Slashdot Mirror
Former Rep. Louis Stokes, the Man Who Saved the Space Station, Dies At Age 90
MarkWhittington writes: The Associated Press noted the passing of former Rep. Louis Stokes at the age of 90. Since Stokes was an African American Democrat first elected in 1968, most of the accolades touch on his effect on the civil rights struggle and his lifelong fight against racism. However, as George Abbey, former NASA Director of the Johnson Spaceflight Center and current Fellow in Space Policy at the Baker Institute of Rice University pointed out on his Facebook Page, Stokes can be rightly be said to be the man who saved the International Space Station and perhaps human space flight in America.
"I have a dream, that a man will be judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character"
Or whatever the quote was.
Why do people always feel the need to point out that so-and-so was "An African American such and such" ? Maybe he wasn't even African.
From TFA: "Stokes had voted to kill the space station in 1991 and 1992. However, thanks to lobbying by President Clinton, he switched sides and voted to continue funding the NASA project. Since the measure to kill the space station died by a single vote, Stokes, by switching sides, can rightly be said to have saved the project."
Oh, and for the 200-300 Hildabeast drones who are going to put up the usual REPUBLICANS HATE EVERYTHING copy-n-paste, please recall that in 1993 both houses of Congress were completely controlled by the Democrats who could do basically anything they wanted without having to worry about those evil evil Republicans getting in the way.
From the article, Stokes actually voted twice to kill the ISS, and only switched after political prodding from the Clinton administration. The way the headline is written makes it seem like he was a champion for the ISS the entire time.
Please do correct me if I'm factually misinformed; but my impression is that 'saving the ISS' isn't exactly a noble cause when it comes to actually doing [i]science[/i] in and about space.
I'm personally very much in favor of NASA's role in aeronautics and space R&D(both the necessary delivery systems and the cool exploratory robots we have probing various bits of the solar system and the assorted satellites focused on earth-surface observation and astronomy work that the atmosphere would interfere with); but the ISS seems like the very worst flavor of man-in-a-can makework nonsense. It doesn't even have the cool-and-unprecedented factor of the sending-men-to-the-moon projects; but it consumes a lot of orbital lift capacity to send a rotating crew of humans; and the supplies to support them to a motly collection of hamster tubes in an orbit so low it barely counts as out of the atmosphere.
Is there any serious defense of the ISS in terms of a results per unit spend or unit lift capacity? It's neat, and it has podcasts, and such; but it had better be a lot of neat to justify all the possible 'send robotic probe to do something' or 'assemble larger telescope in orbit' or other projects that could have been done instead.
Former Rep. Louis Stokes, the Man Who Saved Space Travel, Dies At Age 90
By a narrow vote, Stokes gave a small margin in approving funding for new reusable spacecraft. Conceived in early 1970s to make spaceflight routine as air travel, Space Shuttle later was more expensive and required lengthy refurbishment between missions. Many argued if we continued with same Shuttle, we would be stuck in low earth orbit way into the 21st century. The new shuttle design takes into account of many lessons learned of propulsion, thermal protection, and other systems that and should routinely be reused. NASA Administrator Beggs added, "Objective is to explore and expand scientific and economic sphere beyond earth orbit, not repeat what Gargarin and Glenn did 25 years ago."
mfwright@batnet.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03...
I think more could have been done with ISS if it were a little more national/commonwealth.. I could be wrong but it seemed like just another way to send cash/resources TOO other countries(aid etc, and they build x module for 10x the price it would have cost)... Maybe I'm remembering wrong...
Still 550 Billion/year spent on the military, lets send a few dozen manned "one way'" missions to mars/elsewhere for 1 year instead.
The Space Station (or "waste station", as we used to call it) helped kill the Superconducting Super Collider by taking away research dollars in 1992-1993.
Manned space flight is ridiculously expensive. The SSC, though greatly less glamorous, would have done a lot more for our understanding of the universe. So I don't see funding the ISS as an accomplishment.
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bills.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still
While Whitey's on the moon.
You know, the man jus' upped my rent las' night,
'cause Whitey's on the moon.
No hot water, no toilets, no lights,
but Whitey's on the moon.
I wonder why he's uppi' me?
'cause Whitey's on the moon?
Well I wuz already givin' 'im fifty a week
And now Whitey's on the moon.
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
The junkies make me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that crap wuzn't enough,
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arms began to swell
And Whitey's on the moon.
Was all that money I made las' year
For Whitey on the moon?
How come I ain't got no money here?
Hmm! Whitey's on the moon.
Y'know I jus' about had my fill
Of Whitey on the moon.
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
To Whitey on the moon
He should have backed human life extension instead. This "human spaceflight" (such dramatic language! Oh my!) is just free fall in a tin can in the upper atmosphere.
When I was a kid we drove 600km in a day to get to the summer cottage, that's further away than the ISS and I explored far more than the inside of my parent's station wagon!
Maybe as all the people that grew up with the Space Age start passing on, or like Mitchell, go insane, the human race can focus on the future instead of hugging its navel while clinging to the naive 1960s space fantasies.
One hopes.
Is there that much science other than life and biology in space? A space station that teaches how to live in a space station is fairly boring.
Whoever decided not to fund both "helped kill the Superconducting Super Collider" instead of it having anything at all to do with the ISS.
You mean that a Democrat governor was turning the dogs on him, like, yesterday?!?
Try reading what you write, and I quote - "It doesn't even have the cool-and-unprecedented factor".
human space flight is woefully expensive and under-productive. the money would have been better spent on unmanned research. it's romantic, but a waste.