https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8MY056Vz8
I've had several exchanges recently with frens who are under the impression that NASA has been starving the objective of space exploration, and otherwise preventing any national trend in that direction. I have been trying to provide information to support a more objective, factual view.
This is a recent address by Mike Griffin in which he has very insightful observations from his experience in the field and with NASA in particular. Some of the interesting points are:
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If you do an inflation-compensated comparison of time frames between the Apollo program and now, you find that NASA is spending more money than ever before.
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And that it seems to be of poor effect, because it took far longer to design and develop the Space Launch System than the Saturn V.
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A big part of the problem is the idea that such space development can all be hired out to "commercial" entities---yet be managed by NASA personnel who no longer have any experience in doing this work themselves.
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On the one hand, NASA is a "national security agency," insofar as it is a way of demonstrating capability supremacy to the world. On the other hand, it is a servant of political direction, beyond the power of the Administrator to alter.
His remarks are 25 minutes long, with some question answering for another 8 minutes. He tends to stand back from his microphone, so his voice will sound soft for most of the time.
NASA is just another governmental money laundering organization.
Not much, just 70 million dollars a day, paid by you and me.
In the case of NASA, we actually get what we pay for. Unfortunately, it is expensive, and it is hard to sort blame from circumstances. But we have photos from the Hubble Telescope that are historic in their depth of field and resolution. We have raw data from the surface of Mars.
There is no question that budgeting for NASA involves the same financial politics as budgeting for any other organization, but that is the fault of the Legislature, not of NASA.
THNX for the "cliff notes" on this 👍👍👍
You are welcome. Other anons do a good job, too. Personally, I loathe the "Dude, check this video out," style of recommendation. No hint of why. Not even a disclosure of how long it is. Very inconsiderate.
NASA Is a huge fraud. With a fraction of rhe resources look what musk has done
That is exactly what Griffin pointed out as NASA's failure. But their space probe and satellite work is first rate. It depends on what they are doing and who is stirring the pot. (It is not for nothing that the Space Launch System [SLS] is commonly referred to as the "Senate Launch System.")
Hmm. I don't fully buy that. My neighbor works for NASS as an aerospace engineer (working on robots) and I've worked on lunar projects for nasa this very year. There active plans for lunar lander stuff on the southern moon. There are many other things that are just simply not in the public domain right now.
You don't fully buy Griffin's criticism of the Artemis mission architecture? Or his other criticisms? I identified the Gateway as a fatal weak link at the beginning. The whole point of Artemis is to land on the south pole of the Moon. SpaceX got the contract to design/develop the manned lander. You don't agree that NASA has lost the experience base for effective project supervision?
Product supervision? They definitely have poor communication abilities and certainly need more knowledge.
NASA always felt like they became number one so they could set the standard low.. people could see what monstrous amounts of wealth and minds it took to accomplish so little and make space a lowest priority.
NASA is not responsible for priority. That is exclusively a matter of the Legislature and the office of the President. There was never a low standard of work during the Apollo program. (Having Germans in charge of the launch vehicle may have been culturally responsible, I think. Typical German meticulousness.)
If you want priority, get out there and lobby for it. I spent a lot of time in the union dealing with carpers who didn't want to make any effort to remediate the things they were complaining about.