MarsBlog.net

The Gimli Glider was finally retired this past week.

Posted on January 26th, 2008 under Miscellaneous. Comments Off

Mark, if I seem “fixated” on scrapping the Ares I (I don’t care what it’s replaced with, just that it’s something up to the task), it’s because I’m one of the people who have to deal directly with its many shortcomings. I’ll give you credit for at least not lumping me in with this “internet rocketeer club” of yours for my opposition to the hodgepodge of politics and engineering you yourself seem to have a fixation with defending.

It’s worth noting that my gripe is with the first stage of Ares I. Your fixation with the dog’s dinner design being worked at present has led you to overlook the possibility that the solid first stage might actually reduce commonality with Ares V…replacing the first stage with (worst case) a clean-sheet liquid design would permit the use of the same first stage engines needed for Ares V, further leveraging the investment on those engines.

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 under Orion. Comments: 2

There appears to a revolt stirring against the VSE as currently conceived, by some big names in the civil space world.

I’ve long thought that missions to near-Earth asteroids would be a great addition to Constellation, for reasons pretty close to those stated in the linked article (it would be new and interesting, for one, and it would be the perfect incremental test of technologies for long missions to Mars).

There is an argument to be made for substituting asteroid missions for moon missions in the VSE — provided we can rely on the private sector to settle the moon on their own. It’s certainly possible, and there have been some early stirrings of interest in it.

Posted on January 20th, 2008 under Orion. Comments Off

Looks like Keith Cowing and the AP have finally gotten a bit of mainstream media attention for the problems with the Stick Shaft: NASA moon rocket may shake too much.

Let’s just hope this is at last the long-anticipated beginning of the end for that engineering abomination.

Posted on January 19th, 2008 under Orion. Comments Off

Aw, darn. Better luck next time.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 under Space Science. Comments Off