NASA chief explains why agency won't buy a bunch of Falcon Heavy rockets
Since the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February, NASA has faced some uncomfortable questions about the affordability of its own Space Launch System rocket. By some estimates, NASA could afford 17 to 27 Falcon Heavy launches a year for what it is paying annually to develop the SLS rocket, which won't fly before 2020. Even President Trump has mused about the high costs of NASA's rocket. On Monday, during a committee meeting of NASA's Advisory Council, former Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale raised this issue. Following a presentation by Bill Gerstenmaier, chief of human spaceflight for NASA, Hale asked whether the space agency wouldn't be better off going with the cheaper commercial rocket.
[...] In response, Gerstenmaier pointed Hale and other members of the advisory committee—composed of external aerospace experts who provide non-binding advice to the space agency—to a chart he had shown earlier in the presentation. This chart showed the payload capacity of the Space Launch System in various configurations in terms of mass sent to the Moon. "It's a lot smaller than any of those," Gerstenmaier said, referring to the Falcon Heavy's payload capacity to TLI, or "trans-lunar injection," which effectively means the amount of mass that can be broken out of low-Earth orbit and sent into a lunar trajectory. In the chart, the SLS Block 1 rocket has a TLI capacity of 26 metric tons. (The chart also contains the more advanced Block 2 version of the SLS, with a capacity of 45 tons. However, this rocket is at least a decade away, and it will require billions of dollars more to design and develop.)
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy TLI capacity is unknown, but estimated to be somewhere between 18 and 22 tons (between the known payloads of 16.8 tons to Mars and 26.7 tons to geostationary orbit).
Does the SLS need to launch more than 18 tons to TLI? No. All of the currently planned components of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (formerly the Deep Space Gateway) have a mass of 10 tons or less due to flying alongside a crewed Orion capsule rather than by themselves. Only by 2027's Exploration Mission 6 would NASA launch more massive payloads, by which time SpaceX's BFR could take 150 tons to TLI or even Mars when using in-orbit refueling.
Related: NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
President Trump Signs Space Policy Directive 1
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
Related Stories
http://www.space.com/36270-nasa-deep-space-gateway-moon-orbit.html
It looks like NASA's stepping-stone to Mars will be a miniature space station in lunar orbit rather than a chunk of captured asteroid.
The agency plans to build an astronaut-tended "deep space gateway" in orbit around the moon during the first few missions of the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion crew capsule, which are scheduled to fly together for the first time in late 2018, NASA officials said.
"I envision different partners, both international and commercial, contributing to the gateway and using it in a variety of ways with a system that can move to different orbits to enable a variety of missions," William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C, said in a statement. [Red Planet or Bust: 5 Crewed Mars Mission Ideas]
"The gateway could move to support robotic or partner missions to the surface of the moon, or to a high lunar orbit to support missions departing from the gateway to other destinations in the solar system," Gerstenmaier added.
One of those "other destinations" is Mars. NASA is working to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s, as directed by former President Barack Obama in 2010. For the last few years, the agency's envisioned "Journey to Mars" campaign has included the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), an effort to pluck a boulder from a near-Earth asteroid and drag the rock to lunar orbit, where it could be visited by astronauts aboard Orion.
But ARM's future looks bleak; President Donald Trump provided no money for the mission in his proposed 2018 federal budget, which the White House released earlier this month.
Also see:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/deep-space-gateway-to-open-opportunities-for-distant-destinations
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a25872/nasa-cis-lunar-orbit/
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/sep/index.html
The U.S. and Russia will work together to develop a space station orbiting the Moon. Canada, Japan, and the ESA have also expressed interest in the project:
At this year's International Astronautical Congress, NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, signed a joint statement expressing their intent to work collaboratively toward the development of a space station further out from Earth, orbiting the Moon, as a staging point for both lunar surface exploration and deeper space science.
This is part of NASA's expressed desire to explore and develop its so-called "deep space gateway" concept, which it intends to be a strategic base from which to expand the range and capabilities of human space exploration. NASA wants to get humans out into space beyond the Moon, in other words, and the gateway concept would establish an orbital space station in the vicinity of the Moon to help make this a more practical possibility.
Let's hope that the station, if built, becomes a refueling station that can store and distribute fuel produced on the Moon.
Deep Space Gateway. Also at The Guardian.
Previously: NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
Related: Moon Base Could Cost Just $10 Billion Due to New Technologies
ESA Expert Envisions "Moon Village" by 2030-2050
Scientists Scout Sub-Surface Settlement Sites on the Moon and Mars
No more sending humans to an asteroid. We're going back to the Moon:
The policy calls for the NASA administrator to "lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities." The effort will more effectively organize government, private industry, and international efforts toward returning humans on the Moon, and will lay the foundation that will eventually enable human exploration of Mars.
"The directive I am signing today will refocus America's space program on human exploration and discovery," said President Trump. "It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints -- we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond."
The policy grew from a unanimous recommendation by the new National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, after its first meeting Oct. 5. In addition to the direction to plan for human return to the Moon, the policy also ends NASA's existing effort to send humans to an asteroid. The president revived the National Space Council in July to advise and help implement his space policy with exploration as a national priority.
President's remarks and White House release.
Presidential Memorandum on Reinvigorating America's Human Space Exploration Program
Also at Reuters and New Scientist.
