Space Forum / Space Policy / November 2007

NASA must cooperate with the Department of Defense in the United States.
 According to the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, Section
 305à (i):
   "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall be considered

.
20 months after my email to Google ( as explained in this article:
http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/012arescantfly.html ) they "invented"
the """Google""" Lunar X Prize: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-IJhr3CCHs

First and foremost, let me just say that I do believe that the United
States was actually on the moon.
However, I am in a debate with someone who wants to know why it's
taking us (or anyone else for that matter) so long to go back there.

Has NASA purchased any Falcon9/Dragon manned launches yet? It now looks like
Falcon9/Dragon will be operational far before Ares/Orion so why not fill the
space gap with Dragon?

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http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/012arescantfly.html
.

The article at:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckS
cript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blo
g%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a53c67001-4d5b-40ad-9af0-a3b8fce2d
4ea
is mostly about ...

Americans still playing with their unmanned toy vehicles on Mars,
whereas Turks have sent a manned mission to Mars!
Mission Control in Antalya/Turkey has released the following
video of the Turkish mission on the red planet:

ALthough LOX/LH2 has the highest ISP of reasonable fuels, it has
problems but I wonder if anybody can give some furhter
enlightenment.
I understand a LH2 tank needs to be huge to carry enough and that it

This is even easier than defending Orion.  Critics say that these
plans are simply to benefit ATK and other current shuttle
contractors.  Welcome to the real world.  That is the way life works
in federal funding of mega projects.  Any shuttle replacement that did

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I've UPDATED my "Ares-1 can't fly" article...
http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/012arescantfly.html
...with an interesting thing found on the web:

Am I correct in thinking that for a given amount of O2 that a fuel
tank for CH4 would be 1/4 the size of the size of a LH2 tank?  Given
the storability of CH4 vs LH2, I'd think a LOX/CH4 engine would be an
extreme priority of NASA and am surprised it has not been developed.

The following SEM photo reveals two gigantic, fossilized human red
blood cells measuring 15 microns in diameter--two times as large as
modern humans.
The photo had been labeled and the red blood cells measured.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90781/90876/6305728.html
New rocket set to blast off by 2013
10:00, November 20, 2007
The country's next-generation launch vehicles for heavyweight

The Ansari X prize was great but then we see all these guys who say
they will make money sending people into 5 minutes of weightlessness.
Do you buy this?  It seems awfully sketchy to me.  I hope they are
right.