Ask you REP to vote NO on H.R. 5781

[Crossover_Maniac]

Re: HR 5781 vs the "Yes We Can" Cult...IN SPACE

My plan:

1). Keep the shuttle flying until Space-X or Boeing or some other company comes up with a replacement.

If we need heavy lift
2). Develop the sidemount shuttle derived launch vehicle since it's essential the shuttle with an expendable orbiter and a 70-ton payload capacity

If we don't need heavy lift
2). Develop in-situ resource utilization and lunar and Martian cycler ships so that we can have a system that, in the long run, won't cost us much to maintain.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Ask you REP to vote NO on H.R. 5781 tomorrow

http://www.huffingtonpost.com : NASA's Constellation Hallucination and the Congressional Money Drug

Rick Tumlinson
Space Expert and Entrepreneur

Posted: September 10, 2010 02:30 PM

In the coming weeks some in Congress will try to kill America's future in space as they desperately work to prop up the tax sucking, pork eating dreamslaying monster known as the Constellation rocket program. Right now a bought and paid for cabal of hypocritical puppets in the House and Senate are trying to prop up this corpse of a dead end plan to go to the Moon and Mars that not only failed to deliver on President Bush's promise of a permanent U.S. presence in space, but continues to eat the budgets of the very exploration it was meant to support.

Worse, in order to line the pockets of a few old space contractors, those who support what I call the Constellation Hallucination want to block President Obama's plan to re-invigorate our space program that gets NASA back to exploring by kickstarting our commercial NewSpace transportation industry. With some democrats turning against their own president and so-called conservatives lying to their own constituents about the choice between their strangely socialist space agenda and the NewSpace frontier enabling Obama's space plan, it is obviously all about the money -- our money, and making sure it goes into the right pockets, not into opening space.

Those defending the status quo with hollow arguments that the president's plan is destroying our space program have succeeded so far in confusing the public as to what this is all about, and made American enterprise look like the bad guys while defending a NASA human spaceflight status quo that has been a failure to launch when it comes to the dreams they have peddled us for all the decades since Apollo.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Ask you REP to vote NO on H.R. 5781 tomorrow

Collection of articles :

nasawatch.com : Supporting Senate Vs House NASA Legislation

 

[HopDavid]

Re: Ask you REP to vote NO on H.R. 5781 tomorrow

The government isn't going to explore the planets with this make work program.

Quite the opposite. Many exciting robotic missions will be axed to pay for this pork.

Best case scenario: flags and footprints on Mars and an asteroid. Worst case (and far more likely) axed before the HLV ever takes any humans past LEO.

I don't know if you're one of those "Let's axe the manned space program and give the money to JPL to launch more probes",

Correct, you don't know. I would guess you haven't a clue what my views are.

but if you are, I want to let you know that stabbing the manned space program

In my opinion, Gabrielle Giffords et al are hatching a plan that will eventually destroy hopes of manned space flight for some time to come.

If we go to space, we should go to stay. We should establish infrastructure and learn how use in situ resources. We should work to reduce cost of space access.

If the House bill passes, the public will eventually come to perceive the expenditure as a waste and rightfully so. By choosing a hugely wasteful and short sighted architecture, they would postpone human settlement of space for many decades.

It is the House and their supporters who are stabbing the manned space program.

 

[kelvinzero]

Re: HR 5781 vs the "Yes We Can" Cult...IN SPACE

Hi Crossover_Maniac,

I could argue for the Obama plan, but the discussion now seems to be between the senate bill and the house bill. I think I heard that Obama has endorsed the senate bill, and the Obama plan isnt being mentioned anymore.
The senate bill starts an HLV right now, but still keeps some funding for commercial space, precursor missions and technology. I would put it as about 75% HLV, 25%Obama, so I hope it does not get compromised any more in the direction of the House bill as I last saw it.

btw, If I understand your plan above, it is basically the Obama plan but with some extra shuttle flights added this end.
If your priority is to minimise the HSF gap that would certainly be the way: Shuttle flights on this end, fast track a small, comparatively easy and cheap gemini-scale transport on the other end. If you are making the choice of HLV contingent on the results of fuel depot tests then like the Obama plan you are proposing delaying the choice of HLV to 2015 when the fuel depot test was planned to be launched.

 

[sftommy]

Re: Ask you REP to vote NO on H.R. 5781 tomorrow

This next week Congreess returns and may or may not take up NASA funding. The House leadership will decide that.

Should HR 5781 be again proferred without correction than by its short-comings each of us with dreams of new technologies and new cheaper space systems must contact our elected Representatives and insist that they vote NO! We all need to watch what happens and keep our Reps # on speed dial, a good compromise must as ardently be supported with a "YES"!

The best compromise would be to select the best elements of each proposal out there and fully fund it in the $21-22B range.

That takes a leader and we're still stuck in members of the chorus trying to outshout each other over a miserly pot-of-gold.
I think of all the characters in this six month old specticle and still ask where's that uifying NASA leader? A lot of wannabes with agendas less noble than NASA's efforts deserve.

If that leader isn't one person...
maybe we should lock them all in one room with some chalk and a blackboard; Bolden, Garver, Nelson of FL, Gifford, Shelby of AL, Olson of TX, Schiff of CA, Gordon of TN, Kosmas of FL, Brownback of KS, Posey of FL, Wolf of VA, LaTourette of OH, who else?
...until they come out with a NASA BILLl they're all happy with, <no guns allowed>

 

[Yuri_Armstrong]

When will this political nightmare be over and when will they actually start doing work and making progress?

 

[MeteorWayne]

I'd suggest checking the weather forecast for hell. When it goes below 0 C for a few months....

 

[EarthlingX]

When will this political nightmare be over and when will they actually start doing work and making progress?

When they are out of office and some intelligent people in. Check MW's post above for date.

 

[menellom]

Anyone know if the NASA debate is on the House's agenda for this week?