On Sunday, November 16 at 4PM Eastern Standard time, the
globally popular online program The Space
Show will host a live debate regarding the merits of NASA’s controversial
rocket known as the Space Launch System, AKA SLS. Arguing for SLS will be John Hunt (a former military aerospace professional), while the contrary position will be supported by Rick
Boozer (Space Development Steering Committee member, astrophysicist and author
of the book, The Plundering of NASA). Dr. David Livingston will be the host and
moderator of the debate.
Its supporters claim that SLS will allow NASA to return to
the Moon and go to points beyond. Its detractors claim it will actually prevent
the achievement of that goal (wasting many billions of dollars of taxpayer
money in the process) and thus refer to SLS as “The Rocket to Nowhere”. It is the latter faction’s contention that
there are more modern, more economical, safer and easier to implement
alternatives to SLS for American deep space travel.
Tune in to see which side makes the best case about how our
nation’s future in space should be conducted.
A recording of the debate will be available for free download a couple
of days after it airs.
Unkind. The debate is a slam-dunk. SLS has no excuse for existence other than Congressional log-rolling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with you, Brian. But there are a whole lot of people who have not gotten the word (as the response to the Orion PR stunt showed) to the detriment of U.S. spaceflight. But as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, sometimes we must be "cruel to be kind".
DeleteThe first time Dragon lands on its Draco engines will enlighten many, I suspect.
ReplyDeleteI heard the debate. In the months since, I’ve come to the conclusion that the core issue is a balance between technology readiness levels (TRLs) and destinations, i.e., you can only go somewhere that the technology allows you to go. Going back to the Moon was effectively re-building what we already had, and should have been a fast, easy step. Sending humans to an asteroid far beyond Earth has proven to be beyond what current TRLs will support; so now we have ARM, and an increasingly messy situation.
ReplyDeleteThere was some unique capability in Huntsville and elsewhere, and I sense anxiety in letting this capability retire, die off, and generally go to waste. My interpretation is that they are trying to salvage what’s left. And then you wrap this up in jobs. I confess; jobs are generally good. But the end result is, many have lost sight of building a credible human space strategy.
I’m finally beginning to see hope that some of these capabilities (people, etc.) are being integrated into commercial efforts, public/private partnership, etc. But the various prohibitions (e.g., we’re not doing the Moon) and tunnel vision need to be fixed. Unfortunately, I’m now at the point of not trusting anyone’s presidential leadership in this area. In fact, a presidential edict may be counter-productive.