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NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

cnn.com

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Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#701

Post by dboreham »

fluoridation wrote: post #548
jjk166 wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with the shuttle wasn't the material science. It was designed around a mission profile of servicing spy satellites, which at the time had film which needed to be developed. The defense department gave NASA requirements which could only be satisfied by moving the orbiter to the side of the rocket, dramatically increasing potential damage to the thermal tiles and making crew escape basically impossible. This…

Wait, TV signals weren't unknown in the '80s and '90s. Why were they using film instead of TV cameras?

Rather than "very late to use tv" they were "very early to use CCDs". Even so that only happened in the 1980s. Before that film had to be used, same as we all had to use film for our holiday snaps until 2000.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#702

Post by lesuorac »

nxor wrote: post #570
WalterBright wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charles Lindbergh knew his chances of dying crossing the Atlantic were pretty high. After all, previous attempts resulted in many deaths. Armstrong's personal estimate of his odds getting back alive were about 50%. Apollo 13 came within a hair of killing its crew. I fly across the North Atlantic at 30,000 feet, death in seconds if the hull is breached, in a comfortable chair, watching a movie and sipping a drink. Isn…

Planes are incredible. And people die every day flying them. The public seems to have found that out this year

Crucially, American's typically don't die from commercial flight every day.

It's also entirely reasonable as an American to discount Polio / Ebola and a lot of other stuff that' aren't an issue for them. It doesn't mean that worldwide they aren't a problem. But historically, we've had systems to ensure these things aren't problems so when they become problems its newsworthy.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#703

Post by recursive »

eru wrote: post #608
darepublic wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean it may not be a good reason but it would boost morale. I'd be happy about it

Buying everyone a puppy would presumably also raise morale.

who's going to take care of this puppy?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#704

Post by cratermoon »

Yeul wrote: post #624
themgt wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America cannot possibly win the space race again, because it has already been won. This is sort of like saying Leif Erikson and the Icelandic Commonwealth won the "the new world race" in 1000AD. Whatever Columbus et al were up to would surely be of trifling concern to future generations.

It also ignores the fact that empires can decline. (Although I think the moon landing is ridiculous there is no scientific reason for it).

What do you mean "there is no scientific reason for it"?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#705

Post by dboreham »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #627

None of this is real. Duffy and Isaacman are fighting to be head of NASA. This is that fight spilling from Washington over the weekend onto Twitter today because of course it has with this administration. Duffy, as acting head of NASA, is trying to lob a threat at Musk, Isaacman’s patron. He’s done so poorly, and so here we are.

In what way is Musk Isaacman's patron? He's a billionaire on his own.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#706

Post by gg82 »

mikkupikku wrote: post #317
buellerbueller wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the first people to sail the globe did so knowing the risks. I suspect if we reduced astronaut safety thresholds by a factor of 10, we will still have a surplus of high quality candidates for space missions.

I am sure the astronauts know and accept the risks, but does that really mean the public should be funding such reckless activities? They can go paragliding or base jumping on their own dime if they want an adrenaline rush. The public has spend billions of dollars on this program, if the end result is astronauts getting cooked during reentry then how could that possibly be an outcome worth the expense?

It is not even "if" they should be funding these activities.... it is whether the public would "support" funding these activities, if there was a trail of deaths.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#707

Post by guy2345 »

actionfromafar wrote: post #398
oytis wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is becoming a silly place. Lumberjack appointed as a head of NASA for his loyalty.

In Russia, loyalty is the highest virtue. In the USA, it's the other way around! ⁽"ᵀʰᵉ ʰᶦᵍʰᵉˢᵗ ᵛᶦʳᵗᵘᵉ ᶦˢ ˡᵒʸᵃˡᵗʸ"⁾

[dead]

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#708

Post by dmbche »

greenavocado wrote: post #674
LPisGood wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why didn’t the USSR point this fakery out?

It would have made them a laughing stock and the prospect of future cooperation would have been slammed shut. It would have made the USSR seem like sore losers. They were already public enemy number one thanks to the media PR machine. The Russians have been cooperating with the USA and ESA for many years on LEO missions, culminating in the successful ISS project.

We didn't go to the moon but the ISS is real?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#709

Post by postingawayonhn »

imoverclocked wrote: post #422
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mars is entirely within reach if we wanted to dedicate the resources to it. If we can get to the moon over 50 years ago, Mars is nothing today. I don't necessarily think it would be worth it given the cost, but it is totally possible if it was a priority.

This is a vastly oversimplified take; Mars will be a monumental effort, far beyond what it takes to get to/from the moon.

You'll need to launch more mass to get there but the technology isn't really any more complicated. It's also a more hospitable environment (reasonable gravity, day/night cycle, some atmosphere, water, etc.)

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#710

Post by robocat »

kurisufag wrote: post #698
fastball wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even clear the USA "won" the space race. America was first (and last) to land men on the moon, but arguably the USSR had far more space-related "firsts" than the US. Landing on the moon only become the end-all-be-all when the US achieved it and the USSR could not (for various reasons).

the reds did space much, much worse. first satellite? all sputnik could do was beep, and it ran out of batteries in three weeks. first animal? laika died. first station? there were two attempts to crew it -- the first failed to dock and everyone on the second mission fucking died. the soyuz 11 crew remain the only human deaths in space. first *naut? yuri gagarin didn't even have manual controls. the n1 was catastroph…

Failing fast is easier when lives are valued cheaply. “If it’s not failing, you’re not pushing hard enough.”

You are selecting goalposts that suit your team, and being disrespectful of the USSR (presumably because you don't want to acknowledge their successes).

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