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NASA Outlines "Flagship" Technology Demonstrations
FleaPlus writes "As part of its new plans, NASA has outlined the initial series of large-scale 'flagship' technology demonstration (FTD) missions for developing and testing technologies needed for sustainable beyond-Earth exploration, complementing the smaller-scale ETDD missions outlined previously. The first four FTD missions (costing $400M-$1B each, about the cost of the recent Ares I-X suborbital rocket launch) are scheduled to launch between 2014 and 2016, demonstrating advanced in-space propulsion (next-generation ion propulsion and solar arrays), in-space propellant transfer and storage, a lightweight/inflatable mission module at the ISS (which will also test closed-loop life support), and an inflatable aeroshell for aerocapture at Mars. A multi-purpose robotic rendezvous and docking vehicle will also be developed to support these missions."
That's why I've been hiding from the police the last few days: I am quite certain there is an All-Points Bulletin out for me all over the entire San Francisco Bay Area.
Every last one of you is going to drench your own pants with urine when I post my lucidly written transparently obvious explanation of how I was able to do that to the queue:
After I pointed out that I wasn't psychotic anymore then asked them to watch me so they could determine whether I was correct, I rang up Annie Brolly to explain why I disappeared.
"You should have just talked to me," she desperately pleaded. Annie's daughter Ailes has Polycystic Kidney Disease; Annie's sister and mother are vacationing in Europe. I came home from my Mom's place in Vancouver, Washington to help look after Ailes.
I pointed out Annie's plight to the ICU nurse, who said she'd pass word on to my psychiatrist. Twenty minutes later she had my discharge papers. I could see that my clever plan was working well:
I was pretty sure she hadn't consulted with my psychiatrist. He wouldn't have discharged me unless he consulted with me himself.
It gets better:
When the nurse tried to steal my wallet, I asked why she wouldn't let me have the rest of my belongings. "The bag is empty," she replied.
"I JUST MADE YOU HALLUCINATE!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
She walked back to my room then stared with a puzzled expression into my bag while I fished out the rest of my items.
I got all pissed off that despite my desperate struggle to convince them to 5150 me, they 5151ed me instead because I myself requested a convenience store clerk call 9-1-1 for me when I pointed out that my visual hallucination had trapped me inside her convenience store.
The sliding glass doors refused to open for me when I tried to leave, you see. That was getting really old, as my hallucinations had been changing locks on me all day long. They even put my house up for sale when I found one of those small locked vaults that real estate agents use to share housekeys with their colleagues when I went around to the side after I found Matt had changed the locks during my absence.
I rushed to the school where Matt is a history teacher then offered to give him five thousand dollars when Manpower Professional finally learns enough of The Alphabet Song to sign my six thousand dollar paycheck's dotted line.
"What are you talking about," Matt asked. "Your rent is paid up, and my house isn't for sale."
"Thanks!" I shouted with great joy. "You just saved me from the worst kind of psychosis."
"FUCK!" I shouted when I returned home to find that my key still wouldn't fit. I headed to Annie's after I looked around the side to see the little housekey vault still hanging from the side door.
I headed off to Palo Alto after my hallucinations locked me out in the cold rain by locking a door that requires a key to lock from the outside.
I was taken to San Mateo instead when my hallucinations locked me inside of the convenience store I stopped at to pick up an ice cream bar.
5150 is the section of California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act that concerns involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. 5151 concerns voluntary ones.
Perhaps you can see where this is going.
"You need to 5150 me!" I shouted angrily, at the top of my lungs. "I have an ability to manipulate human minds that puts David Koresh completely to shame!"
"You need to watch me like a hawk," I sternly advised the admitting nurse the instant I got inside the ICU. "I could escape just by asking you to hold the door for me."
It gets better:
After growing impatient for Annie to show up, the nurse evicted me. She wouldn't even say goodbye, and turned coldly away when I attempted to shake her hand just before I walked out the door.
Every mental health professional I have ever made that claim to has been happy to admit me, but only because they regard my claim as delusional.
I'll Show You Delusion.
Not only did they not prescribe any m
Something tells me that most American spaceflights will still be done using Russian technology, taking off from Kazakhstan, and operated by Russian ground and flight crews, for at least the next two decades.
Did anyone else read "flagship technology" and picture a ship with solar sails? Well, if you did, you'll be disappointed.
Instead of blowing money on re-inventing the wheel, except much more expensively... *cough* Ares-1
They couldn't have really developed all of this since the announcement of the cancellation of the Constellation program.
Seems more likely they just grabbed a bunch of already developed tech and slammed it together.
On the plus side, the fact that they're actually focusing on this tech which I heard they were developing years years ago, at least for the ion propulsion and inflatable structures, shows that NASA is finalyl getting off their feet and working on them.
Right after I made the submission, it looks like NASA released info on Commercial Crew Transportation and the Exploration Precursor Robotic Missions. I probably won't make a separate submission (although someone else is more than welcome to), but the new docs are pretty interesting:
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/solicitations.do?method=init&stack=push
Only 14 posts? What's the matter with you guys? NASA is doing X Projects again and this is a Good Thing.
One of the projects is for on-orbit storage and transfer of cryogenic propellants. I wonder if "cryogenic" has the traditional NASA meaning of "liquid hydrogen" or if it refers to easier-to-handle substances like LOX or liquid methane.
Oh, and where's the love for VASIMR and aerospike engines?