El Sol

I've always wanted to be an astronaut.


HT: APOD

GAO Report of the Week

Your GAO report of the week is another winner with a fantastic title:

NASA: Commercial Partners Are Making Progress, but Face Aggressive Schedules to Demonstrate Critical SpaceStation Cargo Transport Capabilities

This report came out a while ago (June) yet despite its dry title and content, highlights a important point. Namely, that to push boundaries (technological/economical/scientific) we need to get commercial enterprise involved. In other words the activity needs to demonstrate such an opportunity for profit that many individuals and corporations are willing to risk fortunes for even larger fortunes. This was true in the settling of the New World and in the expansion of information technology and is absolutely true of the human settlement of space. Government can't just keep doing what its doing and chucking folks through the atmosphere. We need folks to try something new and explore new possibilities that may lead to dramatic breakthroughs.

Furthermore, as this report shows, "government" has a role this process of discovery. For space exploration NASA is wise to give a stream of money to reach a goal (service the space station) and then allow the companies go at it. Hopefully the companies will be successful and it will lead to more involvement of corporations willing to risk the big bucks for even bigger bucks.

We landed on the moon 40 years ago...

...and soon we are going to retire a 30 year old shuttle with nothing to replace it. NASA and the American space program is living on the fumes of old glory. Alas, the grand old Augustine commission* has just issued a report that rings the death bell for the Constellation Program, the shuttle replacement. Folks, the U.S. Government's space glory days are over. We do lots of great robot work, but have dropped the ball with human spaceflight. Sending people to space is expensive and right now America doesn't want to fott the bill.

*Not the actual name. Since this is a government bureaucracy its actually called, "The Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee."

Note: This is a drawing. Never be seduced by NASA's pretty drawings. Just cause it's a realistic picture doesn't mean it actually exists.

Note, Note: This also applies to Department of Defense procurement.