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NASA 'Moving On' From Low-Earth Orbit (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: NASA has issued a warning to private space companies: the agency is moving on from its focus on low-Earth orbit. William Gerstenmaier, chief of human spaceflight, said, "We're going to get out of ISS as quickly as we can. Whether it gets filled in by the private sector or not, NASA's vision is we're trying to move out." This leaves a void for the private companies building rockets to supply the ISS. "NASA says it would like to see the private space industry "take over" low-Earth orbit, although it acknowledges that any successor space station or orbiting module will be far smaller than the $140 billion space station, a collaboration between 15 countries. The message from NASA to the US industry is simple: we're serious about the commercialization of low-Earth orbit, we have this marvelous facility available with unique capabilities, and we want you to use the heck out of it."
It's a nice idea: commercial space exploration. But what are commercial, for-profit companies supposed to do in LEO? Space tourism, maybe some very specific R&D that requires freefall, but other than that?
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
>> NASA...acknowledges that any successor space station or orbiting module will be far smaller than the $140 billion space station...message from NASA to the US industry is simple: ...we have this marvelous facility available with unique capabilities, and we want you to use the heck out of it."
So...are you selling off taxpayers' $140B investment for pennies on the dollar or are you going to deorbit the existing spacestation and prod private industry to replace it when it's gone?
The USA's continued cooperation with Russia on the ISS mission has been one of the many things that keeps me assured that we're not going to just completely devolve into war, because nobody wants to come to blows over that particular asset. And now we're trying to get out of ISS involvement "as quickly as we can."
Wow.
What is the difference between legitimate government expense and corporate welfare to you?
And - don't corporations sell food? So isn't feeding children corporate welfare? Or is corporate welfare just a slogan you fling out when you disagree with the expenditure?
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
There's tons of reasons for private industry to go to LEO: satellite launches. Now, as for ISS.... that's a bigger question. If it were low cost to free I imagine Bigelow might have interest in it as a space hotel module; it has a lot of hardware that could be useful even if it's not as roomy as his ultimate plans call for. But Bigelow is still waiting on crewed Dragon and Falcon Heavy. They are planning to use ISS shortly to test a prototype of one of their inflatable modules. So maybe there's someone who'd be willing to keep it stocked and reboosted...
If nobody is interested and NASA really is keen on abandoning it, I'd hope that they'd launch a final mission to boost it into a high orbit before doing so so that it doesn't reenter any time soon. There's a lot of good hardware up there.
Nothing says 'welcome to the neighborhood' like a gunny sack full of dead squirrels.
Like farm subsidies?
This is actually great news for many who were pro-space exploration.
After their wildly successful lunar missions, NASA got stuck in LEO decades ago and has never been able to escape. It's continuously drained all of their money and talent into stationkeeping for the US military and corporations and eliminated the possibility of human exploration in space.
Ultimately, I think this is just gamesmanship. The government won't let NASA completely abandon LEO, it's really a strategic asset. However, they may have to cough up more funding or split the agency to support both LEO efforts and actual space exploration. That is likely what NASA wants.
"Also zero gravity ball bearings"
This particular pile of dung has been repeated since the 1960s. It made no sense then, it makes no sense today. We are already able to make atomically perfect spheres right here on Earth. Oops, so sorry, technology got better and we don't need your antique space dreams.
"art"
You're shitting me?
"biology research in 30 categories"
See above. Technology gets better, we don't need your space fantasies anymore.
" preparing to exploit asteroids"
Beyond delusional.
"crystal growth"
May I point out we are perfectly able to not only make atomically perfect speres right here already, but IC fabs are doing just fine, thanks.
The rest of your list sounds like a Tim & Eric sketch.
"This is the list of the things I like, IN SPACE!!"
Your sad devotion to ancient space religions is as tragic as it is hilarious.
Did you hear about the group of cows that NASA wanted to send into low earth orbit?
It was the herd shot round the world.
Yeah, because absolutely no good has come from NASA, ever. Absolutely no materials science or technology that allows for more efficient food production to "feed the children". Definitely not things like weather satellites or GPS - those are complete boondoggles that have absolutely no effect on modern agriculture.
People like you would still have us using oxen to plow fields, and then bitch that so many still go hungry.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Yeah, those robotic missions to the outer planets probably would just happen on their own.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The less red tape needed to just use the thing the more use it will get. Part of the reason the ISS is so ridiculously over budgets is because of all the BS redundancy and BS "safe" tech high-pork approach (as in, scared to use fancy new things like "kevlar" and "carbon fiber", or scary words like "inflatables"....but lets keep using laptops from 15 years ago because they are COTS approved.).
As someone who used to work there, all I can say is NASA is often NASA's worst enemy....budget issues aside.
If nobody is interested and NASA really is keen on abandoning it, I'd hope that they'd launch a final mission to boost it into a high orbit before doing so so that it doesn't reenter any time soon. There's a lot of good hardware up there.
Unfortunately the seals between modules are deteriorating, it won't stay pressurized for much longer, and once depressurized, I am not sure how much of the technology will be useful.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
As someone that has worked with NASA and JPL I can tell you they are not very effective and need the reconstruction. It takes forever for anything to get done lol BTW did you see the about 10 times before Obama where they needed money and almost went under. Yea... I love NASA I just feel they need to stop being stubborn and evolve. The fact the private sector is moving at least three times as fast shows that.
Various experiments have taught us what the effects of micro gravity on humans as well as several other species. Just this year, we have started to grow and consume food in space. We are trying to get more species up there and for longer iterations. These studies allow us to extrapolate what potential long term effects of micro gravity will have as we try to explore other planets and asteroids. I look forward to continued experimentation and exploration.
Place something witty here
The recent Commercial Space Bill mandates that NASA maintains the ISS as a "viable and productive facility capable of potential U.S. utilization through at least 30 September 2024".
Moving on is hard to do sometimes.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
If ISS ever gets VASIMR installed, it shouldn't need boost missions.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }