tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post1772596752320167096..comments2024-03-17T08:27:53.658-05:00Comments on Stonekettle Station: The Next Step, America’s Future in SpaceJim Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-64907559368080086032011-09-02T14:26:05.835-05:002011-09-02T14:26:05.835-05:00I'm late to the party, but I enjoyed this entr...I'm late to the party, but I enjoyed this entry. I remember reading “You Will Go To the Moon” in my beginner books in first grade and I’m still disappointed. (I still want my personal jet-pack, too.) Like most kids of that era I remember where I was when they landed (at an SPJST dance hall with my family – we were pretty sure Neil Armstrong would find my uncle’s beer bottles since he had also successfully launched that evening), watching the first steps and hoping that I’d at least get to visit someday.<br /><br />As MikeB noted, there are some possible drawbacks to having private enterprise run the whole show (if you liked the O-rings on the Challenger, just imagine what an unregulated space industry could do.) But that's not an insurmountable problem because it doesn't have to be unregulated. Jim listed many things governments can do to support space travel, and one of them that must be added is regulation. That can be awkward and troublesome, but practically speaking, there will have to be an FAA for space at some point. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday.Okra Godhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399111072856850171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-90464993733143249842011-08-20T20:38:05.733-05:002011-08-20T20:38:05.733-05:00My wife and I,here in the 50th state, and both for...My wife and I,here in the 50th state, and both former Navy types, are keen followers and admirers of your blog from the 49th. Good thinking, sir. Well expressed and on the money. Keep it up. Your friends. aloha, Gerry and CaroleAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-19484774072293600492011-07-29T01:55:48.773-05:002011-07-29T01:55:48.773-05:00Excellent.
I do, though, have the same concerns a...Excellent.<br /><br />I do, though, have the same concerns as MikeB regarding the private sector taking control of the reins.beemodernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180046342466780318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-65973956540735243942011-07-27T14:59:03.560-05:002011-07-27T14:59:03.560-05:00If senators from states with no financial interest...If senators from states with no financial interest in the Space Program spoke out, it would mean something. But senators have gone the way of the house - solely concerned with what is in the best interest of their state and not the nation.Lee27https://www.blogger.com/profile/00514038275077027651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-24575186741243033582011-07-27T14:57:35.720-05:002011-07-27T14:57:35.720-05:00Consider this an "amen" from the choir a...Consider this an "amen" from the choir and a home-rolled link-back:<br /><br /><a href="http://chris-gerrib.livejournal.com/328070.html" rel="nofollow">The Union Pacific and NASA</a>Chris Gerribhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09484367221527860100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-20863813613115008682011-07-27T13:02:21.321-05:002011-07-27T13:02:21.321-05:00Whilst I hope that space exploration continues I h...Whilst I hope that space exploration continues I have many deep reservations about how private industry might approach it. Government beancounters are nothing against those who are beholden to the sacred shareholder. I have visions of low-bid spacesuits exploding on first contact with real vaccuum because proper field testing was to much of a strain on the bottom line and vessels being launched with half empty tanks because that's all it was calculated they would need and damnit, fuel is expensive you know... <br /><br />Every injury or death in the space program was investigated and changes made to try and avoid future tragedy. Based on it's history the corporate world seems far more likely to try to hide, sweep away and belittle the efforts of it's minions to actually survive. Every frontier has it's costs and it's martyrs but there has to be some measure of control. I for one fear the ascent of naked capitalism into the heavens...MikeBhttp://zedefrag.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-4614084531918057362011-07-27T12:46:32.550-05:002011-07-27T12:46:32.550-05:00Couple of thoughts this provoked for me this a.m.:...Couple of thoughts this provoked for me this a.m.:<br /><br />I was 4 years old in '69 and watching the moon landing is one of my earliest memories. (My first political memory is watching Nixon's resignation speech.)