Posted on 07/30/2005 3:11:28 PM PDT by Red6
Wow, I'm doing really good today. I think I'd just better have a beer or something... %-)
Loss of thermal tiles has always been a problem, they used to find several in the flame trough on the pad after launch. Several times tools were left onboard to free float after achieving orbit. A torque wrench was found in the upper section of an SRB only to be discovered during disassembly. I forget what launch it was (an early one) and empty coke cans and empty ciggarette packs floated out from underneath the seats on the orbiter.
Like I said, everyone is an expert on what Nasa is doing wrong now...
Is the replacement for freon in NASA use the same as in home use? If so that could be Puron... It is frightfully expensive by comparison and home a/c units will have to use it in the next few years.
When we replaced our ac 5 years ago we went to puron. It has been troublesome and very expensive (just because of use of puron) whereas the older unit used for another segment of the house is still freon and has never needed any attention in over 20 years.
Dupont owns the patent for freon AND the replacement for freon
They won't even consider adding fibers to the foam due to the added weight. It's all about the weight.
Listen, I'm not saying Burt is the answer to all of spaceflight. But if NASA keeps tweaking 30-year-old ideas in the hope of moving forward, that to me is some damn stultifyin' thinking. If you have big piles of cash and you can choose to innovate smaller and leaner as Rutan has done, the time is now to DO IT.
I never said NASA should be dismantled. I *do* think it needs a shot in the arm with new ideas and out of the box enthusiasm. The guys at NASA are, as an average, getting older and older. They were inspired by the early days of space aviation. Where's the next crop of inspired young scientists going to come from? From watching retreaded shuttle launches that keep aiming for covered ground and don't always succeed at even that?
Just askin'.
The areas where they are losing foam are in the cryogenic repressurization lines which means they are dealing with ambient temperatures on the external side and negative freezing temps only inches away behind the tunnel covers.
I'm not a rocket scientist, I'm a carpenter drinking beer (LOL) but I think I know what I am talking about.
Bravo. Well said.
Don't fool yourself. The freon problem was real and on solid scientific ground.
"What are Joseph Farah's credentials again to critique the work of rocket scientists?"
lol
Probably about the same is yours, but I won't stop you from writing your opinions as long as you don't stop me from calling Mr Farah a dipstick.
I agree with Mr Farah about the shuttle - we should use the best proven technologies and materials for cutting edge science. If NASA doesn't understand that then they shouldn't fly man into space.
It's rocket science, not environmental science.
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
NASA --> Never A Staight Answer
> I worked on SS1 and I have a pretty good idea of what Burt's position is and some of the flaws therein
Nice. I'm jealous. Also, I don't think Burt is the be-all end-all, but I do believe he rightly points out how NASA has gotten into a rut.
> At this point in time NASA is still necessary in a few areas, those including access to government facilities (ala use of Edwards AFB restricted airspace), a political interface, and the fact that they still have some very smart people working for them. They are coming around, but it's still too early to determine whether the management is convinced of allowing greater private control. The latest "contest" programs are just a beginning.
Glad to hear things are changing. Like I've said, I don't believe in counting NASA out, only that they desperately need to shake off a plodding "stay the course" kind of thinking.
It doesn't help that govt. control makes idiots feel like they can criticize every mishap on the grounds that every mission needs to be completely safe. Reduce risk, yeah, but do these pinheads know that no science is 100% in the early days? Sheesh.
You confuse pulling the plug on an incompetent old federal bureaucracy with pulling the plug on the space program. They are very different things, and NASA has all the hallmarks of an incompetent organization. However many competent and smart people work there, it has become unwieldy with offices and organizations checking the checkers. There is no accountability for making any decisions, no way that decisison get made in a traceable deliberate fashion, and no way to get anything done. You need to shed about 90% of the people who are there, but if you tried to do it, of course, being and incompetent organization, the people to do the reorganization would be incompetent, and the process would lead to the elimination of any pockets of competency left. The bureaucrats would see this as an improvement. Now they would be able to practice pure unadulterated bureaucracy, untroubled by the burden of any facts or arguments presented by anyone who actually knows what is going on or how to do anything useful.
If you think I paint a bleak picture, you have never been in an incompetent government organization.
You think NASA is run by rocket scientists?? You really are out of touch. It is run by bureaucrats. A real genuine rocket scientist is sometimes asked for his opinion by lower level bureaucrats - and his opinion is only an opinion. I doubt a real rocket scientist has been allowed within 1000 ft of the administrator's office for years - certainly not without a leash and collar (one of those medieval kinds you use for dobermans).
But I am not concerned with that. My own issue is property rights in outer space. It shouldn't be my issue, but I seem to be alone at the moment. It should be a big issue, and eventually it will be. I'm evidently a little ahead of things in my interest. Burt should be hugely interested in space property rights. All the space developers should be, but they are still trying to get off the ground. When they finally do get off the ground, they will smack into the property rights issue and crash.
What is your position (I ask because I'm interested) on Gerard O'Neil type space colonies at L3 or 5, such as a spinning torus (a la Riverworld)? No landy rights to consider, etc..
landy s/b land...
The prohibition on private ownership of space resources would not cover anything launched from earth, that ownership would continue, but it would cover any celestial bodies such as lunar soil and asteroidal material.
Remember those ads for lunar property? Where you could purchase land on the moon? That was all some wierd hoax, wasn't it?
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