> Behalf Of Marvin Long, Jr. > > Reading between the lines, I see that it is a grant proposal from a > > university. Given the feeling that the space program is about > to be cut, > > due to an administration decision that the cost overruns of the space > > station has decreased NASA's worth and credibility, I would use that 'ol > > Texas expression for its chances: > > Slim and None, and Slim's walking out the door.
Longer article at http://www.cosmiverse.com/space02060201.html possibly from the same press release. Also mentions the radical idea of actually using those External Tanks the shuttle keeps dragging up to about 95% (or whatever) orbital height. (There you are, another Brin reference, must be about 3 this week!!) > > Well, heck, just mount some big-ass guns on them suckahs, and maybe Bush > will write it into the budget! :-) > Gautam, if you're looking for somewhere real to put some of that money GW Bush has just found for defence, wouldn't that be better? As for the Las Vegas article - probably is a fair bit of boosterism there, but don'tcha need boosters to get these things into space? ;-) I don't think it should be so difficult to get a blow up space hab lifted by the Russians or the European (not ENTIRELY French) Ariane or even the Chinese. Things like US comsats and earth resource camera sats have been lifted by all three without, I think, too much trouble apart from the odd Long March disappearing in a BIG puff of propellant and aluminium. However, almost everyone involved in a space company seems to have pretty much the same to say about NASA. Rotary-Rocket co is dead and gone, Kistler hasn't had anything new on their website for about a year - and the last thing there is a news release about getting NASA funding. Of course, Boeing wouldn't say anything seeing as they got sprung handing over a 200 or so million dollar invoice for some gear that ended up in a waste dump. But there should certainly be easier ways of getting useful stuff into space? Why not a wee bit of cooperation with the likes of Energiya, who can build ultra-heavy lift launchers better than anyone else? They've still got a couple of Buran shuttles available, that can carry ten times the load of the Shuttle. Brett
