As a big aviation and space junkie, this has been buggin' me for some time.
I remember the astronauts on the moon (I was but a wee lad at the time) saying that in a few years, the new Space Shuttle would be hauling up cargo every week or so into earth orbit. Our new space pickup truck would mean space access for all.
It was all BS. In fact, there is a long list of BS that we've heard about NASA. The problem is that, just like big IT, NASA is big space. It works under the idea that one big honking agency can do everything for everybody. And when you really look at it, NASA is all about politics and not performance, as it is with most programs run by politicians.
NASA needs to do one thing: reduce cost to orbit by developing/sponsoring new high-risk technologies. If they can whack cost to orbit by a factor of a hundred, the market will take care of the rest. We won't have these political debates about whether to fix the Hubble ST because it will cost something like $100K to go up there and do it. Reducing cost to orbit just will change everything -- that is, if we can get them to do it.
This is kind of like IT was in the days before Apple. To do anything, you had to have a lot of money and staff. I'm looking forward to the day when space is much more like YC and the current startup world -- anybody with a small amount of money can get into the game and play with the big boys. We should encourage that progression. We need to for our survival, imo.
I remember the astronauts on the moon (I was but a wee lad at the time) saying that in a few years, the new Space Shuttle would be hauling up cargo every week or so into earth orbit. Our new space pickup truck would mean space access for all.
It was all BS. In fact, there is a long list of BS that we've heard about NASA. The problem is that, just like big IT, NASA is big space. It works under the idea that one big honking agency can do everything for everybody. And when you really look at it, NASA is all about politics and not performance, as it is with most programs run by politicians.
NASA needs to do one thing: reduce cost to orbit by developing/sponsoring new high-risk technologies. If they can whack cost to orbit by a factor of a hundred, the market will take care of the rest. We won't have these political debates about whether to fix the Hubble ST because it will cost something like $100K to go up there and do it. Reducing cost to orbit just will change everything -- that is, if we can get them to do it.
This is kind of like IT was in the days before Apple. To do anything, you had to have a lot of money and staff. I'm looking forward to the day when space is much more like YC and the current startup world -- anybody with a small amount of money can get into the game and play with the big boys. We should encourage that progression. We need to for our survival, imo.