Previously: Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Bigelow and ULA to Put Inflatable Module in Orbit Around the Moon by 2022
Deep Space Gateway (DSG) is a planned space station in lunar orbit. The U.S. and Russia signed an agreement last year to work on the station's development. Now Russia has created an engineering department inside the RKK Energia space corporation in order to plan the nation's lunar exploration, including a possible manned landing:
Officially, Moscow has been on a path to put a human on the Moon since 2013, when President Putin approved a general direction for human space flight in the coming decade. The program had been stalling for several years due to falling prices for oil, the main source of revenue for the Russian budget. Last year, however, the Russian lunar exploration effort was given a new impetus when the Kremlin made a strategic decision to cooperate with NASA on the construction of a habitable outpost in the orbit around the Moon, known as Deep Space Gateway, DSG.
Although the US saw the primary goal of the DSG as a springboard for missions to Mars, NASA's international partners, including Russia, have been pushing the idea of exploring the Moon first. On the Russian side, RKK Energia led key engineering studies into the design of the DSG and participated in negotiations with NASA on sharing responsibilities for the project.
To coordinate various technical aspects of lunar exploration, the head of RKK Energia Vladimir Solntsev signed an order late last year to form Center No. 23Ts, which would report directly to him. According to a document seen by Ars Technica, the group will be responsible for developing long-term plans for human missions to the vicinity of the Moon and to its surface, as well as for implementing proposals for international cooperation in lunar missions. This is a clear signal that NASA might soon have a new liaison in Russia for all things related to the DSG. The same group will also take care of all the relevant domestic interactions between RKK Energia and its subcontractors.
Unlike the ISS, the DSG should not require any orbital boost burns and could reach any altitude above the Moon using ion thrusters.
Here are two op-eds from last year about the Deep Space Gateway:
Terry Virts: The Deep Space Gateway would shackle human exploration, not enable it
John Thornton: The Deep Space Gateway as a cislunar port
Related articles:
Previously: NASA Eyeing Mini Space Station in Lunar Orbit as Stepping Stone to Mars
Lockheed Martin Repurposing Shuttle Cargo Module to Use for Lunar Orbiting Base
Bigelow and ULA to Put Inflatable Module in Orbit Around the Moon by 2022
President Trump Signs Space Policy Directive 1Related: Space Habitats Beyond LEO: A Short Step Towards the Stars
Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
Japan Planning to Put a Man on the Moon Around 2030
Space Race: 6 Manned Moon Missions With the Best Chances of Success
ESA Expert Envisions "Moon Village" by 2030-2050
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module to Continue Stay at the International Space Station
Enter the Moon Cave
India and Japan to Collaborate on Lunar Lander and Sample Return Mission
An op-ed written by Lori Garver, a former deputy administrator of NASA, suggests cancelling the Space Launch System in favor of Falcon Heavy and BFR:
SpaceX could save NASA and the future of space exploration
The successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is a game-changer that could actually save NASA and the future of space exploration. [...] Unfortunately, the traditionalists at NASA — and their beltway bandit allies — don't share this view and have feared this moment since the day the Falcon Heavy program was announced seven years ago.
The question to be answered in Washington now is why would Congress continue to spend billions of taxpayer dollars a year on a government-made rocket that is unnecessary and obsolete now that the private sector has shown they can do it for a fraction of the cost? [...] Once operational, SLS will cost NASA over $1 billion per launch. The Falcon Heavy, developed at zero cost to the taxpayer, would charge NASA approximately $100M per launch. In other words, NASA could buy 10 Falcon Heavy launches for the coat of one SLS launch — and invest the remainder in truly revolutionary and meaningful missions that advance science and exploration.
While SLS may be a "government-made rocket", the "beltway bandits", also known as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, are heavily involved in its development. The United Launch Alliance (Boeing + Lockheed Martin) have also shown that they can build their own expensive rocket: the Delta IV Heavy, which can carry less than half the payload to LEO of Falcon Heavy while costing over four times as much per launch.
NASA's marketing of how many elephants, locomotives and airplanes could be launched by various versions of SLS is a perfect example of the frivolity of developing, building and operating their own rocket. NASA advertises that it will be able to launch 12.5 elephants to LEO on Block I SLS, or 2.8 more elephants than the Falcon Heavy could launch. But if we are counting elephants — the planned Block II version of SLS could launch 30 elephants, while SpaceX's BFR could launch 34. Talk about significant.
Wait, what? 70 metric tons (SLS Block 1) / 63.8 metric tons (Falcon Heavy) = ~1.09717868339. 1.097 * (12.5 - 2.8) = ~10.6 elephants lifted by SLS Block 1 versus 9.7 for Falcon Heavy.
NASA documents list 12 elephants for SLS Block 1 (70 metric tons), and 22 for SLS Block 2 (130 metric tons). The author might have lifted some numbers from a Business Insider article that (incorrectly) estimates that 12.5 elephants can be lifted by Falcon Heavy, while SLS Block 2 can lift 30 elephants, and 34 for BFR. Perhaps we are dealing with a mix of adult and juvenile elephants?
Trump on Falcon Heavy: "I'm so used to hearing different numbers with NASA"
During a cabinet meeting on Thursday inside the White House, President Donald Trump called attention to several model rockets on the table before him. They included an Atlas V, a Falcon 9, a Space Launch System, and more. The president seemed enthused to see the launch vehicles. "Before me are some rocket ships," the president said. "You haven't seen that for this country in a long time."
Then, in remarks probably best characterized as spur of the moment, the president proceeded to absolutely demolish the government's own effort to build rockets by noting the recent launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. He cited the cost as $80 million. (The list price on SpaceX's website is $90 million.)
"I noticed the prices of the last one they say cost $80 million," Trump said. "If the government did it, the same thing would have cost probably 40 or 50 times that amount of money. I mean literally. When I heard $80 million, I'm so used to hearing different numbers with NASA.''
NASA has not, in fact, set a price for flying the SLS rocket. But Ars has previously estimated that, including the billions of dollars in development cost, the per-flight fees for the SLS rocket will probably be close to $3 billion. Indeed, the development costs of SLS and its ground systems between now and its first flight could purchase 86 launches of the privately developed Falcon Heavy rocket. So President Trump's estimate of NASA's costs compared to private industry does not appear to be wildly off the mark.
[*] SLS: Space Launch System
Related: Maiden Flight of the Space Launch System Delayed to 2019
WFIRST Space Observatory Could be Scaled Back Due to Costs
Safety Panel Raises Concerns Over SpaceX and Boeing Commercial Crew Plans
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
Trump Administration Budget Proposal Would Cancel WFIRST
Leaning Tower of NASA
NASA Moving to Scale Back the Space Technology Mission Directorate
Exploration Mission 2 using the Space Launch System was originally planned to launch using the Block 1B version, which includes the Exploration Upper Stage and can carry 105 metric tons (105,000 kg) to to low-Earth orbit. Now that Congress has given NASA additional money for a second SLS mobile launcher, the agency has the ability to fly astronauts on the smaller Block 1 version of SLS, capable of lifting 70 metric tons to LEO:
The SLS has been in development for the last decade, and when complete, it will be NASA's main rocket for taking astronauts to the Moon and Mars. NASA has long planned to debut the SLS with two crucial test missions. The first flight, called EM-1, will be uncrewed, and it will send the smallest planned version of the rocket on a three-week long trip around the Moon. Three years later, NASA plans to launch a bigger, more powerful version of the rocket around the Moon with a two-person crew — a mission called EM-2.
But now, NASA may delay that rocket upgrade and fly the same small version of the SLS for the crewed flight instead. If that happens, NASA would need to come up with a different type of mission for the crew to do since they won't be riding on the more powerful version of the vehicle. "If EM-2 flies that way, we would have to change the mission profile because we can't do what we could do if we had the [larger SLS]," Robert Lightfoot, NASA's acting administrator, said during a Congressional hearing yesterday [2h15m22s video].
[...] Meanwhile, it's also possible that the second flight of the SLS won't carry crew at all. NASA also needs to launch its upcoming mission to Jupiter's moon Europa pretty soon. Known as Europa Clipper, the mission is mandated by Congress to fly on the SLS by 2022. Lightfoot mentioned that Europa Clipper could come before the first crewed flight of the SLS. It just depends on if the Orion crew capsule, which will carry astronauts on the SLS, is ready before Europa Clipper is ready. If the Europa spacecraft comes first, then it could also fly on the small Block 1 rocket.
The trans-lunar injection (TLI) payload capacity for SLS Block 1B is 39.2 metric tons, enough to carry a ~25.9 ton crewed Orion capsule with an 8-10 ton component of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G), as was the original plan for Exploration Mission 2. Block 1 cannot accomplish these two tasks at the same time. Perhaps they should launch LOP-G using Falcon Heavy instead?
NASA chief on Moon return: "This will not be Lucy and the football again"
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative, a long-range commitment toward the human exploration of deep space, beginning with a return to the Moon. "Major parts of that policy went forward, but establishing permanence on the Moon was abandoned," Bridenstine said Tuesday. Then, in 2004, President George W. Bush announced a bold plan to send humans back to the Moon, where they would learn how to operate in deep space and then go on to Mars. This became the Constellation program. Again, major parts of that policy went forward, Bridenstine said. But NASA abandoned the drive back to the Moon.
Before the US Senate confirmed pilot and former congressman Bridenstine, the Trump administration announced a plan to send humans back to the Moon. "To many, this may sound similar to our previous attempts to get to the Moon," Bridenstine said Tuesday. "However, times have changed. This will not be Lucy and the football again."
How have times changed? During his brief address, Bridenstine listed several technologies that he believes have lowered the cost of a lunar return. These include the miniaturization of electronics that will allow for smaller robotic vehicles, the decreasing costs of launch, private investment in spaceflight, commercial interest in lunar resources, and new ways of government contracting. (Bridenstine did not mention the Space Launch System rocket or the Orion spacecraft).
The speech was only a few minutes long, so I wouldn't read too much into the absence of SLS/Orion. But it's no secret that BFR could deliver 150 metric tons to the Moon or Mars by using in-orbit refueling, vs. a lot less when using the expensive SLS.
Previously:
Related:
Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
NASA Cancels Lunar Rover
Rocket Report: Japanese rocket blows up, NASA chief ponders purpose of SLS (and other news)
NASA Administrator ponders what to do with the SLS rocket. During a Q&A with Politico, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was asked about how the space agency views commercial launch vehicles. His response: "As we move forward, we're going to have to maybe rethink... at what point do we start taking advantage of those commercial capabilities to the extent that they drive down cost, give us more capability, and what do we do with SLS?... We're not there yet, but certainly there's a horizon here. Is it 10 years? I don't know what the answer is, but what we can't do in my view is give up our government capability, our national capability, when we don't have an alternative."
Speaking of timelines ... NASA doesn't exactly have the "national capability" of the SLS rocket yet in the heavy-lift class, either. We've heard rumors of a slip to 2021 for the first launch date, in which case Blue Origin's New Glenn has a fighting chance to fly first, as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has already done.
Blue Origin targets Moon landing by 2023. Blue Origin's business development director, A.C. Charania, said at a conference that the company's Blue Moon program is "our first step to developing a lunar landing capability for the country, for other customers internationally, to be able to land multi metric tons on the lunar surface." The company has not said what role its large orbital rocket under development, New Glenn, would play in a mission to the Moon.
