Posted on 02/24/2017 4:18:57 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars.
The space agency's human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it would take to speed up a manned mission; under the current plan, astronauts wouldn't climb aboard until 2021— at best.
The Space Launch System, known as SLS, will be the most powerful rocket when it flies.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Strap ‘em in and light that candlelabra!!!
So what they are saying is there are no ballsy astronauts like yesteryear only snowflaknaunts
Give all congress-critters over 70 years old the first ride as a payoff for their “service” to the country.
This aint yur granddaddy’s Nasa. ;-)
It can’t turn out worse than Apollo 1 or STS 51. Well, maybe STS 107 did.
Yep, they ran out of Nazis.
I’m not convinced it’s a great idea to man the first trial.
What’s your take?
Only the shuttle was launched with folks on board the first time. I would suggest at least one launch sans crew.
Testing...for the best and brightest...Big league!
you know’if anything goes’wrong, its trumps fault, dems will call for’impeachment because trump murdered an astronaut.
not sh1tting you, they will do this.
IIRC, this machine has a pretty good escape mechanism (Launch Abort System). The decision should hinge on the reliability of that.
NASA still studying the impact of such a move on Islam.
It might be a good way to test their new escape stuff.. or not. I can’t imagine how many inspections and simulations they have run so far.. I grew up wanting to go astronaut, now I’d go but only if my dog goes with me. ;-)
Okay good.
If there isn’t a reason to have people on it, I’m not sure I’d push it. I’m certainly not the end all be all of knowledge on this. My grandmother had an old saying. “An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.”
Seems like the first one could go off without men on it. Let it prove it’s worth and then put some folks on the second.
Not trying to downplay your knowledge on the vehicle. My thoughts may not be worthy.
Cboldt seemed to share your view on it, without specifically addressing the testing.
His dog couldn’t be reached for comment. “:^)
We have already done this; why does it take 20 years to re invent a new rocket?
With vastly better engineering methods than he 60’s.
When my kid was about eight, he told my wife he wanted to work at NASA. She asked if he was wanted to be an astronaut and he said no. He wanted to build rockets.
He’s majoring in astronautical engineering and works at NASA.
Sort of ... I wouldn't man it for the purpose of testing the escape device ;-) I'd hope that device had no use in the first flight. I'm just saying that the risk to humans might be rendered acceptable, depending on how reliable the escape device is. The escape device should be more reliable than the launch vehicle.
There is no substitute for experience, and this is a bit like being a test pilot the first time a plane design is taken into flight.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.