NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
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NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
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Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#2Sounds like it could be good if you want to go there repeatedly, bad if you just want to get there as fast as possible again.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#3It’s kind of ridiculous how often NASA has to reallocate their focus. Personally, I’d like to see a longer term 5 - 10 year plan that is voted on by congress and basically the funds are deposited in an escrow.
It’s insane the waste that occurs from random political moves like this. I understand the need to be able to direct NASA, but that should be in addition to the described 5 - 10 year plans. This would give the flexibility needed, while at the same time ensuring skills and contractors are maintained and long term visions are still possible.
I kind of view the “gate” in its current state as NASA knowing it’s the correct choice technically and trying to politically make it viable. Shouldn’t we listen to the experts here?
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#4It’s kind of ridiculous how often NASA has to reallocate their focus. Personally, I’d like to see a longer term 5 - 10 year plan that is voted on by congress and basically the funds are deposited in an escrow. It’s insane the waste that occurs from random political moves like this. I understand the need to be able to direct NASA, but that should be in addition to the described 5 - 10 year plans. This would give the f…
Since Bush every incoming president has set up a “vision” that scraps all previous work and which then in turn gets scrapped by the next guy. I wonder how the people working there can keep motivated knowing that most of their work is just for show. Seems unmanned missions are fine but manned missions are just a mess.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#5It's terrible because they effectively canceled the asteroid retrieval mission (ARM) when they chose to fund the proposals that did not include any de-spin mechanisms. This leaves them with literally 3 possible asteroids to try to bring in. Useless.
The point of the lunar gateway was to have a close (in time) place for resources and the like. But without any ability to capture and bring in asteroids it's just a waste of space.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#6It’s kind of ridiculous how often NASA has to reallocate their focus. Personally, I’d like to see a longer term 5 - 10 year plan that is voted on by congress and basically the funds are deposited in an escrow. It’s insane the waste that occurs from random political moves like this. I understand the need to be able to direct NASA, but that should be in addition to the described 5 - 10 year plans. This would give the f…
I was talking with my daughter about this yesterday and it really occurred to me that it's probably important to look at NASA through a realist lens.
Here's their Vision and Mission statement: [0]
Vision: We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind
Mission: Drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of Earth
Given the history of using the space program as a tool of political/nationalist/defense goals it's probably more realistic to simply act as if the stated purpose of the agency is really a kind of "marketing" that is significantly independent of the "lived experience" so to speak.
At minimum I would expect that a mental model of NASA that ignored the vision and mission statements would result in much better predictions about what NASA was likely to do.
I should add that I consider all of this deeply unfortunate and I'm not defending it in the least.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#7All this "get back to the moon" stuff makes me wonder what the purpose of going to the moon actually is. It's definitely different for different people.
If the whole point of the endeavor is just another space race exercise to demonstrate American prowess like the we did in the 1960's-- perhaps that's a waste of effort? Do we really need that symbolic achievement at such an enormous cost? Not to mention the opportunity cost of having to drop more scientifically productive robotic missions?
The fact that the dithering idiocy of our current "administration" is even uttering anything about a moon mission sort of makes me think they see this as just a baloney "show-the-world" stunt.
What if, instead, there was a focus on true science, unmanned missions, and perhaps steps towards actual space applications: mining, asteroid protection, and staging for permanent space installations ?
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#8It’s kind of ridiculous how often NASA has to reallocate their focus. Personally, I’d like to see a longer term 5 - 10 year plan that is voted on by congress and basically the funds are deposited in an escrow. It’s insane the waste that occurs from random political moves like this. I understand the need to be able to direct NASA, but that should be in addition to the described 5 - 10 year plans. This would give the f…
Since Bush every incoming president has set up a “vision” that scraps all previous work and which then in turn gets scrapped by the next guy. I wonder how the people working there can keep motivated knowing that most of their work is just for show. Seems unmanned missions are fine but manned missions are just a mess.
The problem is that since there's always a switch between Republican and Democrats, each president has a different perspective on the overall NASA mission (plus each one wants to leave a big mark), so they keep changing.
I think what the people actually working there try to do (as it can be seen here) is find a way to fit what they have already done, with what the new mission statement is, so that they won't have to scrap everything they have done, only the limited amount. That's good is some senses (less wasted work), but the result is then usually not the most fitting solution.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#9All this "get back to the moon" stuff makes me wonder what the purpose of going to the moon actually is. It's definitely different for different people. If the whole point of the endeavor is just another space race exercise to demonstrate American prowess like the we did in the 1960's-- perhaps that's a waste of effort? Do we really need that symbolic achievement at such an enormous cost? Not to mention the opportuni…
I don't think the 'space race' notion can really apply here, since at least in some of the plans for their mission, they planned on doing it in a joint effort with several other space agencies (including the Russian).
I agree that it really does seem like at least the official objective of the current administration (mostly the white house) only care about showing the world/the country/someone else that they're the best, that they have done everything, etc, etc, etc. Just like I think it's clear why they wanted to land on the moon specifically until 2024.
I would like to believe that at least for (most of) the people actually working in NASA, they view their work in a more focused way (science, global cooperation and improvements), and it can be seen by the projects that for example are currently being researched by the NASA astronauts in the ISS.
Re: NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea
#10It’s kind of ridiculous how often NASA has to reallocate their focus. Personally, I’d like to see a longer term 5 - 10 year plan that is voted on by congress and basically the funds are deposited in an escrow. It’s insane the waste that occurs from random political moves like this. I understand the need to be able to direct NASA, but that should be in addition to the described 5 - 10 year plans. This would give the f…
Since Bush every incoming president has set up a “vision” that scraps all previous work and which then in turn gets scrapped by the next guy. I wonder how the people working there can keep motivated knowing that most of their work is just for show. Seems unmanned missions are fine but manned missions are just a mess.
From what I've heard, a lot of people have left NASA as a result of the month-long government shutdown this year. NASA is a political football, and it's not going to get any better: it just takes too long to see a big mission (i.e., manned ones) through, so they're never going to get done with the way our government is running these days. The probes are usually OK because those can get done a lot quicker.