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DIRECT Post-Shuttle Plan Pitched To Obama Team
FleaPlus writes "Popular Mechanics reports that a 'renegade' group including NASA engineers has met with President-Elect Obama's space transition team to present information on the DIRECT architecture for launching NASA missions after the Space Shuttle is retired. According to the group, DIRECT's Jupiter launch system will be safer, less expensive, better-performing, and be ready sooner than the Ares launch system NASA is currently developing, while still providing jobs for much of the existing shuttle workforce. Meanwhile, it's expected that current NASA head and adamant Ares supporter Michael Griffin will be replaced by a new NASA administrator."
The Direct Launch approach, which you can look at in detail here at their website sounds like some people are trying hard to come up with a smart solution, but it isn't clear to an amatuer like me how the current safety issues of the Shuttle would be avoided. I guess maybe because there is no Shuttle for falling foam to hit, for one ?
And yeah, Griffin does come off as a real jerk, esp. when discussing the Shuttle accidents.
They are 'renegade' engineers, and they are 'bucking' their bosses. I'm not sure what part of the factually-correct description you have a problem with.
And knowing the kinds of engineers who work at Marshall Space Flight Center, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them did ride Harleys.
While not a NASA engineer, I am a rocket engineer, and I've worked indirectly with NASA. I've also been following Ares and the DIRECT plan in some detail. I believe I'm qualified to say that the DIRECT plan looks better now than Ares did at a similar point in its development. Even including sunk costs on Ares, it seems quite likely to me that DIRECT is cheaper, quicker, more reliable, and more capable. Ares is already overweight and behind schedule; I would rather bet that it will become more so rather than less so before development is done. DIRECT is not immune to the same effects, but it is a much wiser plan in that it has *much* more margin to work with at a comparable stage in development. Its engineers understand that rockets always get heavier as they get closer to completion, never lighter.
Oddly enough, the only way to compare the two projects is to actually look at the details. The fact that one is further along in development than the other does not automatically make it better, any more than it automatically makes it worse. It may take a little bit of effort to make a reasonable apples-to-apples comparison between the two programs, but it is by no means impossible. AFAICT, comparisons of that sort appear to either be products of bureaucratic inertia ("we've already decided on Ares, therefore it must be right") or they conclude that DIRECT appears to be faster, cheaper, safer, and more capable.
Ares I is an abortion, and Ares V is being made without specific applications in mind. With the specs changing so often, I doubt either will ever fly.
Why, oh why, did NASA drop funding for SLI which was supposed to develop new generation staged combustion engines? Developing new engines is the first step in developing any new space transportation system. If we had RS-84, or something like it, it would change the game. We need to develop technologies for reliable and cheap access to orbit dammit, not gigantic White Elephants made of old tech, that is fitter for launching nuclear warheads than people.
Then there is the fact that they dropped landing, like the Russians have done for yonks, in favour of dropping into the ocean. What a retrograde step! If they couldn't make the stupid air bags light enough, they just needed to add retrorockets like the Russians. That capsule is too damn big anyway. They should shrink it into something that can fit an EELV.