Is there a due date for this study? Hopefully, this study will not take too long to complete. However, it certainly is prudent to get it done right.
so it will be interesting to see if anyone a) suggests something actually innovative, and b) if NASA listens.~Jon
Quote from: jongoff on 11/08/2010 09:07 pmso it will be interesting to see if anyone a) suggests something actually innovative, and b) if NASA listens.~JonWho's to say yours is the only definition of innovation? Innovation can come in many forms, not just some shiny new tech gadget.
What is the matter with the locations cited in the list ?7 of 13 (more than half) companies are xxx, Huntsville, Ala.
Quote from: Commander Keen on 11/08/2010 08:50 pmIs there a due date for this study? Hopefully, this study will not take too long to complete. However, it certainly is prudent to get it done right.They're supposed to be six month studies. They were originally supposed to be announcing winners back in mid-
Quote from: jongoff on 11/08/2010 09:07 pmQuote from: Commander Keen on 11/08/2010 08:50 pmIs there a due date for this study? Hopefully, this study will not take too long to complete. However, it certainly is prudent to get it done right.They're supposed to be six month studies. They were originally supposed to be announcing winners back in mid-Where does it says six months ?For that money - I'll give them six days. =] OK two weeks, tops.
Quote from: renclod on 11/08/2010 10:06 pmQuote from: jongoff on 11/08/2010 09:07 pmQuote from: Commander Keen on 11/08/2010 08:50 pmIs there a due date for this study? Hopefully, this study will not take too long to complete. However, it certainly is prudent to get it done right.They're supposed to be six month studies. They were originally supposed to be announcing winners back in mid-Where does it says six months ?For that money - I'll give them six days. =] OK two weeks, tops.It did in the original solicitation. Six months broken up into three chunks with technical interchange meetings every two months. And it's quite possible for big companies to do small contracts like this--they're only putting their advanced concepts people on it. It comes out to something like 6-9 FTEs depending on the burdened rate. You can still do interesting work for that little, even in a big company. I expect ULAs and Andrews stuff to be pretty interesting.~Jon
To be fair, most of those companies are actually headquartered elsewhere, and just have Huntsville-based units. If there were a whole bunch of relatively no-name, politically-connected Hunstville contractors getting the awards, then I might agree that stuff looks fishy. But this is LM, and Boeing, and ATK, and ULA, etc getting the contracts.
Quote from: OV-106 on 11/08/2010 09:31 pmQuote from: jongoff on 11/08/2010 09:07 pmso it will be interesting to see if anyone a) suggests something actually innovative, and b) if NASA listens.~JonWho's to say yours is the only definition of innovation? Innovation can come in many forms, not just some shiny new tech gadget. The innovation that has been lacking in the past is an architecture that is affordable. It seems that very few of the past studies managed to provide meaningful exploration within likely budgets. Going forward this is likely to be even more strained.
I can't imagine this will take too long considering the dollar amount. I suspect that these companies are just getting paid to organize and present ideas they already have. You can't do too much with $625,000 max per company.
Also, looking at the diverse range, perhaps some companies will not propose a total design but will push specific systems, such as USA doing processing work or AeroJet proposing either thruster or engine systems