BFR is a privately funded next-generation reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft system developed by SpaceX. It was announced by Elon Musk in September 2017.[8][9] The overall space vehicle architecture includes both launch vehicles and spacecraft that are intended to completely replace all of SpaceX's existing space hardware by the early 2020s as well as ground infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology to be deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO). The large payload to Earth orbit of up to 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) makes BFR a super heavy-lift launch vehicle. Manufacture of the first upper stage/spacecraft prototype began by March 2018, and the ship is projected to begin testing in early 2019.[5]
Related: First SLS Mission Will be Unmanned
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
NASA Could Scale Down First Manned Flight of the SLS
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Serious About Returning to the Moon
Jeff Bezos Details Moon Settlement Ambitions in Interview
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy eyed by Europe/Japan
According to RussianSpaceWeb, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is under serious consideration for launches of major European and Japanese payloads associated with the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (formerly the Deep Space Gateway).
[...] The first payload considering Falcon Heavy for launch services is the Japanese Space Agency's (JAXA) HTV-X, and upgraded version of a spacecraft the country developed to assist in resupplying the International Space Station (ISS). HTV-X is primarily being designed with an ISS-resupply role still at the forefront, but RussianSpaceWeb recently reported that JAXA is seriously considering the development of a variant of the robotic spacecraft dedicated to resupplying the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOPG; and I truly wish I were joking about both the name and acronym).
[...] Regardless of the LOPG's existential merits, a lot of energy (and money) is currently being funneled into planning and initial hardware development for the lunar station's various modular segments. JAXA is currently analyzing ways to resupply LOPG and its crew complement with its HTV-X cargo spacecraft, currently targeting its first annual ISS resupply mission by the end of 2021. While JAXA will use its own domestic H-III rocket to launch HTV-X to the ISS, that rocket simply is not powerful enough to place a minimum of ~10,000 kg (22,000 lb) on a trans-lunar insertion (TLI) trajectory. As such, JAXA is examining SpaceX's Falcon Heavy as a prime (and affordable) option: by recovering both side boosters on SpaceX's drone ships and sacrificing the rocket's center core, a 2/3rds-reusable Falcon Heavy should be able to send as much as 20,000 kg to TLI (lunar orbit), according to comments made by CEO Elon Musk.
That impressive performance would also be needed for another LOPG payload, this time for ESA's 5-6 ton European System Providing Refueling Infrastructure and Telecommunications (ESPRIT) lunar station module. That component is unlikely to reach launch readiness before 2024, but ESA is already considering Falcon Heavy (over its own Ariane 6 rocket) in order to save some of the module's propellant. Weighing 6 metric tons at most, Falcon Heavy could most likely launch ESPRIT while still recovering all three of its booster stages.
Previously: NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
Related: NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway
Russia throws doubt on joint lunar space station with U.S.: RIA
Moscow may abandon a project to build a space station in lunar orbit in partnership with U.S. space agency NASA because it does not want a "second fiddle role," a Russian official said on Saturday.
[...] [The] head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russia might exit the joint program and instead propose its own lunar orbit space station project.
[...] A spokesman for Roscosmos said later that Russia had no immediate plans to leave the project. "Russia has not refused to take part in the project of the lunar orbit station with the USA," Vladimir Ustimenko was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
FLOP-G?
Also at ABC (Associated Press).
Previously:
NASA Suspends Collaboration with Russia
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
China Will Focus on a Lunar Surface Station Rather than a Lunar Orbiting Station
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors
Related:
NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway
NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Elon Musk pegs SpaceX BFR program at $5B as NASA's rocket booster nears $5B in cost overruns
[Compared] to Boeing's first serious 2014 contract for the SLS Core Stages – $4.2B to complete Core Stages 1 and 2 and launch EM-1 in Nov. 2017 – the company will ultimately end up 215% over-budget ($4.2B to $8.9B) and ~40 months behind schedule (42 months to 80+ months from contract award to completion). Meanwhile, as OIG notes, NASA has continued to give Boeing impossibly effusive and glowing performance reviews to the tune of $323 million in "award fees", with grades that would – under the contracting book NASA itself wrote – imply that Boeing SLS Core Stage work has been reliably under budget and ahead of schedule (it's not).
[...] Boeing – recently brought to light as the likely source of a spate of egregiously counterfactual op-eds published with the intention of dirtying SpaceX's image – also took it upon itself to sponsor what could be described as responses to NASA OIG's scathing October 10th SLS audit. Hilariously, a Politico newsletter sponsored by Boeing managed to explicitly demean and belittle the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket as a "rickety metal bucket built with 1960s technology", of which Boeing was very tenuously involved thanks to its eventual acquisition of companies that actually built Saturn and sent humans to the Moon.
At the same time, that newsletter described SLS as a rocket that will be "light years ahead of thespacecraft [sic] that NASA astronauts used to get to the moon 50 years ago." At present, the only clear way SLS is or will be "light years" ahead – as much a measure of time as it is of distance – of Saturn V is by continuing the rocket's trend of endless delays. Perhaps NASA astronomers will soon be able to judge exactly how many "light years ahead" SLS is by measuring the program's redshift or blueshift with one of several ground- and space-based telescopes.
Here's a typical Boeing shill response (archive) to the NASA Inspector General report.
See also: Will the US waste $100+ billion on SLS, Orion and LOP-G by 2030?
Previously: Maiden Flight of the Space Launch System Delayed to 2019 (now delayed to June 2020, likely 2021)
First SLS Mission Will be Unmanned
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
House Spending Bill Offers NASA More Money Than the Agency or Administration Wanted
NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
There's a New Report on SLS Rocket Management, and It's Pretty Brutal
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satellite companies
When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk."
