OT: Space Exploration

[Smurfy]

Hi,

I remember some time in the last year or so there was a discussion on DSP on the future of the American space program. Today I heard an interesting interview on CBC radio with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on the subject. I hope some people will also enjoy this.

The weekly science show on CBC radio is called "Quirks & Quarks".

The link to the episode is here: http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2012/0 ... h-24-2012/
You can scroll down to the section "The Space Chronicles".

Regards,
Smurfy.

[Inuyasha]

Tyson's great. He's been on Bill Maher's show on HBO numerous times. The last time he was on he was terrific saying how if this country loses the space program, we lose our innovation and future. See here (ignore the politics in this clip) :


skip to 2min mark:



I don't know how this guy is not in charge of NASA or on some kind of presidential council looking into space travel. He sort of reminds me of a contemporary version of Kennedy. He has that kind of charisma to get things done.

[Smurfy]

It's great that you invoke Kennedy and charisma because near the end of the interview, he dismisses that as the reason why America went to the moon. He says that America went to the moon because it was at war. Kennedy's speech was a response to the fear that Sputnik created. People were spooked.

Well, that was his point anyway.

[Inuyasha]

I meant the comparison to his passion about space and science, not particularly to the clip. you can view other clips on youtube and debates he's been part of and you'll reach my same conclusion.

[F308GTB]

We (NASA) are totally screwed up these days. Part of our problem is a string of rather poor administrators over the last decade, and we are currently stagnating under the leadership of Charlie Bolden. I met Bolden many years ago when he was an active astronaut. He was awesome as a Marine and astronaut, but just isn't cutting it as administrator. What we need is a dynamic personality who also knows his stuff. Someone like Tyson has much respect in the community. The guy is sharp as a knife and has a very positive personality. We would be lucky to have him.

One of the biggest problems isn't the leadership, however. It's politicians. We are at the whims of the executive branch but need the legislative branch to fund those whims. And because we need those Senators and Representatives, we are subject to the same sorts of local pandering as other government expenditures. MSFC in Huntsville has a VERY strong advocate in Senator Shelby, and he does everything he can to funnel money in that direction. Likewise, Kay Bailey Hutchison here in Texas does her darndest to get the $$$ here. But they do it to satisfy local interests rather than the best interests in NASA. A few years back we started a significant effort to "commercialize" low Earth orbit (LEO). We would give a services contract to deliver both cargo and people to the Space Station, freeing us up to develop technology for beyond LEO. You'd think folks like Shelby and Hutchison, both being Republican (for full disclosure, I tend to vote more Republican than Democrat) would be all for commercialization and getting the government OUT of certain activities. But both worked to yank significant $$$ away from the commercial programs. The commercial crew program took a big hit (really, really big). Fortunately the cargo contract is all set to go, and fingers crossed SpaceX will launch next month on their way to ISS for the first time, with Orbital Sciences following up later this year.

With the retirement of the Shuttle, Houston, Huntsville, and the Cape area in Florida all took major hits. To "rectify" this, politicians lobby to divvy up programs across all these centers. While it's great at keeping folks employed, it's inefficient as hell. Throw in the fact the research centers (GRC in Cleveland, LaRC in Virginia primarily) took budget hits on their science programs, it means they get involved in these programs as well. Too many cooks in the kitchen. I was working one program where NASA was overseeing a contractor. It was embarrassing as heck to be in a meeting where there were more NASA folks doing oversight than the number of prime contractors actually doing the work. I left that program in disgust and concentrated instead on my primary ISS activities (which includes working with the commercial companies for both cargo and crew).

Unfortunately we are in a holding pattern for at least another year. Everything is waiting on the election later this year. It's frustrating. But fortunately since I work ISS I see a lot of great stuff. The ISS is a very impressive machine. It may not seem like much, but when you consider how many flights it took to build, and that it was built by a handful of astronauts which a wrench in a hostile environment, the variety of systems on board, and the number of nations involved, it is quite impressive.

BTW, Tyson was on Capitol Hill recently in a hearing on NASA. The links below give some info

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2012/03/n ... t-tes.html
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2012/02/l ... e-nas.html
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2012/03/b ... ck-co.html

Also, 60 minutes did a segment on SpaceX a week ago - http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121782n I work with some of the guys in the video and can't say enough about their dedication and desire to fulfill their development. Also need to give kudos to all the hard working folks I know at Orbital, Thales Alenia in Italy, the many Japanese, and my fellow Americans. The working level troops still have that desire to think big - it's the leadership (NASA, Congress, and White House) that's stagnating things.

[Diablo25]

Tyson's great. He's been on Bill Maher's show on HBO numerous times. The last time he was on he was terrific saying how if this country loses the space program, we lose our innovation and future. See here (ignore the politics in this clip) :


skip to 2min mark:



I don't know how this guy is not in charge of NASA or on some kind of presidential council looking into space travel. He sort of reminds me of a contemporary version of Kennedy. He has that kind of charisma to get things done.

I've seen him on Real Time numerous times and love his insight. He is extremely interesting. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

[Teal]

Any time you put used car salesman in charge of national defense and infrastructure, you are absolutely going to get it fusterclucked. Politicians are just used car salesmen with too much power. (My apologies to actual used car salesmen everywhere...)

[F308GTB]

Any time you put used car salesman in charge of national defense and infrastructure, you are absolutely going to get it fusterclucked. Politicians are just used car salesmen with too much power. (My apologies to actual used car salesmen everywhere...)

Equating politicians to used car salesmen? Aren't you disrespecting used car salesmen a little?

[Teal]

Any time you put used car salesman in charge of national defense and infrastructure, you are absolutely going to get it fusterclucked. Politicians are just used car salesmen with too much power. (My apologies to actual used car salesmen everywhere...)

Equating politicians to used car salesmen? Aren't you disrespecting used car salesmen a little?

Thus, the apology...