<br /><br />Richard Branson seems to be on track to make space travel a commercial venture; and going into space and looking back on the Earth and out into the Universe is a major bucket item list for me. <br /><br />I had a conversation about a decade ago with a rich, white, conservative male. We were discussing the destruction of the planet through loss of ecosystems and the wide spread pollution of our air, water and soil. His response to me? - That is didn't matter if we were trashing our planet because by the time we made it uninhabitable for humans, humans will be colonizing space. <br />Needless to say I walked away from that conversation shaking my head in sadness. I wonder what he thinks about that subject now?EnviroBitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16556353611591562091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-79030154110862321642011-07-27T12:24:41.015-05:002011-07-27T12:24:41.015-05:00Interesting and informative post. Having spent my ...Interesting and informative post. Having spent my life married to a Rocket Scientist, I enjoyed your "space" side of this. <br /><br />It was the work of land and space knowledge, paid by the government to use the technologies of rockets into space and rockets (guided missiles) in finding how to pinpoint controlling of our nations safety. <br /><br />Was almost futile for him to gain advanced degrees in Areo Space Engineering as the work they were doing is the information to go into the curriculum to teach it to others. The professors often asking the student if the information was viable! Often having to slow up till the books caught up with their work. Horse and cart placement situation! It was a challenge to keep the horse in a leadership position when the funding for technology was in the hands of the government. Much of the time he spent trying to convince those holding the purse strings for more funding so defense and space could move forward. The positioning of satellites in outer space was the controlling factor of what happened on the ground, if nothing more than getting the weather report for testing and actual work on the front lines of defense. <br /><br />Outer space was the whipped cream and cherry on the whole thing. Unmanned space exploration (Hubble etc) has paid for itself in the knowledge we have gained in the long run. Manned exploration needs to take a back seat until we know more about the unknown to risk lives and money in the future. <br /><br />It is now time for private companies to take the information we have found and see if it is feasible to go where no man has gone before or just make the science we know will make our own planet a safer and better place to live. What will drought and floods on the opposite side of our globe affect how we can sustain life if this is a change to the norm...does the phrase global warming/climate change ring a bell? When things change, we have to correct the course of our exploration for answers...with or without government financing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-47750847040379149512011-07-27T10:07:57.598-05:002011-07-27T10:07:57.598-05:00This is one of your best posts ever.....This is one of your best posts ever.....ParatrooperJJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-92227858624285633982011-07-27T07:04:42.718-05:002011-07-27T07:04:42.718-05:00The first shuttle, which was never intended to act...The first shuttle, which was never intended to actually fly, was not to be named Enterprise until a bunch of Trekkies, who knew bat shit, started screaming. I was never a Trekkie, the helmsman being bounced out of his chair by a near by explosion bothered my sense of physics.<br /><br />Enterprise had been reserved for the second shuttle. <br /><br />Lewis and Clark, was an example of government exploration, but Jefferson had a reputation for ignoring committees.<br /><br />All in all a good post.Warnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16588657943011198242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-65269658350289129962011-07-27T02:37:15.704-05:002011-07-27T02:37:15.704-05:00The evidence of collaboration and shared knowledge...The evidence of collaboration and shared knowledge evidenced in the ISS is simply awesome, in the true sense of the word. Inspiring. Moving.<br /><br />I had the good fortune to see the workshop with the pieces in progress and the people doing the work, at Kennedy Space Center. It really was truly one of the most dramatic, amazing, impressive things to me. And I've seen a lot of stuff.<br />Genuine collaboration between countries, staff, science, with barely a wink and a nod toward the political shenanigans of international leadership who don't even know what they're looking at. A pervasive energy of partnership, community and mutual accomplishment. Staff and astronauts training in each other's national programs.<br /><br /><i>Really.Good.Stuff.</i><br />Might go out of focus and perhaps thin a bit, but that kind of energy does not dissipate. <br />The U.S. led the astronaut training sequences, along with Russia. Everybody else's national programs depend on us, our facilities and labs. That cannot just go away - they've got to have some kind of plan.