[...] Last week, the Swedish satellite company Ovzon signed a deal for a Falcon Heavy launch as early as late 2020 for a geostationary satellite mission. And just on Thursday, ViaSat announced that it, too, had chosen the Falcon Heavy to launch one of its future ViaSat-3 satellite missions in the 2020 to 2022 timeframe.
[...] In explaining their rocket choice, both Ovzon and ViaSat cited the ability of the Falcon Heavy to deliver heavy payloads "direct"—or almost directly—to geostationary orbit, an altitude nearly 36,000km above the Earth's surface. Typically, rockets launching payloads bound for geostationary orbit drop their satellites into a "transfer" orbit, from which the satellite itself must spend time and propellant to reach the higher orbit. (More on these orbits can be found here).
[...] The demonstration flight of the Falcon Heavy apparently convinced not only the military of the rocket's direct-to-geo capability but satellite fleet operators as well. The Falcon Heavy rocket now seems nicely positioned to offer satellite companies relatively low-cost access to orbits they desire, with a minimum of time spent getting there in space.
See also: SpaceX heading to two to four Falcon Heavy paid launches per year
Related: How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
Falcon Heavy Maiden Launch Successful (Mostly)
SpaceX Confirms it Lost the Center Core of the Falcon Heavy
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
SpaceX brings on NASA's former top spaceflight official as it prepares to launch first astronauts:
SpaceX is only a couple of months away from its first attempt at launching astronauts and the company has brought in one of the foremost experts in human spaceflight to help it do so successfully.
William Gerstenmaier, the former leader of NASA's human spaceflight program, has now begun working at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, people familiar with his hiring told CNBC. In his new role Gerstenmaier is reporting to SpaceX vice president of mission assurance Hans Koenigsmann, those people said, as the company prepares to begin launching astronauts.
A SpaceX spokesperson confirmed that Gerstenmaier is a consultant for the company's reliability engineering team.
Previously Gerstenmaier served as the NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations for nearly 14 years. In total he had a four decade career with NASA, working on programs ranging from the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station. Gerstenmaier is widely considered one of the world's top specialists in flying humans in space, frequently testifying before Congress on the subject.
SpaceX has hired a key NASA official to help with human spaceflight:
SpaceX has confirmed that NASA's former chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, has joined the company as a consultant as it prepares to launch astronauts for the first time.
[...] He immediately brings credibility to the company's safety culture. Former Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale, who now chairs the human spaceflight committee of NASA's Advisory Council, told Ars last summer, "Bill was recognized by everybody as being technically well-grounded and very astute. He was known to listen carefully and to make his judgments based on good technical reasons."
(Score: 2) by Uncle_Al on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:04PM (2 children)
Buy two.. buy four..
But that's not the point, oink, oink oink!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by qzm on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:14PM (1 child)
SLS carries THOUSANDS of times more pork, and as we know Pork delivery has, for some time, been the primary mission goal of NASA.
I know the NASA lovers will hate on this, but face facts people, NASA has all but become a butchery, to distribute nice clean juicy pork to whoIever it is decided.
I do truly feel sorry for the remaining actual space scientists and engineers caught up in there.. It must be truly painful to have to try and achieve something against that massive pork distribution bureaucracy.
The US military of course is still a more effective pork delivery tool, however at times you need cleaner pork than they can deliver, and the NASA pork is so clean and shiny and media-worthy!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:52PM
That's it right there.
SLS gets so much money that it can afford to stuff the right pockets. Grease the right palms. Etc.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:06PM (4 children)
Then, let the taxpayer choose whether or not he wants to invest a private space company to do this or that.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:39AM (3 children)
How about paying your taxes remains mandatory to mitigate the freeloader problem, but YOU get to decide how it's allocated, and least in terms of agencies, maybe even with finer-grained control?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @10:10AM (2 children)
That's why crowdfunding works: It's all or nothing.
There's no risk. If you can't raise the funds from a sufficient number of people, nobody pays anything. It's a good way to find those projects that actually do have widespread, meaningful support.
Put another way: Why should this one particular organization (the one that calls itself "government") receive a mandated amount of allocations? It's absurd.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @04:51PM
I wonder what would happen if you tried e.g. to crowdsource the expenses of the prison system for next year, and would fail to get the required amount. Would all prisoners be set free?
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday April 03 2018, @03:39PM
Because we got together and decided we wanted various assurances as a society.
Police and courts to restrain violent individuals, maintain the illusion of private property, enforce contracts, etc.
Roads, sewers, etc. that are extremely monopoly-prone and almost guaranteed to engage in predatory business practices if left to the "free market"
And hey, lets add in some degree of enforcement of free market as well - we've got regulatory capture, but it still mitigates insider trading, collusion, etc.
And on, and on, and on.
You are of course free to opt out if you wish - but societies are regional things, so you'll need to move to another society's territory to do so.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:17PM (13 children)
That's a dishonest answer as usual. Rockets don't need large TLI capacity for Lunar expeditions. Assemble the rocket in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), and then when fully assembled, fueled, tested, and loaded, send it on its way. Each launch of the reusable version of the Falcon Heavy puts 54 metric tons in orbit for around $90 million. 108 metric tons is ample for a lunar mission, sortie, settlement, or just unmanned cargo. A billion dollars per launch of the SLS, putting a mere 45 metric tons to TLI, could instead be 11 launches of the Falcon Heavy with 600 metric tons in LEO (or 200 metric tons in TLI, for what that's worth). And once you have something in LEO, you can accelerate with engines a lot more efficient than chemical engines. Solar-electric propulsion could put the great majority of that 600 metric tons in LLO (Low Lunar Orbit), but would have to be unmanned (repeated passes through the Van Allen belts).
