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A Congressman and an Astronaut Propose a New Plan For NASA

Posted by timothy on from the can't-we-involve-bruce-willis-somehow? dept.

MarkWhittington writes "Reflecting a rising discontent with the state of the U.S. space program in the wake of the last space shuttle mission, Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, and Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham have proposed a new space plan that addresses space exploration, the role of commercial space, and reform of NASA."

4 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. ah, Pete Olson by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, he ran on a platform of slashing nearly all government programs, eliminating many agencies entirely, and halving the budgets of others--- because private-sector alternatives are always superior, whether it's private schools, private healthcare, or corporate research labs.

    Oh, except NASA, which is a vitally important public service that can't be replicated in the private sector. Coincidentally, he represents a district in southeastern Houston, and NASA is one of the largest employers in that district.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:ah, Pete Olson by EMI+Lab · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, get your facts checked. DOD terminated the GE JSF engine. I know. I was working on the EMI/EMC compliance on the engine control (FADEC) system. My new assignments are related to EMC compliance of space packages for ATK boosters that are under development. To be honest both the republicraps and democraps are responsible for the difficulities we are in. They are both paid-off by the big corporations and wall street. Both parties idea of fiscal responsibility are based on smoke and mirrors. They both lie and blame each other for accomplishing nothing while accepting money from their buddies. We have all been effectively hoodwinked.

  2. Re:There's no plan there... by robot256 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So? What is wrong with letting the private sector do what they are best at--taking existing technology and refining it to the point of profitability? It's not trivial work, and we need it done just as much as we need the research in the first place. I think we've pretty well proven that the current system of government funding is incapable of actually producing an efficient production program.

    Besides, the minute the space shuttle became a "production" vehicle, the progress stopped. It should never have been elevated to that status; the shuttle was an incomplete and half-baked idea from the start and should have been the first in a long list of modern spacecraft experiments by NASA. Instead, we were stuck with a boondoggle program in need of justification, hence Hubble and the space station. All worthy enterprises, but could have been so, so much cheaper if the shuttle had been refined for another 10 years--or changed completely--before production.

    IMHO, the real test is to see if we can jump-start the real research in NASA while simultaneously promoting private-sector production development of existing technologies. And no, a Constellation-style (read: Apollo-style) heavy-lift rocket does not constitute real research. That too can be left to the private sector. I've said it a million times, Constellation was squarely on track to become just as expensive and unreliable as the shuttle--that "$9b wasted" was a drop in the bucket compared to what the program would have cost in the long run. The real research is in ion & plasma drives, space elevators, and planetary exploration vehicles, etc.

  3. Re:Wait, these are not MY corporations by murdocj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The 9 billion was already wasted, Obama simply had the courage to admit that.