szabo@sequent.com (06/19/91)
In article <1991Jun18.190641.14715@agate.berkeley.edu> wayne@bandit.berkeley.edu (Wayne Lee) writes: >I think I and a lot of others out there would be especially >interested in EXACTLY what aspects (if any) of manned space >flight including the shuttle does he support as "useful". I support continuation of the Shuttle flights, with a goal of reducing the costs from $4 billion a year to $2 billion per year over 5 years. Cost savings would come from: * No longer launching cargo. Instead, every flight would be a Spacelab flight. Payload integration for every flight would be similar and become routine. * Reducing EVAs (only do those most essential, eg Hubble repair) * Reducing the number planned flights from 10 to 5 per year. * Returning to pre-Challenger levels of operational funding. Operational costs per flight were nearly half today's costs, and the safety risk was not demonstrably different. The Shuttle should be primarily used to fly Spacelab. Flight durations should be lengthened to three weeks. The planned flight frequency would be 5 per year (the actual historical frequency is 4.5/year, but plans usually call for 8-10 per year). The overall man*hours in space would double. For life sciences we should launch physicians (NASA did this on the latest Spacelab, which is a good sign). For microgravity research microgravity scientists. All other astronaut categories would be reduced (eg pilots) or eliminated. We can quibble over the actual numbers; that is the general direction we need to go. At this point in space development it is not worthwhile spending more than 20% of the NASA budget to fly astronauts. Space exploration and aerospace research should obtain the bulk of the funding. When self-sustaining industrial infrastructure has been set up to take advantage of extraterrestrial resources, the cost of supporting astronauts in space will drop by several orders of magnitude, and the era of self-sufficient human inhabitation of space will begin. -- Nick Szabo szabo@sequent.com Embrace Change... Keep the Values... Hold Dear the Laughter... These views are my own, and do not represent any organization.