Space Forum / Space Policy / February 2004

Problems -- give 'em a day or two to work them out...

If I understood O'Keefe correctly, he says we should let Hubble rot
because it would be too risky to send another mission there. That
doesn't make sense on many levels (like past missions for example),
but I want to discuss something else here.

    Forgive me for being cynical, but now we know why President Bush
gave a big speech about going to Mars (in the out years, of course).
As per CNN, it has just been announced that the Hubble Space Telescope
will not be serviced again, meaning that it will go out of service in

Back when the prize was announced I predicted that
no one would win it.  At that time Burt Rutan had not
announced his intent to go for the prize (other than his
years earlier remark that when it was fully funded he

I couldn't believe my ears as I listened to Andy Rooney on CBS' news
program  "60 Minutes" last night so I checked on the official program
transcript and there it was in black and white.
In a segment titled "Ground Control To Mr. Bush", Andy Rooney revealed

There is an article at :
http://space.com/missionlaunches/soyuz_iss_040130.html
About the new NASA budget.
Combines a lot of stuff into the CEV program including some Shuttle funds.

Wouldn't it be easier and a lot faster if we took one of these approaches to
melt the ice layer on Europa?
Detonate a large series of large hydrogen bombs in a specific area to melt
through the ice.

Why is information on the lander/explorer so hard to find?
The official site is written for third grade students.
The only transcription site is spaceflight, and it's
just truncated babble from the "nasa press releases".

Should NASA lift prefab modules to the Moon and Connect them together to form
living quarters for 10 people or should NASA send Contruction and mining
equipment and build the Moon House out of rock?
One idea would be to dig a rock quarry and carve stone blocks out of lunar

For the record, IMO, the half-time show at the Superbowl, featuring someone
in astronaut get-up waddling up a hill waving a flag was close to the
tackiest thing I have ever witnessed -- how was that a tribute to Columbia?  
It was a combo of the Iwo Jima marines and the MTV ...

        Been busy today so sorry in advance if my info is dated.
        From what I understand Spirit has bad flash memory.  Who made
it?  If that is their best then what will users here on Earth think of
their product?

In a previous post was this press story source
AP Poll: U.S. Tepid on Bush's Space Plans
By Will Lester
Associated Press

I'm just wondering how feasible this would be as a means to send a
servicing mission to Hubble (at a suitable point in time)?:
Modify an existing shuttle by removing tail, wings, landing gear, and
re-entry tiles; add fuel tanks to cargo bay; perform any other

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2443305
Apparently we just didn't really know for sure whether there was water/ice
on Mars.  Or something.

When a new strategy is defined in large corporations, the next steps
is to reorientate the various change programs to support this
strategy. Similarly, NASA has to redefine its research programs for a
different goal, of a permanent moon base. Here's my list of things for