Jim Muncy is speaking on behalf of Space Frontier Foundation. This group is a hard core pro-space group.
At London they have a sign "Mind the Gap" between the platform and the train. This talk is focused on a different gap.
NASA's stated goal is an affordable and sustainable transportation system.
NASA at one point forecasted a "gap" of perhaps four years between shuttle retirement and CEV (Orion). A new administrator took over NASA. Everyone got the message "We must get rid of the Gap." (Might have a security threat, and might have to layoff NASA employees.)
Jim says their solution is Gemini on Steroids.
Been an arguement that we need a new transportation system to fill in the gap.
Some people are using this "crisis" to build a transportation to get to Mars.
NASA's current internal forecast of Orion and Ares' first human launch is 2017. This is at a cost to IOC of $44 billion, which is up from $27 billion. Note, the gap has grown by three years. The gap has grown 1.3 years for each year. Jim proposes a new metric - Years Per Year Slip.
Jim thinks it would be good to give NASA a long term goal of getting to the Moon, so it will let go of its death grip on the near space. The current plan won't be affordable or sustainable. Probably wouldn't get to the moon until 2019, or maybe 2029.
With the current political and economic climate there is little support for space. Money spent on NASA isn't viewed as a viable way to stimulate the economy.
With the recent changes in Washington DC there is some opportunity for change. Jim argues that we shouldn't decommish the International Space Station. It is a sunk cost. It still has value and there are ways it could be used. Keep it.
The Campaign:
The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) believes it is now time to declare Ares 1 and ESAS a failure. They want NASA to use the stimulus funds to stimulate a new human ETO inudstry by funding multiple COSTS D concepts.
The full agenda
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Technorati tags: space access
1 comment:
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