Saving Constellation

President Obama...

America wants to remain moonbound.

Your going against the grain of this nation born of the frontiers.

I hate to inform you cessna driver apart from the people effected by CX termination directly and a few space nerds like you and I and the people who blog here .. America is indifferent(Due in some part to PAO) . I'm not saying its right but its the truth. I want to go to the moon its the next logical step yet, Ares was not the way to do it ,that much was obvious.

The article title is a little misleading they are just trying to keep it funded a little longer not save it.

The argument that Ares was going to shorten the gap has since turn out to have no validity.

On the lighter side.. Maybe Obama's plan will give us some more great CGI like Cx.

Cx's demise was because of poor management and COST.

Damn the Gravity!

America doesn't want to go Moonbound-America has no idea of what's at stake in space. After all of this fighting, I predict Congress will still be unable to fully fund either the President's proposal or Constellation.

it's obama who duse not want to go to the moon
not the American people. first of all he wanted to delay constellation for 5 years , then he claimed he would support a return to the moon and close the gap

now the gap could grow as much as a decade and China and Russia and India , Europe will leave the US behind
in Space it's hardly surprising that after 18 months his space policy is bogged down in washington

While everybody is fighting please take all that constellation money and throw back into the NASA facilities--God knows we need it.

Trying to do 2010 technology in a 1950's building--forget the moon--you wanna see craters? Come look at my parking lot and study all you want!

Sheesh!

Spiff out.........

Trying to do 2010 technology in a 1950's building--forget the moon--you wanna see craters? Come look at my parking lot and study all you want! Sheesh!

Maybe you're in the pipeline.

WNEM - Michigan: Biden: Stimulus Is Working, Road Work Ahead [The vast economic stimulus package has a long-term cost of $862 billion.]

NPR: 10,0000th road improvement project funded by the stimulus The administration is planning a high-visibility campaign this summer to promote stimulus projects, with more televised groundbreakings and a lot of Recovery Act logos posted along freeways and in national parks.

"Introduce a bill...titled Protecting Human spaceflight act of 2010."

He should call it "Ending American Human Spaceflight." By mandating these funds should go to Constellation, he would be stripping funds from science, commercial spaceflight and other programs that might be affordable and increase our presence in space.

Could be a good new use for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), save the money on the Launch Vehicle and have it study the craters in the NASA parking lots. That robotic arm would be great for patching potholes and being nuke powered you don't need an extension cord.

The LV cost saving would may for a lot of hot patch and a spiffy little asphalt patch trailer for MSL to pull behind.

Wouldn't need to worry about that fake certified titanium used in the frame - the only stress it will see is pulling the trailer.

Wouldn't need to worry about any missed requirements in the interface agreements (like SI vs Imperial units) because if it hangs up someone can run out and manually cycle the power to reboot.

No it isn't.

It's not going to change much, just use the ADA funds to keep the workforce intact.

It's money that was already budgeted for it, not robbing anything.

If anyone is doing the robbing, watch and see where the money goes if the ADA funds do get held back.

Hint:

Boom boom boom boom
Wwwaaaahhhhhooooooo
I am Iron Man!
Wwwaaaahhhhhooooooo

The Augustine Committee has already made it know that Constellation is UNAFFORDABLE. Continuing to throw money at it will only drain off NASA's limited funds. You have to ask yourself, do you want a jobs program and continue this stagnation, or do you want to reach out for affordable human spaceflight that can be maintained and advanced.

I myself as a taxpayer am tired of paying for a jobs program. Let ATK develop Ares 1 on its own, if it thinks it's so good. They already have a $9 billion start on it.

Give Elon $9 billion and he would have us on the moon and well on our way to Mars.

If Elon had been given the $9 billion spent on Constellation, he'd be flying the Heavy lift Falcon and had a base on Mars.

Sorry Cx and NASA haters. Cx is alive as any other space program right now and I suspect it will be for a long time. Just look at the history books. Things don't change that much over time. The only change is we have a new and additional taxi option which is the "private" option which I hope does well over time. We need more options and there is nothing wrong with some healthy competition to keep things moving forward. I would suggest the pie is getting larger not smaller.

Given adequate liability immunity or insurance either Orbital or SpaceX would be going to a lot of places with 9B$

Americans will return to the moon someday.
There are larger forces in play here then congress, Obama and even the much
pointed out American apathy.

Yeah, and the base on Mars would be uninhabitable and the American tax payer would still have to pay even more money to get an American astronaut on the rocket/base.

This site continues to amuse me. LOL

Frank

one reason I have always suspected Griffin is so proactive in his defense of Constellation...is that it seems to blunt criticism of how he spent the 10 billion dollars on the program.

Not only did Griffin make bad choices but he also made bad assumptions...ie that the program once started was unstoppable even as its cost spiraled out of control.

At some point it is entertaining to speculate on what would have happened with a tight focused program using the EELV's and to use emerging technologies (like Bigelow) in working up lunar ideas...

But we wont know for about a decade now. A window is closing in the US. Where once (as late as 2000) government seemed to be able to execute large programs, now it doesnt seem able to do fracken anything 8 years of Bush and 2 of Obama where the only sure thing is a lot of money spent and not a lot to show for it...have kind of made trust in government low.

And trust in business after BP and the Banks is low as well. IN the end what we will see for quite some time is more modest efforts in human spaceflight...and maybe (in the words of the day) that is the restart needed.

Robert G. Oler

Frank wrote:
If Elon had been given the $9 billion spent on Constellation, he'd be flying the Heavy lift Falcon and had a base on Mars.

What absurdity! Sheer nonsense that with $9B he would have a Mars base established. I would ask for facts to back up this ridiculous statement but why bother with such trivialities eh?
Keep drinking that koolaid or smoking whatever...

This attempt to save Constellation would be a disaster for HSF. The fight over Obama's space plan is just a fight between old xenophobic cold warriors and people who really want to see mankind expand beyond the Earth. The program to develop Ares I/V evolved into a big boondoggle that was primarily a subsidy for ATK. If the US government wants to give handouts to defense contractors then the budget for that should come from NSA or DoD. Let NASA work on space and planetary science, including the possibility that human activities just might cause modification of the home world's atmosphere. The cold war is over! International cooperation and consultation isn't just a good idea it is the only way real progress can be made. Who owns the Moon or Mars or Asteroid x? This question needs to be cleared up before anyone starts mining anywhere. The US will never build a base on the Moon or anywhere else without international input because it'd create bad feelings overseas. The HSF program needs a destination? We've got one! It's the ISS! Use it and work from there.
Here's the sustainable model:
- International scientific research bases on the frontier. (Wherever)
- Commercial service providers.
- Commercial ISRU operations.
- Commercial profits.
- Internationally sanctioned private development.
- Repeat until human (not just US) economic activity extends throughout the solar system and maybe someday someone will spend the money to send people to another star system.
BUT FIRST, quit focusing on nuclear throw weight.
The Russians and Europeans dominate the commercial launch business because they are not married to solid rocket manufacturing companies.