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-9142372253963138672011-07-27T01:01:54.874-05:002011-07-27T01:01:54.874-05:00Rats, I must have gotten something in my eye, agai...Rats, I must have gotten something in my eye, again (blinking furiously). I started reading Heinlein in '54, and was so <i>sure</i> we'd keep on going...<br /><br />If you hadn't seen this, I thought you might enjoy it - I first heard Anne sing it in the early '80s.<br /><br />Harbors<br /><br />It's seldom in Chicago that you see the stars by night.<br />The skies are red and angry with sodium vapor light<br />But I have seen the heavens from a high and lonely place<br />And I know that that's the closest I'll ever come to space.<br /><br />But I have seen the harbors, and the tall ships point the way<br />And our children or their children will go out there someday.<br /><br />If I live a long time, and if mankind turns once more<br />To dare a present danger, to reach some future shore<br />Then I may yet see pictures of distant foreign skies<br />And know them for reflections in my children’s questing eyes.<br /><br />And I have seen the harbors, and the ships are proud and bold<br />And the children born this morning may already be too old.<br /><br />In our mundane life, there's no one happier than I.<br />I'm contented to live planet-bound, for time has passed me by<br />But my children and their children are well worth dreaming for<br />The glories of tomorrow lie golden at their door.<br /><br />And I have seen the harbors, and the ships' departing gleam<br />And the witnesses of wonder are forgiven when they dream.<br /><br />For we have see the harbor, and the tall ships point the way<br />And our children or their children will go out there some day<br /><br />-- Anne PassovoyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-67091959888081604582011-07-27T00:55:15.321-05:002011-07-27T00:55:15.321-05:00If there's anything up there that's going ...If there's anything up there that's going to make a substantial profit it's in the asteroids and not the planets or moons. <br /><br />Most of the cost of space flight is getting out of the Earth's gravity well. It doesn't make things any cheaper if the first thing you do is drop down another gravity well even if it's a very small one. <br /><br />Somebody's gotta go up there and grab a asteroid.Pangolinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18369503994505817789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-84060530058349686202011-07-27T00:35:57.165-05:002011-07-27T00:35:57.165-05:00No, I don't believe it. I'm a space junkie...No, I don't believe it. I'm a space junkie, too. Had I known about it when I was little, and subsequently later when I was in university, I would have applied to the astronaut program.<br /><br />Yes, programs are cut. But that is simply not the end. Something is going to reemerge. Count on it.<br /><br />The same drive and curiosity that got us here (Rocket Boys) will move us beyond. I know it.<br />We're a society that has become complacent and stupidified. A culture of movies, politics, a preoccupation with celebrities and boob jobs has changed people's expectations. Space travel, yaawwwn...been there, done that, saw that movie.<br /><br />I hate to say this, but it isn't the government or Obama or the Republicans that killed the space program. <b>It was us. We voted it off the show.</b> It wasn't marketed and it isn't sexy. Too hard to say anything about it in 140 characters.<br />The U.S. has gone quite a few steps backward in the last 15 years. It's costing us.<br /><br />A little boy who met an astronaut in a remote village community in bush Alaska 15 years ago has applied to the Naval Academy. We owe him a space program. We set up his expectations and he has delivered.<br />Richard Branson, move that bus!Glo Chythlookhttp://www.callanx.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-61607729826056797212011-07-26T23:42:15.256-05:002011-07-26T23:42:15.256-05:00Did you say next step? How about the next chapter...Did you say next step? How about the next chapter?<br /><br />http://www.spaceportamerica.com/<br /><br />Welcome to the Spaceport America Website!<br /><br /> The next chapter in space transportation is being written right now in the State of New Mexico. Forward-thinking pioneers are developing both vertical and horizontal launch vehicles using the power of free-market enterprise. <br /><br /> As the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport, Spaceport America is designed with the needs of the commercial space business in mind. Unique geographic benefits, striking iconic design, and the tradition of New Mexico space leadership are coming together to create a new way to travel into space.<br /><br /> When it comes to outer space, New Mexico is bringing it down to earth!Kamikazihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05017268094936937120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-8527751478503275042011-07-26T22:52:05.562-05:002011-07-26T22:52:05.562-05:00**standing ovation****standing ovation**Edith Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06623443279337364086noreply@blogger.com