The Astronomy Thread
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Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Jesus fucking christ. $30 billion dollars and not a single fucking working system.
Fuck NASA and fuck the retarded politicians using it as a jobs program.
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Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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I've noticed a fair number of news articles trying to drum up support for the SLS of late (and a good number of articles complaining about SpaceX).
I assume that old space is pushing behind the scenes as hard as they can at this time.
I assume that old space is pushing behind the scenes as hard as they can at this time.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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LachiusTZ
Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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They know it's their last opportunity. Because at one point, even Congress won't be able to pass that pork when facing stuff like SpaceShip. I mean, half the two-billion-a-launch SLS missions could easily fit on Falcon Heavy in expandable mode (official price 150M$).
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I get emails from astronomics weekly about the items they actually have in stock ready to ship. Several varieties of scopes from low end to upper end and a lower variety of mounts. They don't carry any "department store" type scopes however.
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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What a joke. Nasa let's the taxpayers get reemed for a generation and then when it's politically infeasible to continue they ask for an arbitrary halving of cost and for the private industry to figure it out.
NASA wants to buy SLS rockets at half price, fly them into the 2050s
The agency wants the rocket to become a "sustainable and affordable system."arstechnica.com
NASA has asked the US aerospace industry how it would go about "maximizing the long-term efficiency and sustainability" of the Space Launch System rocket and its associated ground systems.In its request NASA says it would like to fly the SLS rocket for "30 years or more" as a national capability. Moreover, the agency wants the rocket to become a "sustainable and affordable system for moving humans and large cargo payloads to cislunar and deep-space destinations."How does one make a system that has been anything but affordable and sustainable into something that is affordable and sustainable? NASA says it wants to transition ownership of rocket production and ground services to the private industry. In return, this private contractor should build and launch the SLS at a substantial savings of 50 percent or more off of the current industry "baseline per flight cost."Notably, NASA has never publicly stated this baseline flight cost. Ars asked the NASA communications office on Tuesday for this figure, but as of Wednesday morning there has been no response. In 2019, the White House Office of Management and Budget estimated the cost of one SLS launch a year at "over $2 billion." Subsequently NASA did not deny that figure, but it has not been transparent with taxpayers about the rocket's expected costs.Anyway, NASA now proposes to cut this cost—whatever it is—in half. And it seeks to fly the Space Launch System rocket well into the middle of the 21st century.This may be theoretically possible, although the agency's history with the large rocket has been shown to be full of wildly over-optimistic assumptions. When the SLS rocket was conceived in 2010 and formally announced in 2011, it was supposed to be launched by the end of 2016 and developed for $10 billion.Among the rocket's chief architects was then-Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who steered billions of dollars to Kennedy Space Center in his home state for upgraded ground systems equipment to support the rocket. Back in 2011, he proudly said the rocket would be delivered on time and on budget.“This rocket is coming in at the cost of... not only what we estimated in the NASA Authorization act, but less,” Nelson said at the time. “The cost of the rocket over a five- to six-year period in the NASA authorization bill was to be no more than $11.5 billion. This costs $10 billion for the rocket.” Later, he went further, saying, "If we can't do a rocket for $11.5 billion, we ought to close up shop."After more than 10 years, and more than $30 billion spent on the rocket and its ground systems, NASA has not closed up shop. Rather, Nelson has ascended to become the space agency's administrator.
Well, the "private industry" did figure it out, and it has nothing to do with SLS.
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Really bad pic of a shuttle patch that came down April 1, 2003 at my grandmothers yard when the shuttle fell apart over East, TX and LA. The US Forest Service brought in people to pick stuff up. Her and I found stuff at her house for a long time. When it rained or the wind blew stuff fell out of the trees and off the roof in the gutters. NASA left boxes and we sent them to Houston. After a while they said no need. Last thing I found was a painted white rivet on top of a fence post. Crappy pick I know, my grandmother made it. Guy down the street my grandmothers age was walking to his commercial chicken house and a helmet fell near him. He never really got over it.
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Quite the headline.
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Oblio
Utah
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Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Man wait til they find out how much oxygen is in earth's crust!
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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This morning in 'this sounds like something from a movie'...
There's been a 'debres-generating event' in orbit, possible a defunct russian satelite. It's in the orbital plane of the ISS and is passing it every 93 minutes.
A guy I follow is usually all over orbital catalogs, tracks, etc and has some possibly relevant info.
There's been a 'debres-generating event' in orbit, possible a defunct russian satelite. It's in the orbital plane of the ISS and is passing it every 93 minutes.
A guy I follow is usually all over orbital catalogs, tracks, etc and has some possibly relevant info.