Space exploration and development – more than numbers
Occasionally, I read something so compelling that I must talk about it. If I see a parable relating to the aerospace sector and my experiences in many ways, I must also write about it. (My prior book reviews are here.) I can add “When Genius Fails: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management” to … Continue reading A book review – “When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-term Capital Management”
It is my experience, likely very common, to be asked, “Did you hear about…” some recent news, or on a topic already, someone will say, “I read where…” People will recommend a site or point out a blogger and their valuable takeaways on technology, a company, or happenings in the space sector. The flood of … Continue reading My morning reads
Last Friday, though without reading too much into how bad news is announced on Fridays, NASA canceled its annual cost and schedule symposium. This meeting brings together an assortment of people, mainly NASA and contractor personnel, most of whom spend their days analyzing the cost and time required of complex aerospace projects. This could be … Continue reading Canceled
As an app, the first NASA plan to return astronauts to the Moon, twenty years ago, would have been labeled version 0.3.2.6. A year earlier, the Space Shuttle Columbia and all seven crew were lost during her return to Earth. The days of low Earth orbit as a sole destination were to draw to a … Continue reading Though much is taken, much abides (Transitions Part III).
Space technology and policy on the final frontier It was time. I have published my prior writing in a more unified format as a book – “An engineer’s journey in NASA: Space technology and policy on the final frontier.” It’s difficult to describe the process of looking back and making sense of my years of … Continue reading An engineer’s journey in NASA
If you have been to Grand Central Station in New York City through the mid to late 1970s and as recently as last week, discovering you are in a transport hub where a welcome wander comes easily, the sense is about contrast. The hub peaked in the late 1940s, beginning a decline soon after. The … Continue reading Transitions (Part II), Grand Central, and the Kennedy Space Center VAB
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
Zapata Talks NASA 