Ummmmm…no.
The media hysteria is also mistaken (as always) in imagining that NASA human spaceflight has (and has ever had) much to do with science.
Category Archives: Space Science
The 2020 Trump Budget Request
NASA starts at page 97.
It’s the beginning of the end for SLS. NASA wants to do Europa on a “commercial vehicle,” plans for Block 1B are “deferred,” and they propose commercial providers for getting to and from the moon itself, which means that SLS has nothing to do except the Gateway, and it can’t do the Gateway without the new upper stage planned for Block 1B.
It will be interesting to see the Congressional response. One thing it does do is continue to flow the wasteful funding for Block 1 to the right zip codes, so Congress may not care. Culberson is gone now, and if this budget passes with that wording, it would end the legislative requirement to use SLS for Europa.
[Update a few minutes later]
This budget is basically an implicit admission that SLS serves no purpose other than to ship taxpayer funds to the right zip codes. Even Gateway doesn't need it. Which means that the need for the Gateway itself goes away, since its primary mission was to give SLS something to do. https://t.co/oohwiukMwS
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) March 11, 2019
This is an OMB proposal. Bridenstine had to provide lip service to SLS to get confirmed. I wonder what he’ll say when he gets called on the carpet by Congress?
[Tuesday noon update]
Yes, Dr. Stofan, NASA could get to Mars sooner, but it doesn’t need more money, it just needs to spend the money it gets more sensibly. They could get to Mars in five years if they could use the SLS/Orion budget for something useful.
[Bumped]
[Update a while later]
Space Launch System recap over the last two years:
* Delayed from 2018 to 2021
* A single flight in Block 1 configuration to indefinite amount
* All upgrades deferred
* Europa mission moved because of delays
* Gateway moved to private rockets— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) March 11, 2019
But other than that, it’s had a great two years.
Settling Mars
Not mention? Whether or not humans can procreate in 0.38 gees. Because no one knows, and Elon doesn’t seem to care.
Lunar Heritage Sites
My buddy Michelle Hanlon was on NPR yesterday, and the LA Times has an approving editorial.
Protecting Human Heritage On The Moon
An interesting piece by Michelle Hanlon. This is a corollary with space property right. If some places are off limits, it implies that most others are not.
Save The Far Side!
This seems a little overblown to me, certainly currently.
I agree that it’s a special place in terms of radio silence, and would be a great location for very large radiotelescopes. But I don’t know many people who would want to live there, and never see the home planet. And they could do comm via lasers — no need to pollute the local “air” waves with spurious RF communications.
Location For A Mars Colony?
Bob Zimmerman (who is doing his annual fundraising drive) has found a fascinating cave.
Lost Opportunity
Martian Water
They may be able to dig wells. I wonder how much purification it will require, given the permanganchlorates. Also, the well will have to have a heater to melt the ice, I suspect.
[For some reason I always write “permanganates” when I mean perchlorates]
Ultima Thule
Congratulations to Alan Stern and the New Horizons team. The flyby appears to have been a success, we now know that it’s bilobal, and it didn’t have a light curve because the spacecraft was (coincidentally) coming toward its spin axis. Not enough data yet to know if it has a 15-hour or 30-hour period, but we’ll start getting high-res pictures tomorrow. It will take two year to download all the data, though, to give similar resolution that we got for Pluto.
[Update a while later]
High(er) res tomorrow, not high-res.