Fire up the Power Point! Set the viewgraphs to boundless optimism!

[james_davis_nicoll]

A worthy successor to GHWB's Space Exploration Initiative and GWB's Vision for Space Exploration: NASA's crewed rockets are absolutely, positively going to Mars; please don't bring up all the previous times they promised that and it didn't happen.

Comments

[redbird]

They're really calling it Orion?!

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

When they opened with "In the not-too-distant future", the MSTK3000 theme started playing in the background of my head, which really didn't help me take what followed seriously.

'If you're wondering how they eat and breathe / And dodge the suns radiation attacks / Then repeat to yourself 'It's just a promo, / I should really just relax.'

[w. dow rieder (from livejournal.com)]

There are a number of things relevant to a possible future crewed Mars mission that NASA might reasonably test--but that's not what they are talking about. I hope they don't waste too much money on planning for something congress will never, ever give them money to actually do.

[seawasp]

I'd really like to see someone step foot on Mars in my lifetime, but I'm not enthusiastic about this latest claim.

I'd also like to see them look into the dusty plasma sail for real; it needs at least a test in high orbit, not labs, to make it a yea-or-nay for sure.

A good, reengineered NERVA-style rocket might get them there in reasonable time, and I've seen they're asking for significant research in the area of nuclear rocket propulsion, so maybe.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow's flight is Orion EFT-1.

In 2009, NASA flew Ares I-X, a mission that launched a live first stage for a putative Orion launcher plus dummy upper stages out into the Atlantic. In doing so it substantially replicated SA-1, the first test flight of the Saturn I first stage. Which had taken place 48 years earlier.

EFT-1 will fly an operational Orion capsule on a high-orbit mission with a high-speed re-entry test. In doing so, it will replicate elements of two Apollo missions: AS-201, nearly 49 years ago, and Apollo 4, 47 years ago. Like AS-201, it will use a launcher smaller than the one planned for operational use, and like Apollo 4 it will launch into an elliptical orbit to achieve a fast re-entry, albeit much slower than Apollo 4 managed. Unlike either AS-201 or Apollo 4, the Orion capsule will not be attached to an operational service module.

So, NASA is fairly consistently repeating missions from about 48 years earlier, albeit with rather fewer test flights in the process. However, current plans depart from that schedule significantly; there is certainly no prospect of a lunar landing in 2017, and at present the first mission with a crew aboard (comparable to Apollo 7 or 8 from late 1968) is tentatively scheduled for 2021.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Joel Achenbach is pretty much on target about this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/wp/2014/12/03/nasa-has-a-spaceship-but-where-will-it-go/

(I drive to the store and buy an onion. I drive home and cut it up and put it in a big pot on the stove and then go watch television. Someone asks me, “What are you doing?” and I answer, “I’m making gumbo.” And the someone says, “What about the garlic, the peppers, the celery, the fresh okra, the andouille sausage, the grilled chicken, the fish, the shrimp, those special blended peppers you always use, and the roux, not to mention the fresh French bread on the side?” I answer, “I can’t afford that right now.”)