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Yes, it would drive the American Spirit of Competition. Put our aerospace industries back on the saddle.
They are. The old breed of aerospace - Grumman, Boeing, ATK etc. - had simply gotten too friendly with NASA, too fat and lazy running cost-plus contracts and being ever-so-much better at scoring government cheese than at building rockets. The Ares program is (well, was - thankfully) exhibit A in this regard.. The Shuttle, frankly, wasn't that great either.
As Glitch points out, we now have a new undergrowth popping up doing new things - at a better price, too. SpaceX doesn't have to use 27 different subcontractors in influential Congressional districts, they build their stuff in-house.
They are. The old breed of aerospace - Grumman, Boeing, ATK etc. - had simply gotten too friendly with NASA, too fat and lazy running cost-plus contracts and being ever-so-much better at scoring government cheese than at building rockets. The Ares program is (well, was - thankfully) exhibit A in this regard.. The Shuttle, frankly, wasn't that great either.
As Glitch points out, we now have a new undergrowth popping up doing new things - at a better price, too. SpaceX doesn't have to use 27 different subcontractors in influential Congressional districts, they build their stuff in-house.
There should also be an international space administration that coordinates launches, determines the positions of satellites, and performs other administrative functions as required in order to coordinate all the various nations with space programs.
I am not suggesting that they determine missions, or have anything to do with the delivery systems. Only that we need some form of international administrative agency to coordinate the space programs for all the nations with space programs.
In the past it was only the US and the USSR/Russia. Now there is the EU, China, Japan, India, and soon others will want the prestige of having their own space program. It is going to get very crowded very quickly.
There should also be an international space administration that coordinates launches, determines the positions of satellites, and performs other administrative functions as required in order to coordinate all the various nations with space programs.
I am not suggesting that they determine missions, or have anything to do with the delivery systems. Only that we need some form of international administrative agency to coordinate the space programs for all the nations with space programs.
In the past it was only the US and the USSR/Russia. Now there is the EU, China, Japan, India, and soon others will want the prestige of having their own space program. It is going to get very crowded very quickly.
That's not a bad thought. Some sort of clearinghouse, as it were. (If we could get debris under control, that'd be a great benefit.)
That's not a bad thought. Some sort of clearinghouse, as it were. (If we could get debris under control, that'd be a great benefit.)
Precisely. We could move the NOAA/NWS Space Weather Prediction Center to such an agency. After all, a CME directed toward Earth is going to effect the entire planet, not just the US. They could be the clearing-house for all space related information, including taking over debris tracking, in addition to tracking near Earth asteroids/comets, and maintaining an exoplanet catalog.
They would have absolutely no authority of any kind, just administrative functions. So they could not dictate space policy. Each nation with a space program would pick their own directors who will serve for a certain, yet to be determined, period to ensure that no one nation can unduly influence the international agency for their own benefit.
There should also be an international space administration that coordinates launches, determines the positions of satellites, and performs other administrative functions as required in order to coordinate all the various nations with space programs.
I am not suggesting that they determine missions, or have anything to do with the delivery systems. Only that we need some form of international administrative agency to coordinate the space programs for all the nations with space programs.
In the past it was only the US and the USSR/Russia. Now there is the EU, China, Japan, India, and soon others will want the prestige of having their own space program. It is going to get very crowded very quickly.
Why?
Why not just do it ourselves, it will be cheaper and take far far far less time.
When the US landed men on the moon multiple times back in the late 60's, they claimed the Moon "for all mankind"
When China get's there, they intend on claiming the moon for China. The Moon is chalk full of titanium and helium 3 and China wants it for themselves.
This will be THE issue of the next generation. How China bolted ahead of the US in the space program. Can we afford to fall behind?
We closed up NASA and sent all the engineers packing.
We're hitching rides with Russia to get to the space station and Russia just ended the taxi service.
Obama said there would be a "bold new initiative" back in 2010 and hasn't said a word since.
