Comments on: NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997 Blogging for the creation of a spacefaring civilization Sun, 19 May 2013 19:51:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Dale Amon http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997&cpage=1#comment-16962 Dale Amon Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:59:56 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997#comment-16962 Yep, ticks all the boxes for the key districts. Pork is go for launch. Yep, ticks all the boxes for the key districts. Pork is go for launch.

]]> By: Robert Sugg http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997&cpage=1#comment-16961 Robert Sugg Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:54:19 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997#comment-16961 70-130 metric tons lifted at a rate of one or two flights per year by a throw away vehicle doesn't sound like a keeper for either exploration or industry. The rationale doesn't seem to me to represent either a sustainable pathway for permanent human presence beyond LEO or the high launch frequency necessary to start large economy-boosters like space solar. It does seem to represent a bureaucratic scramble to keep existing payroll going for constituents who would be better employed working a Gerard K. O'Neill - type rationale. 70-130 metric tons lifted at a rate of one or two flights per year by a throw away vehicle doesn’t sound like a keeper for either exploration or industry. The rationale doesn’t seem to me to represent either a sustainable pathway for permanent human presence beyond LEO or the high launch frequency necessary to start large economy-boosters like space solar.

It does seem to represent a bureaucratic scramble to keep existing payroll going for constituents who would be better employed working a Gerard K. O’Neill - type rationale.

]]> By: David Brandt-Erichsen http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997&cpage=1#comment-16959 David Brandt-Erichsen Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:24:57 +0000 http://blog.nss.org/?p=2997#comment-16959 Projected cost for this system is $30 billion up through the first two flights, after which it is slated to fly once a year at a cost of at least $1 billion per flight. For the cost of those first two flights you could instead buy 300 flights of Falcon Heavy, not including Dragon, so maybe 200 or so flights with Dragon. Dragon is also designed to be able to "land on any solid surface in the solar system" which is not true of Orion. Is this any way to run a space program? It seems to me the Emperor has no clothes here. The best thing for a human future in space would be to cancel this program. Projected cost for this system is $30 billion up through the first two flights, after which it is slated to fly once a year at a cost of at least $1 billion per flight.

For the cost of those first two flights you could instead buy 300 flights of Falcon Heavy, not including Dragon, so maybe 200 or so flights with Dragon. Dragon is also designed to be able to “land on any solid surface in the solar system” which is not true of Orion.

Is this any way to run a space program? It seems to me the Emperor has no clothes here. The best thing for a human future in space would be to cancel this program.

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