Take the pen!
Posted on 09/16/2014 7:49:39 AM PDT by Enlightened1
We’re returning human spaceflight launches to America. Learn who will take crews to the #ISS. Watch NASA TV at 4pm ET http://youtu.be/ceQycm1uCFI
(Excerpt) Read more at twitter.com ...
Big deal. No one cares about space anymore
[ I’m just saying that the Space Shuttle disasters will likely have an impact on how the NASA chiefs view their next choice. ]
I would even say that non-reusable capsules would be the best choice...
They are simple, could be stamped out quickly and remeber that they basically re-built the damned shuttle bvefore each mission anyways!
Maybe make the capsules so that your aviaonics and other expensive components can be pulled out, tested and then slotted into a fresh capsule each time with plenty of spares available. But the capsule itself and heat shield are all new each and every time and make assembly line fashion.
Unless you make your reusable space craft truly reusable with a minimum needs for maintainence between each flight you are wasting money have to rebuild the supposedly reusable craft each and every dang time...
[ Colonies on Mars - so the muslims can have their own ROP planet. Take the Syrian refugees and Ebola with them. ]
Send them to Venus instead, it is more like where they will end up after they kick the bucket....
[ Learn who will take crews to the #ISS...
NASA to send crews ONLY to Syria? Just noting that the “I”, or Iraq, is missing. ]
The new space agency will be named: NASIL
Need Another Seven Islamic Lunatics
[ A lot of spin off technology came to the us from NASA.
I disagree for two reasons: 1) You (i.e. the list) assume these items could only have been invented exclusively by NASA. 2) There isn’t a single item on that list that has any significance whatsoever.
So I say again - for 30 freakin’ years the Shuttle went up, the Shuttle came down, the Shuttle went up, the Shuttle came down ... and WTF did we get in return?
And BTW, the linked page has this caveat - “Below are 27 abstracts of products claimed to be NASA spin-offs.” ]
Everyone says Velcro, but we got Velcro from the Vulcans who crashed in Pennsylvania in the 1950s!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Creek_(Star_Trek:_Enterprise)
I saw it on TV once on a highly unpopular show
I have heard that we spent 7 Million $ to develop a pen that would work in the weightlessness of space.
The Russians ................used pencils.
[ I have heard that we spent 7 Million $ to develop a pen that would work in the weightlessness of space.
The Russians ................used pencils. ]
I use Sharpies!
Ok, we need to have this conversation again.
Yes, that seems to make sense. Use Pencils.
But what do pencils do? They create dust particles. Those particles float around.
If you are in a small, enclosed space for a long time the last thing you need to do is generate metallic dust floating around getting into everything.
And if that metallic dust gets into your electronics...and it causes a spark or a circuit to blow then you can have some really bad problems.
So, I am not justifying the expense of more than a few cents on a pen...but it could be dangerous to fly around the globe for any amount of time using just pencils.
Yes, yes indeed.
I hadn’t thought about O rings.
+1
I am all for space exploration, as it has defense applications that are part of the federal government’s Constitutional duties.
This, however, smells a whole lot like propaganda or possibly cronyism.
Obama killed the NASA manned exploration, then got his lunch eaten by Putin, which meant Americans and the space lab up there were on the low priority list....
Now Obama wants to take credit for getting us “back in space”. Balderdash.
I’ve used this kind of illustration before, but with Obama it is like “I’ve destroyed an entire city block, but for the tv cameras I’ll go to one corner of that block with a broom and sweep for five minutes. Be sure you let everyone know I am responsible for the clean up.”
And the sycophant media complies.
"Zoom! Pow! To da moon, Alice!"
Which arguably was a much greater benefit than all the tech spin-offs.
That, too...
Heinlein explained that one definition of a weapon (as a class) is that of an engine to harness energy against an opponent. He who has the Moon, for example, once established, has enormous energy of position.
That includes some State parks, too. A couple Labor Days back, my wife and I spent the afternoon of the Sunday prior droving around a big State Park in our area. It was expanded a few years back to almost 20k acres. I’d estimate something like 3.5 - 4 million people are within 1-1/2 hours driving time. This park has something over 40 lakes (several with brand new boat ramps / docks and other facilities), some campsites, etc., but overall it is only modestly developed. It’s a great place to get away, explore, fish, etc.
So, did we see many people? The weather was fantastic, but in an entire afternoon of driving around, I don’t think we saw 10 people. The number of “visitor” vehicles we spotted, you could count on one hand.
I think there are multiple factors at work: A lot of the middle class is just beaten down, financially, so, week long or longer trips to go see multiple parks that are perhaps over 1000 miles away are less practical, for many. Computers are a distraction for many, for sure. Also, many people are not lazy, but find themselves working so much that, again, camping trips and the like become difficult to work in. And, somehow, life just seems to be increasingly complicated and “busy”. This is certainly true for me — our daughter is now old enough that my family can start going on more hikes and such (which would be very good for me physically, too), but the time to do such seems almost impossible to find, despite a National Forest with many great spots near us, as well as a plethora of State and local parks, refuges, and so on. I find it “lucky” to once in a while take off after work and fish a couple hours at a local pond...
Heh, pencils don’t create “metal” dust, but, graphite dust in a spacecraft is almost as bad...
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