Space Forum / Space Policy / February 2004

Here's an interesting oblique view of a portion of the Valles Marineris
complex which was generated from Mars Express photos.  The photo is of a
portion of the western edge of the Valles Marineris outflow at approx.
37 degrees west, 4 degrees north.  Note the banding on the mesa in ...

    A story in todays Houston Chronicle quotes several NASA officials
as being pessimistic about the space shuttle launching during the
fall 'window' that had originally been aimed for.  Apparently an official
report is due out next week, and this talk seems to be preparation for

This is a reply I posted earlier, I thought it might be important
enough to post as a seperate message.
rpournel@yahoo.com (Rich Pournelle) wrote in message news:<619c2c5a.0401261026.45505700@posting.google.com>...

Found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/20/science/space/20SPAC.html
New Moon: Planning the Return to Space
By KENNETH CHANG

All those discussions on the new launcher
Nasa should keep the STS system up and running after they retire the orbiter
develop Shuttle C now, and you can use it withing 3/4 years
That would save a lot of money, is unmanned and has tremendous lift capacity

The NASA won´t tell it, but we all know the face on Mars, a giant
alien monument and there also are pyramids on Mars.
If they tell the truth, it could be bad for earth, because the of
proof of extraterrestial life.

To turn the other thread on its head.
The shuttle has been in service for 20 years, and after the first couple
of years met all the initial promises, launch costs dropping by a factor
of 5, and a launch every week.

It looks like Lockheed Martin has simply taken its OSP design and
dubbed it the "Crew Exploration Vehicle".
http://www.ast.lmco.com/cev/
http://www.ast.lmco.com/cev/gallery.html

NASA has decided to spend over $100M on an unmanned mission to
de-orbit the HST instead of peforming the previously scheduled upgrade
mission.  The excuse they give is that the Shuttle cannot safely
travel anywhere but to the ISS.

Today on NPR's Science Friday, NASA's representative said that Spirit is
nearly back to 100%, and that it will resume doing science and transmitting
pictures this weekend.  No word yet on the specifics of the problem that
took her down for so long.

Getting the shuttle safely back into space doesn't seem too complex, but
satisfying the CAIB's requirements does.  CAIB apparently charged NASA with
two tasks, to fix the problems that caused the crash - the main tank's foam
lining and the leading edge of the wing, and designing ...

The beard and spectacles guys are aiming the micro at sand on Mars
now. They want to look at pebbles for the sake of Man? The rovers
should find place for people to live, not acting like all the dweebs
on earth looking at boring rocks and trees to get grants and rip off

This is interesting for several reasons. Apparently MDA is
wisely hedging its bets wrt coming up with a robust answer
to the discrimination/decoy/antisimulation problem.
And I suspect that a booster capable of, er, boosting a

Located courtesy NMIA Zgram:
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/february/02_10_2.html
 ISRAEL MULLS DEAL TO LEASE OFEQ-5 TO INDIA
 TEL AVIV [MENL]

He had a guest editorial in Florida Today:
http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2004a/020804guest.htm
(in which he rips Alex Roland.)
At the end it says "Day served as an investigator for the Columbia