An overview of the space war situation by Clark Lindsey
Clark Lindsey has written a very nice and short summary of the present political battles over NASA’s budget and its future manned space rockets.
From the press release: From the moment he is handed a possibility of making the first alien contact, Saunders Maxwell decides he will do it, even if doing so takes him through hell and back.
Unfortunately, that is exactly where that journey takes him.
The vision that Zimmerman paints of vibrant human colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, indomitably fighting the harsh lifeless environment of space to build new societies, captures perfectly the emerging space race we see today.
He also captures in Pioneer the heart of the human spirit, willing to push forward no matter the odds, no matter the cost. It is that spirit that will make the exploration of the heavens possible, forever, into the never-ending future.
Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit.
And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Clark Lindsey has written a very nice and short summary of the present political battles over NASA’s budget and its future manned space rockets.
From the press release: From the moment he is handed a possibility of making the first alien contact, Saunders Maxwell decides he will do it, even if doing so takes him through hell and back.
Unfortunately, that is exactly where that journey takes him. The vision that Zimmerman paints of vibrant human colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, indomitably fighting the harsh lifeless environment of space to build new societies, captures perfectly the emerging space race we see today. He also captures in Pioneer the heart of the human spirit, willing to push forward no matter the odds, no matter the cost. It is that spirit that will make the exploration of the heavens possible, forever, into the never-ending future. Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit. And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
JWST and CCDev are going to be very vulnerable to hits. The later has no political support in Congress or real utility (they couldn’t deliver with COTS so why trust them with CCDev – unless you want to give it to the current bigplayers, which the supporters don’t.), and the former is way over budget and technically iffy. I wnder if they were kept on this long just to have something to offer for cuts now?
SLS I expect is safe though. It has a lot of bipartisan political support, and is on the critical path for NASA currently envisioned future. It will likely get the highest funding priority of any NASA program. Also this week with us currently seeing a real possibility of losing the station because of the failure of the booster for Soyuz and the Progress freighters (yeah betting everything on one 1950’s Soviet booster made real sence.) the idea of getting a US option fielded quickly (?) will look higher priority.
I think the rumbling was NASA will lose 20% of its budget. So JWST and CCDev may just be the start. A lot oflittle stuff could get whiped as well. Wouldn’t want to be on a science orunmaned program now.