My view is the following. Develop multiple standard vehicle chassis for manned and unmanned flights. The Falcon Heavy is apparently intended for unmanned work so use it strictly for that with manned flights from Earth going up on either the Falcon 9, Atlas V Heavy, or even the Ariane 6.
Let's suppose for starters that one does a standard one-size-fits-all approach. Two Falcon Heavy launches to bring up rocket stages and propellant and a Falcon 9 launch to bring up a Dragon capsule (which wouldn't be launched until the rest of the vehicle has been checked for safety problems). Because passage through the Van Allen belts needs to be quick for passengers, right there we're stuck in the near future with chemical propulsion. 108 tons would cover acceleration to TLI, then in three days deceleration to LLO. The lunar landing stage could either come up with the manned Dragon capsule or with the other two payloads. Thus, for the cost of gear and somewhere around 200-250 million in launch costs, we can put six people and a fair bit of payload on the Moon with the SpaceX family.
Unmanned in this light would be about the same. However, as I noted above, if one is willing to take longer, say six months, one could send a lot of radiation insensitive gear and materials via solar-electric propulsion to LLO with most of the payload making it to LLO (maybe 60-80 metric tons at the end). It would even be possible to reuse the solar-electric system for further trips to the Moon, though obviously the vehicle would take some time to return to LEO and you would lose some of your payload mass.
But instead, NASA is insisting on the Apollo approach despite it not making sense from either a safety or economic standpoint. The reason is painfully obvious. Because that approach requires the SLS's unusual capabilities. Specifying capabilities that rule out cheaper, more sensible approaches is a common US government tactic, not only used by NASA.
Consider this. Suppose you want to deliver a 50 pound cost from point A to point B on a continent. Ok, all you need to do is pay a shipper and it's there in a few days.
Now, let's add on the totally innocuous requirement that it needs to travel by road. Shipper can still do that and the rate probably won't change. Now, let's add on the requirement that the box can't be traveling any slower than 200 MPH. Oops, now we're talking relay teams of super cars. Adding requirements massively increased the cost by many orders of magnitude.
This is the game. Keep adding requirements to the task, until only your desired solution can handle them. NASA doesn't need to throw 45 metric tons to TLI in one go, but by doing so, they rule out the far cheaper Falcon Heavy in favor of the SLS.
This is precisely the sort of crap that NASA shouldn't be doing in the first place. It shouldn't be a willing enabler of a really bad and dangerous system when there's far better at hand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:19PM
SpaceX and each of its engineers will be forced at the point of a gun to fund a competing launch vehicle. It's insane. It's anti-American (in philosophy, not history). It's anti-Capitalism.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:41PM (3 children)
As someone pointed out in the ARS comments: Can't use FH, because the lunar pieces are designed to be launched on SLS, because SLS needs the lunar pieces to be designed to be launched on SLS, and NASA needs the SLS to be funded for the rest of NASA to be funded.
Would it save money to launch multiple pieces on FH ? Apparently yes, but let's spend half a dozen years studying the changes required first, while we spend billions per year building the SLS and all the other pieces. Then we can all agree that the other way would have been cheaper, but since we already have those things almost (yet never quite) ready for the moon, it's that, or wait another 20 years, or learn Chinese...
What? It would still be cheaper with FH and 5 years of delays, then with billion-per-launch SLS? Look, dude ... Wait, where are you building those engines, again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:47PM (2 children)
Get the government out of Space Exploration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @11:09PM (1 child)
Why? What is your problem? Deep State for Deep Space, I always say!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 29 2018, @04:37PM
Probably the AC who will explain that only by individual humans having mutual agreed contracts with the aliens, likely enforced by Vogons, will we be able to happily colonize the galaxy.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:10PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:19PM
It doesn't need to be. F9 and BFR will be used instead. F9 will get certified before SLS flies even once.
The SLS strategy of flying cargo and crew on the same Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway missions is a consequence of the effective $3 billion per launch cost, and the political desire to get some degree of manned spaceflight using the SLS in the short term.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday March 28 2018, @11:43PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:06PM (1 child)
Do do they already assemble, fuel, test, and launch vehicles from LEO, or are you purposefully burying the NRE for that and hand-waiving it away? What kind of platform do you need to "just do" all this wonderful stuff you just mentioned? A second space station, maybe, or one a whole lot bigger? You're using the exact argument the SLS is using: once this is developed, built and in use, you'll save a lot of money.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:37PM
Yes. For example, the International Space Station has done all that though much of it at a much smaller scale than would be done with the Falcon Heavy. While we would need to prove the appropriate infrastructure (which probably would involve cryogenic storage which is less, once it's done, it's done. It's a one-time risk that is retired once you've done it.
And the level of assembly needed is very crude - at the level of Apollo which has done a couple dozen successful docking maneuvers in TLI and LLO.
Meanwhile the enhanced risks and cost of SLS happen every mission. You can't retire them. They never go away because they never launch the SLS vehicles often enough to do so.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:50PM (2 children)
And do you want to go to the Moon in 5 years or 25 years? When was the last time anyone had the technology (developed, tested, reliable) to assemble large rockets in orbit?
Everything's easy when you're a bean counter.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @09:25PM
Falcon Heavy flies right now. SLS may never fly.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @09:39PM
I think that bears repeating. We could have had several SpaceXs created in 1970 instead of 2002. All that crazy space stuff could be done by now rather than still being some indefinite 5 years, 25 years, or maybe longer in our future.
My view is that there is no manned lunar program because it's not going to survive the funding drain from SLS. Kill SLS, stake through the heart, then we have money to work with.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Wednesday March 28 2018, @09:54PM (13 children)
The real reason of-course is that NASA provides Space X with expensive research and personnel training. Space X would never be able to develop anything at all without NASA and Russian technology and expertise almost freely available to them.
