This may come as something of a shock, but I'm in M Fnord's camp on this one.
I'm disappointed that we don't get to keep something LIKE a shuttle AND have the Constellation too. But if you're only going to have one. Have it
be the Constellation.
Look, I Loved the shuttle when it first came out. Love with a capital L. In a way I still love it, and I'll MISS it terribly when it's retired. There
was nothing like it in the world, and most likely we won't see anything like it through the rest of this century.
But the shuttle is a deeply, tragically flawed design. It's already killed two whole 7 man crews. It's too big for what it needs to do. It's never
been able to utilize 100% of that cargo space. There are better, cheaper, safer ways to build a machine for re-entry. And whoever the FUCK decided to use SRBs
instead of liquid fueled boosters has got a LOT to answer for.
For what we are using the shuttle for, we don't NEED an enormous, rocket launched, winged glider. We NEVER DID!
I know it LOOKS like a step back. But I agree with Fnord. Updating the "Apollo" style of capsule is something that will FUCKING WORK. We don't
need finesse. We don't need to be so far out on the bleeding edge of aerospace tech that we have a machine too advanced for the job it's doing.
Sometimes brute force is the best option.
And think of all the advances we've made since the Apollo years. You realize that they almost didn't have a computer in those spacecraft at all by our
standards? They calculated orbital trajectories by slide rule to input them into the guidance computers! They flew to the moon and landed via the seat of their
fucking pants! I admire the HELL out of the Apollo astronauts for the enormous clanking BALLS they had to do that! But we don't have to do it that way
anymore! Think what we can cram into a bigger version of Apollo NOW.
(Hell even the most recent addition to the shuttle fleet is behind the times in terms of computer tech.)
Couple that with the potential of working WITH a private run sector of space lift capability (Spaceship 2, Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, et al) and I think we
could have something that really works well by the end of the next decade.
Of course, with the current political/economic situation we have, little to none of that is going to happen. NASA is going to get cut so far I doubt even
Constellation will happen. I think the US is going to retreat almost altogether from manned space travel. JPL will still do great things for science and
astronomy. But I think the next generation of space travel and possibly a mission to Mars is going to belong to someone else, like the Chinese. I wish them the
best of luck. SOMEONE needs to get off this rock. And if the US can't be bothered to be the ones, then we never deserved it in the first place.
But aside from my pessimism about NASA and the United States in space, I still agree that Constellation would be the better approach assuming they can afford
to do it and if we can muster the political will for it.
I'm disappointed that we don't get to keep something LIKE a shuttle AND have the Constellation too. But if you're only going to have one. Have it
be the Constellation.
Look, I Loved the shuttle when it first came out. Love with a capital L. In a way I still love it, and I'll MISS it terribly when it's retired. There
was nothing like it in the world, and most likely we won't see anything like it through the rest of this century.
But the shuttle is a deeply, tragically flawed design. It's already killed two whole 7 man crews. It's too big for what it needs to do. It's never
been able to utilize 100% of that cargo space. There are better, cheaper, safer ways to build a machine for re-entry. And whoever the FUCK decided to use SRBs
instead of liquid fueled boosters has got a LOT to answer for.
For what we are using the shuttle for, we don't NEED an enormous, rocket launched, winged glider. We NEVER DID!
I know it LOOKS like a step back. But I agree with Fnord. Updating the "Apollo" style of capsule is something that will FUCKING WORK. We don't
need finesse. We don't need to be so far out on the bleeding edge of aerospace tech that we have a machine too advanced for the job it's doing.
Sometimes brute force is the best option.
And think of all the advances we've made since the Apollo years. You realize that they almost didn't have a computer in those spacecraft at all by our
standards? They calculated orbital trajectories by slide rule to input them into the guidance computers! They flew to the moon and landed via the seat of their
fucking pants! I admire the HELL out of the Apollo astronauts for the enormous clanking BALLS they had to do that! But we don't have to do it that way
anymore! Think what we can cram into a bigger version of Apollo NOW.
(Hell even the most recent addition to the shuttle fleet is behind the times in terms of computer tech.)
Couple that with the potential of working WITH a private run sector of space lift capability (Spaceship 2, Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, et al) and I think we
could have something that really works well by the end of the next decade.
Of course, with the current political/economic situation we have, little to none of that is going to happen. NASA is going to get cut so far I doubt even
Constellation will happen. I think the US is going to retreat almost altogether from manned space travel. JPL will still do great things for science and
astronomy. But I think the next generation of space travel and possibly a mission to Mars is going to belong to someone else, like the Chinese. I wish them the
best of luck. SOMEONE needs to get off this rock. And if the US can't be bothered to be the ones, then we never deserved it in the first place.
But aside from my pessimism about NASA and the United States in space, I still agree that Constellation would be the better approach assuming they can afford
to do it and if we can muster the political will for it.