be too expensive.
One might say lunar exploration is necessary, But NASA’s decades of delaying lunar exploration is making it less necessary to explore the Moon and than Mars.
One might say in the time NASA has wasted, we might now have a way to send crew to Mars, soon.
Or in the beginning going to Moon first, could been a pathway to Mars, and now, Musk seems pretty sure, that this path has almost been found.
Another aspect of Moon, is checking out, orbital efforts of finding mineable water on the Moon. Or sending crew and finding evident of water at lunar surface. And it seems orbital exploration of Mars is going to be critical. And improving in this, also needs confirmation of Mars surface [also].
I’d say the Starship architecture is flexible enough to do both. One has to take Musk pronouncements with a large grain of salt. When he’s talking distractions he’s talking about proposed Mars enablers via Moon. Not getting to the Moon. Otherwise why did he allow SpaceX to sign up for providing an Artemis lunar lander?
So no, I don’t take Musk seriously when he says the Moon is a “distraction”. He has already committed SpaceX resources to getting to the moon. I can’t imagine him backing out now and turning all of Artemis over to Blue Origin.
I’m 100% with Mr. Barton when it comes to re-tasking Gateway to be the supporting/propulsion system for a refurbished ISS. In its current form (assuming SpaceX remains in the game) it serves little purpose.
Musk was talking specifically about using the moon to synthesize propellant for mars vs sending it from earth via starship.
And quite correctly so. A permanent presence on the Moon will include metal smelting infrastructure which will yield oxygen as a by-product whether or not the problematical lunar “ice” turns out to exist in useful quantity or not. That oxygen will be needed as propellant to support the lander fleet that will shuttle between lunar orbit and the lunar surface with people and other things that need to be landed/launched gently. The oxygen itself will be yeeted into lunar capture orbits by SpinLaunch-type “flingers” in reusable metal cans.
To the extent fulfilling lunar contracts helps Musk get to Mars they are worth the effort but the two activities happen at the same time, not sequentially. Selling lunar lox to SpaceX could be a great business but SpaceX isn’t going to wait twenty years for it to become a reality.
This is fine because if it really does turn out to be the most affordable option for starship refueling, it will be another in a long line of improvements to make the whole system cheaper and it could happen at a time when the volume of launches during the launch season needs that capability.
NASA needs an enema. First, the Augustine commission recommended turning all NASA centers into Federally Funded Research and Development centers; it makes it much easier to shed personnel. Currently only JPL is an FFRDC, and they’re about the only functional part of NASA.
Second, all *operational* parts of NASA must be moved to Space Force. All that should remain is R&D, since the incentives for both are opposed. You could move 25% of NASA to Space Force (such as the launch complexes), keep 10% of NASA, and wind down the other two thirds. That’s a start.