Fast forwarding to now, Space X is still not able to do it and needs deep pockets of the US taxpayers to do the heavy lifting.
More generally, capitalism can not seriously innovate; just improve technology discovered on government financing of one sort or another. If you don't agree just recall the work of Royal Society of London or more recently invention of the Internet..
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:08PM (4 children)
While I agree with you that real advances can benifit greatly from government funded research, there is a difference here: NASA is not doing much fundamental research with SLS, it is pretty much doing stuff already proven before.
NASA should be building new stuff that is not yet ready for commercial exploitation, for example a project like Skylon.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:28PM (3 children)
Perhaps, I don't really know what NASA is doing lately and I agree it should do new risky stuff. However, NASA already invested heavily into subsidiaries who work on the project. Are they inefficient? Perhaps. Will Space X be more efficient over the long run? Highly unlikely. The more likely scenario is that Mask will suck the same and then some more; much more. I may be wrong, but regardless let Mask prove himself for a decade or so. Meantime we should increase NASA budget like 10X.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:21AM (1 child)
Spotted the NASA contractor.
Is that pork nice and tasty?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:15PM
Holy crap, assholes like you are the reason we can't have nice things anymore. It should be obvious to you that when the last arrow in your quiver is the "you're a paid shill!", it is clear to the rest of us that you've lost. You should at least try to save what shred of dignity you have by not loosing that arrow.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:48PM
NASA would be even better invested, if it cut off the Space Shuttle supply chain altogether. There are so many decision points where NASA could have made the right choice, in the early 1970s, they could have chosen not to build the Space Shuttle. In 1990, after the Challenger accident, they could have ended the program then. Again in 2005 after the Columbia accident and when it became quite clear the Space Shuttle couldn't continue (too few Shuttles to handle another Shuttle loss). Then finally in 2011 after the final Shuttle flight. It's a disgrace that those subsidiaries are still funded now.
Just so they can waste 10X on the crap they already waste it on? Show me that NASA can handle that responsibility first. It also would be acceptable to put the money into a new organization that can do the job. Else 5-6% of US GDP on space is not sustainable. It's going to be killed off just like Apollo was.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:16PM (2 children)
The real reason of course is that Congress forces NASA to continue developing the expensive pork rocket and there's still money to be squeezed out of the program.
Fast forwarding to now, SpaceX has developed Falcon Heavy with private capital.
SpaceX has accomplished something that NASA hasn't: the landing and reuse of rocket boosters. It is a revolutionary technology built on top of previous ones. In other news, the smartphone required the inventions of the Colossus computer, the voltaic pile, and blacksmithing.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:38PM (1 child)
Forgive me, but space Shuttle was fully recoverable including boosters. Granted, Space X got an impressive way of landing more sophisticated rockets. Yes, nice improvement
BTW, here is a different Russian design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_(rocket_booster) [wikipedia.org] I've heard Mask is looking at it as well.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:10PM
> space Shuttle was fully recoverable including boosters
Sure, in the sense that your car stolen for a joyride is fully recoverable after you fix the bumpers, get new shocks, rims, tires, brakes, coolant, and maybe transmission, and pay some poor sod to clean the vomit inside.
"Hey, it floats after splashdown, so we can drag it back to shore and refurbish it" isn't exactly the same as "it's in the parking spot, you need to fuel it and check the oil and tires"
Even the orbiter went through a pretty extensive refit every time, despite not going into the drink.
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @12:14AM (4 children)
That's so insulting. Sorry, NASA's "free" stuff is not that useful. The problem is in the label "expensive research". It's a long way from that to "cheap, mass-produced rocket", an area in which NASA has zero history. You'll need to look to the US Department of Defense for that sort of expertise with their ICBM programs.
Here's what NASA itself [nasa.gov] had to say about the SpaceX development effort for the Falcon 9 (see Appendix B, page 40):
Notice that the traditional pricing is still the official traditional pricing and that NASA looked at SpaceX's books to verify their costs. So NASA would price development of the Falcon 9, a full order of magnitude higher than it took SpaceX. And then, of course, we would have inevitable cost overruns on top of that.
While SpaceX is not similarly forthcoming about the costs of Falcon Heavy (it's over half a billion USD) or BFR, this has all been paid for by SpaceX not US taxpayers. I think the only development that has been explicitly paid for by NASA was the Dragon capsule and that was by milestone not cost plus.
Well, now that you know that SpaceX did something that NASA was completely incapable of doing, you'll correct that thinking, right? I'll also note that SpaceX did the most awesome car commercial of all time, and has done really well with vertical landing of its rocket stages and a level of rocket reusability that everyone thought was going to be out of reach for at least decades.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday March 29 2018, @12:57AM (3 children)
I think you got me wrong. Sure, Space X as any good capitalist enterprise can and will, well, capitalize on a good bag of inventions. They will mass produce and they will cut costs and they will make lots of money out of it but, but, they can not innovate and they will need innovations for the next step which probably will not be done by Space X, but some other company. Regardless, they will need serious research that only governments can provide and that's why we need to keep NASA projects going even if they are, supposedly, 10X more expensive. Otherwise China or Russia will discover those yet unknown things and Space X or whatever will not be able to keep up. That's how real world works. Government has to provide silver lining for companies to be able to function.