Why not just do it ourselves, it will be cheaper and take far far far less time.
Because we are not the only nation with a space program. What if the Russians, Japanese, Chinese, EU, or Indians want to put a satellite in the same orbit, or a crossing orbit, where the US already has a satellite? When there was only two nations with space programs it was much easier to coordinate these things. Now there are half a dozen nations with space programs, and that number will continue to grow. If they are not all coordinated somehow, we are only asking for disaster.
Also, there are currently several different exoplanet catalogs being maintained by different countries, and none of them contain the same information.
We closed up NASA and sent all the engineers packing.
We're hitching rides with Russia to get to the space station and Russia just ended the taxi service.
Obama said there would be a "bold new initiative" back in 2010 and hasn't said a word since.
I am amazed how that story has legs. Constellation was canned and good riddance. But if you haven' t noticed what SpaceX and armadillo are doing, you're just not paying attention to space. NASA/JPL is second to none, absolutely none, in the area of robotic probes. But for building lifting rockets, there is no call for NASA to be involved beyone defining requirements. That's what the COTS program is about, and it works.
When the US landed men on the moon multiple times back in the late 60's, they claimed the Moon "for all mankind"
When China get's there, they intend on claiming the moon for China. The Moon is chalk full of titanium and helium 3 and China wants it for themselves.
This will be THE issue of the next generation. How China bolted ahead of the US in the space program. Can we afford to fall behind?
The reason we didn't claim the Moon or anyother body we could place a flag or a marker on the surface like Mars. Is at the height of the space race in the early 1960s when the Russians had lapped us. We got them to sign a international treaty on the Peaceful uses of Outer Space which extends into space the precident set in Antarctica. The Treaty was ratified under the auspeces of the UN in 1966 and a second treaty banning orbital weapons (principly nuclear in 1968 Apart from preventing repeating the scramble for Africa in the 19th Century that almost lead to a World War in the 1880s, I makes Astronauts or any space crew memeber from any nation a representative of all Mankind who is entitled to aid assistence and return to his own nation if he has to make a emergency return to Earth and happens to come down on your territory. You can't shoot em, treat em as enemy combatants or spies or even leave em for dead.
When the treaty was signed it looked likely theat the Soviets might beat us to the Moon and be waiting for us to join them. We didn't want the USSR claing the Moon for Russia and planting the Hammer and Sickle. Russia landed the first probe on the Moon in 1959 (hard landing) and 1966 (soft landing) 6 months before we did. The first probe to orbit the Moon Luna 10 was Soviet as was the first prbe to fly to the vicinity Moon and back in one piece. This last flight called Zond 5 (flew in the Summer of 1968) was a stripped down Soyuz craft intended to take one or two cosmonauts around the Moon (Like Jules Verne) and was originally targetted for November 1967 (The 50th Anniversary of the Revolution in 1917) . The Zond 5 flew a pair of turtles to the Moon and back to see if they would survive. Crew of Zond 5 could have answered that famous astronaut question "Are You a Turtle?" After the circum or cislunar flight the Soviets were intending to land on the Moon by the Lenin Centennial in April 1970. To do this the Soviets needed a super booster and they tried to build one called the N-1 which was a little larger than our Moon Rocket . So we might have beat a cosmonaut to the Moon for NASA's schedual before Jan 29, 1967 was to put a pair of Americans on the Moon before Christmas 1968. Both sides cut corners and 4 brave men paid with their lives in 1967. The N-1 never worked and 4 attempts to launch ended in an explosion. The Saturn V flew 13 times and never failed to lauch its mission sucessfully. The USA only built 16 of them and ended the purchase program in 1968 a year before Apollo 11 put Americans on the Moon completing the Presidential mandate given to NASA. Today parts of three unused Saturn Vs are on display in Houston, Huntsville and at the Cape. The last one became Skylab and its Booster and flew in May 1973.
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