Space exploration and development – more than numbers
It’s easy to imagine a long list of reasons transitions cause distress and terminal distraction. Evolution passed along in us only so much appetite for risk, novelty, and shifts away from the familiar. Is that mysterious cave calling? Become lunch. Alternately, too much of a taste for stability could prove fatal, too. Leave those well-known … Continue reading Transitions, NASA, and next steps
It is January 13, 1982, and an Air Florida 737 takes off, fighting to climb but hitting the 14th Street bridge here in Washington, DC. Snow had fallen all day, and ground crews deiced the plane, except then an hour went by, and the wings iced over again. The pilot had never flown in snow. … Continue reading Space solar power, the trolley problem, and space technology
Blogging is to writing like getting on a roller coaster is to an astronaut launching to space. In an online world full of click-bait titles like “The one weird trick…” -where the dot-dot-dot is not because the rest of the title didn’t fit, it’s easy to zone out between headlines. Twelve sentences pass for an … Continue reading Rants and reports and what they found…
Compelling storytelling wields the power to draw us in from the first line with a curious character in a peculiar time and place. We instantly hear the voice of Harper Lee’s Scout, simple and innocent, telling us about her brother Jem. A Bradbury beginning, “It was a quiet morning,” tells us things will soon not … Continue reading Space technology, what lies beneath
Talking about technology in the same sentence as stagnation goes down two paths, the one filled with numbers to affirm or deny any problem exists, and the other, all vibe, no data, also to agree with or to downplay any concern. Look at the numbers. It’s obvious. Or, don’t get lost in the graphs. They … Continue reading Technology stagnation, NASA, numbers, and vibes
“We can be independent because we have no dog in the fight.” This time, the defense of a review team boiled down not to what it might offer but to what it lacked. There appeared to be no conflict of interest. Not that anyone could quite define what independence in a review process really meant. … Continue reading Independent reviews, being helpful, and what matters – in the end
The highlight of the sci-fi flick is the opening credits with the moody music, the point of view imagery as if floating in space, and the fly-through tour of the inside of a ship. Then it’s downhill from there. This is what usually happens. Though this may be my peculiar view. I’ve been steeped too … Continue reading The NASA cis-lunar universe: LEO to Mars+
“That’s not gonna work.” The person seated next to me mumbled this my way. It was many years ago, but not the only time, and the many versions of this story share the same look and feel. The presenter is up-front, enthusiastic. Some audience members lean forward for the Q&A. Fortunately, more often than not, … Continue reading R&D investment and “how” – the final frontier
The usual conference room is crowded, with shiny surfaces and glass saying formal and stuffy, as I break in to ask my question about the numbers that seem way too low. What about “support”? Or re-phrasing, away from the specific and toward a broad sense, “The budgets have been much higher, so why is this … Continue reading SLS and Orion costs – the third rail of cost estimating
Throughout my career at NASA, I analyzed, prioritized, modeled, simulated, facilitated discussions and teams, wrote and reported, and got my hands dirty with, and crawled around lots of space technology. Eventually, I enlisted an AI-ish algorithm of sorts when it was clear some non-human help might do what a person or a team can’t in … Continue reading Sustainability and NASA’s human spaceflight program: We need to talk.
As the year ends, the numerals ahead may feel future-ish, as if we leaped across time, traveling faster than we should or want. Twenty-twenty-four. How did that happen? Events far back seem solid, the middle is blurred, and the future fills with our expectations. This year, two SpaceX Starships launched on the heels of NASA’s … Continue reading 2023 end-of-year post
There are the facts, and then there is more. For the International Space Station, the facts are straightforward and measured, as NASA is wont to do. It begins long ago with endless concepts for a permanent foothold in space, move finally to the first hardware placed in orbit in 1998, a Russian module (purchased by … Continue reading The ISS: For every beginning there is an end, or not?
Another day, another report by the Inspector General on NASA’s big Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS.) One day, we may see a new measure for project costs and duration of development, the number of IG, GAO, CBO, or other ABC agency reports. During a coffee break, someone in the crowd will say, “That … Continue reading NASA, space projects, and context – a missing link
Can Europe catch up after SpaceX and the emergence of a newly vibrant US commercial space sector? How? It’s the mid-1990s, attendees lingering in the expansive lobby as the day’s conference presentations concluded, everyone glad to make new acquaintances and hand out business cards (remember those?) Among the introductions and salutations, there is a representative … Continue reading Europe, ESA, the EU, and the space sector – where to next?
It was all so simple back in 1992, in a world where the Kennedy Space Center and the Space Shuttle were nearly the only show in town. You could have any car in any color, so long as it was black. Sure, there were expendable, uncrewed launch vehicles, too. But these were merely a consolation … Continue reading Flashback Friday – KSC Map 1992
Zapata Talks NASA 