 Poor NASA, Literally |
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 Feb 8 2007, 10:56 PM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 4-September 04 Member No.: 6,628  |
NASA looks like they're having some financial troubles. Anybody think this might lead to them being gobbled up into the private sector like with Ares in SR?
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Feb 8 2007, 11:03 PM
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#2
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,629 Joined: 14-December 06 Member No.: 10,361 |
They've already named one of their rockets Ares for chrissakes!
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Feb 8 2007, 11:06 PM
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#3
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...as long as it isn't Haliburton, Bechtel, AMR, Starbucks, or BIll Gates we should be okay.
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Feb 8 2007, 11:08 PM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
Starbucks! Orbital Coffee Strike! Cappuccino-Shots!
Fear the Brownie-Launcher ™! |
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Feb 8 2007, 11:09 PM
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#5
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,206 Joined: 9-July 06 From: Fresno, CA Member No.: 8,856 |
Heh, you'll note that they are already planning on subcontracting missions to the space station to a private sector firm starting in 2010...
Nice to see I'm not the only one linking to New Scientist around here. :P |
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Feb 8 2007, 11:14 PM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
So, how much do you reckon you'd have to pay to make them let you paint the Ares V in the color scheme of your choice?
But more importantly, how would you paint it... Personally, if Bill Gates got his little hands on the rocket, I'd quit any job associated with rockets. It's bound to go to hell. Can you say Windows RG OS? :P |
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Feb 8 2007, 11:39 PM
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#7
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...three bad words I wouldn't want to hear after launch: Unrecoverable Application Error |
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Feb 9 2007, 01:11 AM
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#8
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
... :rotfl: :rotate: :rotfl: :rotate: |
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Feb 9 2007, 01:11 AM
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#9
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,629 Joined: 14-December 06 Member No.: 10,361 |
BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH :eek:
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Feb 9 2007, 01:13 AM
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#10
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Creating a god with his own hands Group: Members Posts: 1,405 Joined: 30-September 02 From: 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 Member No.: 3,364 |
they've been having financial troubles since the Apollo program ended, because Congress stopped writing them blank checks. |
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Feb 9 2007, 01:23 AM
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#11
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
"...no bucks
...no Buck Rogers" |
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Feb 9 2007, 02:34 AM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 21-December 06 Member No.: 10,416 |
It isn't so much that they were given blank checks, it is that the public lost interest. Sure it was "sexy" up through the first moon landing, but after that, the public got tired of it. The other thing that hurt was that NASA couln't decide whether it was ain the research business or the transportation business. NASA probably should have focussed almost exclusively on space exploration and research, including a space station, while leaving satellite launches to the private sector. That would have concentrated their resources into work that private industry otherwise probable would not have been doing, like the Hubble telescope and the missions to Mars and beyond. The space shuttle really hurt too. Its a nice looking machine but it cost ten times as much per pound to send something into orbit than disposable rockets. There was also supposed to be a fleet of 20 of them so there could be more launches, but they were expensive and Congress wouldn't fund them all. Relying on those few ships they did build meant they would be worked harder and be more likely to fail. When they failed, there was one less to do the work. As we have seen since the last one crashed, the space program has been stuck in the mud. If, we had still been building Saturn Vs at one or two per year, the space station could have been put up in one or two launches rather than the 20 + required by the shuttle. The last problem I will mention is the famous government policy of "cost plus." That means the government pays the rocket companies the cost of building the rocket plus a percentage. As you can guess, those companies are very top heavy with administration, most with more admin than production workers. That's done just to run up costs so the "plus" will pay out more. That was fine during the Cold War and the race to the moon, but it hasn't been practical for the last 20 years. Well, let's just say that it is a government agency and they are all screwed up. The surest way to ruin the best program is to let the government get involved. |
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Feb 9 2007, 02:50 AM
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#13
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Creating a god with his own hands Group: Members Posts: 1,405 Joined: 30-September 02 From: 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 Member No.: 3,364 |
I'm going to go hide in the nostalgic days pre-shuttle when the engineers ran the show.
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Feb 9 2007, 07:18 AM
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#14
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Target Group: Members Posts: 49 Joined: 4-December 06 From: Sweden Member No.: 10,207 |
I wonder if NASA still uses Amigas :D
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Feb 9 2007, 09:42 AM
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#15
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 870 Joined: 2-October 06 From: Athens Ga Member No.: 9,517 |
Hey, it's easy to sexy up a big phallic symbol shooting off!
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Feb 9 2007, 01:09 PM
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#16
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Target Group: Members Posts: 21 Joined: 27-September 06 Member No.: 9,483 |
Best news in a long time. Only better news would have been the cancellation of the manned space program. Total waste of money since the day the launched Gagarin.
