Wednesday, April 09, 2008
LINK-O-RAMA
A crowded browser and little time means it's time for another edition of Link-Dump:
Space Cadets: I've got lots of catching up to do on space blogging, but not enough time to do all the great stuff justice. Here are some quick takes. The European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) has now docked with the International Space Station. Although it had a few relatively minor glitches, it and the ESA have performed at an extremely high level. It's a very impressive vehicle, but hugely expensive and, as currently funded, only this one and three others are intended to be built and flown. The PR available at various sites talks about how the ATV is "unmanned but man-rated," which is true. But right now the unwieldy and hyper-politicized ESA structure (which makes NASA look svelte and nimble) has near-zero chance of turning the ATV into any kind of manned vehicle. Which is to say nothing of the fact that it's one more ruinously expensive and complex piece of throw-away hardware. All of which goes to the problem with "Space Programs:" A "program" has a beginning, middle and end. A real space infrastructure doesn't.
Speaking of throw-away hardware, I managed to catch yesterday's launch of the Soyuz carrying the ISS Expedition 17 crew and South Korea's game-show-winning "Spaceflight Participant" (NASA's euphemism for people who ride Russian rockets to the ISS for mere money). (The flight also included another first: The first second-generation space traveler.) Now, if you're going to chunk everything in the garbage after every use, there's no better example of how to do it right than the Soyuz. It's dead-simple and as reliable as a Chevy small black V-8. (I estimate that the all-in marginal cost of building and flying a full Soyuz mission is well under $100 million and may be as low as $50 million.) Question for the reader: If this facility exists, why in the world would anyone pay orders of magnitude more to simply recreate this same capability???
At the other end of the garbage-can-vs.-re-use spectrum is this relatively recent study from Northrop I came across about just what would be involved in building a reusable, "combined cycle" air-breathing Mach 7+ technology demonstrator. If NASA were being true to the mission it had at its founding (which was just the old NACA's mission "on steroids"), it would get out of the rocket booster and orbit-shuttle game and concentrate on something like this -- something industry is simply not going to do on its own because it involves too much work at the intersection between engineering and science. Remember the X-15? THAT'S what NASA's supposed to be doing, not building commuter buses and 18-wheelers.
Imaginary Friends: In Malaysia, that so-called "moderate Muslim nation," fundamentalist implementation of draconian theocracy continues unabated. Here's a local Malay comment on the state of play. Stop by to get a feel for what's in store for the world's most populous Muslim country. Meanwhile, in the hot war against the world's most petulant Imaginary Friend, the question is posed who's really winning in the war among the armed Shiite groups in Iraq. Although it's now over a week old, this piece from a retired US spook has a good perspective on how to gauge the answer to that question. Finally, here's an interesting short philosophical note about life without Imaginary Friends, something it seems most people really don't understand at all.
That's all I have time for this morning -- there will likely be more short notes over the next week or so as work-work is heating up.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 6:49 AM
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