As is usually the case, the comments at this Andy Pasztor article on the upcoming changes to the human spaceflight program, are ignorant and often nonsensical (the usual spinoff arguments are employed — one comments corrects another that NASA didn’t invent the microwave oven, only to then claim that it invented Teflon). As is often the case, it’s a stupidly partisan debate, with Obama haters (ironically) defending a bloated government agency. Jim Muncy and Bob Werb try (probably unsuccessfuly) to inject a little sanity.
And I have to say that I really don’t understand all these comments about “outsourcing” to US private industry. The irony of course is that the current plan is to “outsource” all of US human spaceflight after Shuttle to the Russians, indefinitely, and largely because the past five years and many billions were wasted on Ares/Orion instead of providing more incentive to private industry.
Calling them clueless is being too kind Rand. I would hope any of them could have said something more intellegent with even a few minutes of thought.
If NASA had been put in charge of building the Transcontinental Railroad, only 6 trains would have made it to the Pacific coast and back in the entire 19th century.
When I’m feeling particularly cynical, I like to joke that the Constellation Program (i.e. Ares, Orion, etc.) was intentionally set up by Mike Griffin to discredit/destroy NASA. The plan seems to be working.
When I am feeling less cynical I say that Griffin, et al were completely sincere in thinking that ESAS was the best way to proceed, but that things have not worked out so well…
It just kills me that if NASA could get so much more bang for its buck by putting up several hundred million dollars for winnable prizes, similar to the Centennial Challenge. The competition would not only generate ideas and creativity, it would actually generate public interest. A paltry $2 million spurred efforts by Masten, Armadillo, Unreasonable, and a few smaller teams. The drama caught public attention, too. And the $2 million set aside for the Level One and Two competitions probably wouldn;t have covered a year’s stationary budget at NASA.
“It’s not ‘outsourcing’ if it’s just going to another government!”, so thinketh the pro-government crowd who deem the most evil organization on the planet to be Wal-Mart.
Tom D.: remember Jon Clarke’s first law: “any sufficiently advanced cluelessness is indistinguishable from malice.”