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Feb 9 2007, 03:06 PM
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#17
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ghostrider Group: Retired Admins Posts: 4,196 Joined: 16-May 04 Member No.: 6,333 |
Good post. A fried of mine and I used to discuss the NASA issue at great length, and you mention a lot of issues we used to discuss. My particular pet issues are the lack of funding for NASA, and the way that administrations have long ceased placing enough (IMO etc) emphasis on space travel and exploration. Thus, the lack of sexy, the lack of media attention. Personally, I'm pretty sure that we've lost all hope when somebody like fucking Britney Spears, et al, is more "important" and known and aspired to by kids than someone like the captain of the latest shuttle mission. "Mommy, daddy, I want to be a vacuous twit with fake titties and a ton of unwarranted, unjustifiable media attention when I grow up" just doesn't have the same ring as "I want to be an astronaut," but for some reason you don't hear the latter anymore. |
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Feb 9 2007, 04:06 PM
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#18
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...I hear you on that one. I used to remember when every launch was an event, Mercury, Gemini, the Apollo orbital tests then finally the Moon missions. Hell even the X-plane tests were big stuff back then. Favourite launch announcer: Walter Cronkite Now shuttle launches and missions are back page news in the 'B' or 'C' sections of most dailies or 20 second vid clips on the evening broadcast. I agree that much of the exploration is best handled by robotic probes which have become highly sophisticated and are a fraction of the cost of sending a manned mission. I have a gallery of images from the Martian surface, Saturn, and from the Hubble (which i consider to be one of the most successful projects even given the "correction" that needed to be made). I think the Europeans have it right. Band together with your best technological minds & make a system that works. Getting back to the SR angle, in an upcoming campaign (once Arsenal comes out) I am heading back to the the feeling of those "Right Stuff" days. |
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Feb 9 2007, 07:42 PM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 21-December 06 Member No.: 10,416 |
Thanks. NASA has been underfunded for decades now. They could easily triple its budget on just a fraction of the pork barrel spending every year, not to mention all the other waste and fraud. I think the planned mission to Mars was an attempt at getting attention back to the space program, but it was too long term and ambitious. People these days don't have the attention span to wait 20 minutes let alone 20 years for a project. Had the goal been to have a series of new longer duration moon landings, including some to set up small observatories on the far side of the moon, that might have worked. You are so right about society today. People want their 15 minutes of fame and that's it. A poll not long ago in England showed that over 60% of kids wanted to be stars, well up from 20 years ago. There's a moive out called Idiocracy which takes place in the future where society has been progressively dumbed down by what passes for media today. It was kinda funny, but perhaps too prescient. |
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Feb 9 2007, 08:29 PM
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#20
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ghostrider Group: Retired Admins Posts: 4,196 Joined: 16-May 04 Member No.: 6,333 |
@Thane36425 Agreed.
Why Arsenal? Or do you mean that you're waiting for the book before you start the campaign? I ask because if Arsenal is slated to have spacey goodness in it, I might get it (wait though, isn't Arsenal rules? hmm). Maybe not. I would like to see more stuff on space in SR, in the vein of YotC's sections on it. |
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Feb 9 2007, 09:33 PM
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#21
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...probably not. The larger space stuff (orbital stations & lunar installations) I have been working on since there really do not need physical attributes, Where it should be helpful (I hope) is in providing design/customisation rules for weaponry, armour & vehicles. Really have little desire to try & convert gear & rules from SRIII
Another good source is Target Wastelands. As I mentioned in a pervious post, I have also been revamping my old Neo Anarchist's Guide to RealSpace which I wrote up in the SR2 days... ...Space is a very dangerous place, it makes even the Barrens and Hell's Kitchen look downright hospitable and inviting... |
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Feb 9 2007, 09:55 PM
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#22
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ghostrider Group: Retired Admins Posts: 4,196 Joined: 16-May 04 Member No.: 6,333 |
Yes, T:W is awesome. It's still my intention to get runners into space. :D
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Feb 9 2007, 10:11 PM
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#23
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Old Man Jones Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,415 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New York Member No.: 1,699 |
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Feb 9 2007, 11:15 PM
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#24
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ghostrider Group: Retired Admins Posts: 4,196 Joined: 16-May 04 Member No.: 6,333 |
That's awesome. :D
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Feb 10 2007, 01:38 AM
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#25
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Bushido Cowgirl Group: Members Posts: 5,782 Joined: 8-July 05 From: On the Double K Ranch a half day's ride out of Phlogiston Flats Member No.: 7,490 |
...gak! Bill the Gates did make it to the 24th century!
(& Data must have been programmed in linux.) |
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