Re: NASA Encounters Problems With Ares 1 Launch Vehicle Design
- From: henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Henry Spencer)
- Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 05:10:03 GMT
In article <MPG.1fc6ef8211931205989684@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Kevin Willoughby <kevinwilloughby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I don't think NASA ought
to be designing any new launch vehicles.
Part of NASA's charter is to do R&D. To advance the state of the art,
you pretty much have to design and fly new things.
Oddly enough, NASA's predecessor, the N.A.C.A., managed to advance the
state of art in aviation immensely despite rarely building a full-sized
aircraft. They built wind tunnels, they built model aircraft, they flew
modified versions of existing aircraft, and once in a loooong while they
built a full-size X-plane... which usually ended up in a scrapyard or a
museum within a few years, when its job was done.
At no time did they attempt to run their own airline.
NASA could do the state of the art in launchers a tremendous amount of
good by building and flying some X-rockets, to do flight tests of a long
list of interesting concepts that have never made it off drawing boards.
Don't hold your breath. NASA doesn't do launch-vehicle R&D any more. In
fact, NASA doesn't really do much R&D of any kind any more -- what little
remained is being cut drastically to help finance VSE. As a friend of
mine said at Space Access last spring: "NASA is well and truly out of the
R&D business -- they're going to focus on their core competencies."
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
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