Posted on 09/28/2005 9:02:35 AM PDT by anymouse
The US space agency NASA lost its way in the 1970s when it focused on the space shuttle and International Space Station, NASA chief Michael Griffin reportedly said.
"It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path," Griffin said. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can."
Asked whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin told USA Today: "My opinion is that it was. It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible."
Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said: "Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in."
Griffin announced September 19 that the United States will send four astronauts to the moon in 2018 in a major return to its pioneering manned missions into space.
Yes, they are wrapping up the final report.
Amazing how these ideas are whipped up, mega-$$$ spent in the contract bid phase, only to be cancelled.
Well, much good to be said for Cassini and the Mars Rovers. Technology gets better and can fit into smaller boxes. Space is probably the best domain for agressive nanotechnology.
I was one of those kids who liked Tang...
No offense intended but, um, what have those samples that were [brought back by a manned mission and analyzed in a meaningful way] done to provide a concrete, tangible, material benefit to the taxpayers who involuntarily funded it all (ALL the taxpayers; not just those who were employed to retrieve or analyze them)?
NASA can't even reliably (and confidently) loft-up the 150-odd miles to feed the 'space station'. How are they going to have a permanent, habitable satellite 22,300-some odd miles out in synchronous equatorial orbit to start extruding a cable to the ground made up of material that hasn't been proven yet with a technique that hasn't been developed yet?
I don't buy it either.
Did we all just move around in the same circles? I worked at JPL on the Voyager project at the time of flyby......
"It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path," Griffin said. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can."
Like Federal Express change the way Americans view the US Post Office, private companies with change the way Americans view NASA.
So, he should be fired because of what previous administrations have done?
Americans weren't sold anything - the general public has no more authority to approve/kill NASA projects than they do to correct the tax system.
Like I said in an earlier post, if all you are interested in is an immediate return in money (which I think is what you really mean when you say "concrete, tangible, material benefit"), then you are displaying the hallmarks and characteristics of a people well on the road to decay and decadence. When we place material comfort and monetary gain above all else, when we worship money as God, then we have truly lost our collective souls.
No, I can't tell you what discoveries will come of what we've learned so far in our honest and gainful efforts in space exploration and development. No more than Columbus could have foreseen the establishment of the freest and greatest nation the world has ever seen, when he set off to find a trade route to the East and stumbled upon some islands in the Caribbean. Nor could James Clerk Maxwell have foreseen the establishment of a vast and complex system of wireless communication when he took it upon himself to scribble down some equations on a piece of paper. Or those (taxpayer-funded) persons who labored in developing an electronic method of calculating ballistic trajectories could have foreseen the growth of a computer industry that would make calculating machines as commonplace in households today as radios and TVs were a few decades ago.
Like I said, think small, be small. Limit yourself to holding onto every penny you can, and pennies is what you will end up with when you crawl away to your hole to die. Meanwhile, others will forge a destiny in the stars. I just hope those are people of the great and free nations of the West. We can do it, if only we have the will and the vision to look beyond our own petty comforts.
What do you think about the new NASA administrator??
I would like to point out something.. When we purchased the Louisiana Territory, there was controversy about the cost... When Jefferson funded the Lewis and Clark expedition there was controversy about the cost...
But, surprise surprise, there turned out to be something there that we really wanted after all, something I'm sure glad we have today. But, back then, nobody had ever heard of Prudhoe Bay...
If we didn't purchase Alaska, the Soviet Union would have had a foothold in North America..
Sure seems that way. Was at the Cape in the 80s as well. :-)
Moore's law in action. Smarter and smarter robots. :-)
Well as soon as Congress drafts legislation to purchase lunar or Martian property, then such a comparison is appropriate. Hint: there are some international treaties that have to be abrogated first. Then you have to ask who you would pay? And I'll shoot the first person to say "the UN." :)
When Jefferson funded the Lewis and Clark expedition there was controversy about the cost...
Note that trappers and European and American colonial explorers had been all over Western North America 200 years before L&C showed up. Hint: What languages did Sacajawea use to communicate with native tribes that L&C found along the way? After the commercial spacers have been on the Moon and Mars for a few decades, then maybe we can send a few astronauts to survey and interview a few Martians. :)
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