It just seems like these guys are running the program by the seat of their pants, without much of a long term vision on how it's all supposed to work.
It seems to me that NASA should be deciding on whether the Taxi or Rental model works better for them, rather than leaving that to the vendors. It just seems like these guys are running the program by the seat of their pants, without much of a long term vision on how it's all supposed to work.
Quote from: Lurker Steve on 05/16/2013 05:41 pmIt seems to me that NASA should be deciding on whether the Taxi or Rental model works better for them, rather than leaving that to the vendors. It just seems like these guys are running the program by the seat of their pants, without much of a long term vision on how it's all supposed to work.Would the taxi driver be one of the four crew-members (per launch) or a fifth? If the latter do the ISS environmental control systems have enough capacity to handle the extra crew-member? Are there enough ISS tasks that don't require much training to give the taxi driver something useful to do on orbit?
A "taxi" doesn't stick around after it drops off it's fare. I don't see howthe taxi model is compatible with the requirement to also serve as a lifeboat, unless NASA intends a separate purchase of a lifeboat craft, which seems crazy to me.The only thing these guys know for sure, is it's going to cost lots of money, they don't want to down-select, and there is no guaranteed need after 2020. but, if they don't get their 4.8 Billion dollars, commerical crew might not be ready until after 2020...
Nice article! I'll hazard a guess and say that both Boeing and SpaceX will offer the "rental" model for their vehicles. I believe that it will be fairly easy to teach astronauts who already know the mechanics of spaceflight and operate things like the robotic arms to manage a modern capsule. I'm not as sure about SNC's offering because of its runway landings, but many of the NASA astronauts are pilots. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
As for the Life-boat requirement. That doesn't work with the Taxi option.
Thanks YG for the citations, The Booz-Allen report is very insightful, its a shame no numbers are associated with it.
We want the philosophy to remain the same. We still want industry to own (their crew transportation system). We still want some form of fixed price arrangement.