@S1-A.ARPA:host.MIT-MC.ARPA (05/10/85)
From: crash!bnw@SDCSVAX.ARPA
Fact of life--budgets are going to get cut. There is no sense pretending
otherwise. Yes, chopping NASA funds is stupid; it sells the future short.
And, yes, I have written to Senator Wilson to tell him how I feel.
What I was trying to say is that when the cuts come anyway, it would be
better to spend the money on something that will generate a result. We still
have a lot to learn and one never knows what benefit may be gained by some new
bit of knowledge until it happens. Think of all the research that would never
have been done if nobody could predict a benefit.
We also have some learning to do before we put a space station up there.
There are a lot of techniques and technologies involved that have not been
shown to be workable as yet. The shuttle has proven a good many things,
including the fact that a pretty fair number of spacecraft systems have a
tendency to breakdown under the load. That won't do in a space station.
/Bruce N. Wheelock/
arpanet: crash!bnw@ucsd
uucp: {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!bnw@S1-A.ARPA:host.MIT-MC.ARPA (05/10/85)
From: jrv@Mitre-Bedford > We also have some learning to do before we put a space station up there. > There are a lot of techniques and technologies involved that have not been > shown to be workable as yet. The shuttle has proven a good many things, > including the fact that a pretty fair number of spacecraft systems have a > tendency to breakdown under the load. That won't do in a space station. > /Bruce N. Wheelock/ Why not? Breakdowns aren't that big a deal if there's someone there with the knowledge and tools to fix them. Life support systems have to work, of course - but even there the backup systems only have to work long enough to get the primary systems running again. L-5 News had a thought-provoking article a while back on the premise that we're overkilling the engineering of the space station because we're designing it like an aerospace vehicle (which has to survive acceleration loads, shocks, and vibrations, and which may fall out of the sky if something goes wrong) instead of like a building (which can normally be repaired if it breaks). - Jim Van Zandt