There is nothing insulting in there. Business can only exist in the right environment and good scientific research and cutting edge development is a necessary part of it. Business by itself can't do it no matter how well run.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @05:51AM
I disagree. Here, SpaceX did extensive innovation to get where it is now. It's demeaning to claim that the national space programs laid out various things like vertical landing, staged combustion, reusability, telemetry, secondary payloads, etc, like Legos on the floor, and like a toddler, SpaceX merely had to assemble these things in a suitable order. Even if idea generation were somehow beyond the capabilities of a company (and it's not), the creation of a viable business operating at a far lower price point from a haphazard collection of ideas going back 50 years (which no one else had figured out yet) is a huge act of innovation in itself. Remember innovation is not just coming up with ideas, but making them work.
But then we get to the second problem, which is the equally demeaning assertion that SpaceX (and the rest of the planet's businesses) can't come up with new ideas. Here, Musk claims to be planning Mars infrastructure for a settlement and he's far from alone in that. That's innovation that NASA has barely touched.
Well, right there we have the rate of idea creation slowed by a factor of ten merely because we involved NASA. That's a typical problem with the government approach.
Notice that the story is about a NASA official ruling out a superior launch system merely because it can't perform a mostly irrelevant task (throw a particular amount of mass, 45 metric tons directly on a Trans-Lunar injection orbit). But what he doesn't mention is that there are several multiple launch configurations that can do the same job for about 700-800 million USD less in launch costs (unmanned 2-3 Falcon Heavies assembled in low Earth orbit (LEO) or 2 Falcon Heavies and a Falcon 9 for manned missions - the latter rocket would bring the people) and higher reliability. Also, by ending SLS right now, we would have considerable funds to devote to lunar activities now.
There are superior alternate approaches such as creating a non-profit to do the research which removes most of the political rent-seeking and other conflicts of interest that come with government agencies and their contractors. But then one wouldn't be able to siphon off a enormous amount of public funds with little accountability.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:50PM (1 child)
I think that it is NASA that cannot cooperate.
Hear me out: there was some discussion about cooperation between ESA and the Chinese government. But: the US government forbids cooperation with Chinese in space, therefore ESA had to choose between USA and China.
Similarly, the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 were not coupled to the ISS. Why not? NASA is forbidden to do it.
With that kind of attitude, it becomes very difficult to share research. Each country has their own competences. But why would e.g. a Russian psychology department or a Chinese hydroponic agriculture department cooperate with NASA, when at each given moment there could be a US senator that, for the home audience, writes a law "all cooperation on X with Russia or China is verboten"?
There's no reason otherwise why we can't have a moon base with lots of independent bits constructed and launched by different countries, each with their own competences, but with the same interfaces: liquids and gases infrastructure, common wiring and airlock standards, etc. The idea of a "moon village" of this sort was mentioned in september 2017:
Moon village the first stop to Mars: ESA [phys.org]
I am not aware that any country except for the USA has any policies or laws in place like "we don't want to play ball with country X in space".
Of course space projects are prestige projects that attract healthy competition between countries, but without healthy *cooperation* things don't advance beyond a certain point.
Do you all remember the Apollo [wikipedia.org] - Soyuz [wikipedia.org] mission? That was a brilliant example of cooperation (well that's what the newspaper said; I have no idea of the bickering behind the scenes of course).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:02PM
So even if we were to ignore giving China an opportunity to steal US military and trade secrets (good enough reason for me to keep them off), why is international cooperation valuable at all? All it did was greatly increase the price tag on the ISS. My estimate is that between making the ISS international (particularly with Russia being on the critical path of ISS construction) and forcing most of the ISS to fly on the Space Shuttle, the cost of the ISS was tripled.
Or we could have a moon base operated by, say, a SpaceX spinoff. That would work just as well and be a lot cheaper for those international groups.
They aren't progressing past that point now. Guess cooperation just isn't that healthy.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday March 28 2018, @11:30PM (5 children)
Without SLS there won't be any space exploration. Every time a congressional budget committee will meet, they won't look at the mission budget and salivate thinking on all those greased pockets, jobs and voters, they'll instead question themselves, "Why waste millions on a dozen academic papers with no commercial applications?".
That said, NASA missed the boat the moment commercial spaceflights became a thing. So, without some military-industrial complex interests materializing out of thin air, once the existing contractors finish getting paid their full bribes-worth, NASA will never see another mission budget again.
Oh, well I guess here's something [foodnetwork.com] to hopefully justify this post.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday March 28 2018, @11:36PM (4 children)
We're talking about a manned mission, and manned commercial spaceflights are not yet a "thing".
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:17AM
The first flight of the SLS will be unmanned. That has been delayed repeatedly to no earlier than December 15, 2019. The second flight will be manned, scheduled for 2022. That's a very long time for either Falcon 9 or Atlas V to be certified for manned flights, and they could start sending manned flights to the ISS as soon as 2019.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by qzm on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:25AM (2 children)
Good point!
How can spaceX ever hope to catch up with all those successful manned SLS launches we have been watching.....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:23PM (1 child)
I keep hearing about this SpaceX stuff, and I keep sitting out at their launch facility but I never see any launches! Surely they've built up an entire launch and ground facility to support these launches, correct? They're not just using other facilities are they? Tell me that's at least rolled into their launch costs? They haven't been launching at a loss either, have they, to establish themselves in the market?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @08:05PM
It is.
Apparently through a few years ago, they were turning a mild profit from the COTS stuff even counting development costs up to that point. I get the feeling that development of the Falcon Heavy and the BFR has had them running at a loss over the past few years, but it seems manageable.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday March 29 2018, @07:00PM
I found the link for the ESA Moon Village idea:
https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Ministerial_Council_2016/Moon_Village [esa.int]
and this one:
https://moonvillageassociation.org/about/ [moonvillageassociation.org]
and another one:
http://spaceref.com/moon/successful-first-international-moon-village-workshop-at-isu.html [spaceref.com].
Of course it's very much "pie in the sky" at the moment. I like their idea, though.