Author Topic: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?  (Read 22044 times)

Offline Steve G

  • Regular
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 578
  • Ottawa, ON
    • Stephen H Garrity
  • Liked: 615
  • Likes Given: 56
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #40 on: 04/21/2008 02:35 am »
The only hope Direct will have is to have an Ares I-X failure and/or the grass roots movement for Direct becomes an outright insurrection.


Offline kraisee

  • Expert
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10560
  • Liked: 807
  • Likes Given: 40
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #41 on: 04/21/2008 03:18 am »
I would expect the whole program to be shut down if that flight goes wrong in any spectacular fashion.

The biggest danger to DIRECT *not* being adopted now, IMHO, is for something else to come along and derail the whole exploration effort - reducing all the efforts to just Orion on Delta-IV Heavy flying nowhere other than ISS, with all Moon/Mars/Beyond discontinued.

Ross.
"The meek shall inherit the Earth -- the rest of us will go to the stars"
-Robert A. Heinlein

Offline Lee Jay

  • Elite Veteran
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8565
  • Liked: 3603
  • Likes Given: 327
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #42 on: 04/21/2008 03:52 am »
Quote
kraisee - 20/4/2008  9:18 PM

I would expect the whole program to be shut down if that flight goes wrong in any spectacular fashion.

The biggest danger to DIRECT *not* being adopted now, IMHO, is for something else to come along and derail the whole exploration effort - reducing all the efforts to just Orion on Delta-IV Heavy flying nowhere other than ISS, with all Moon/Mars/Beyond discontinued.

Ross.

When is all this going to happen, Ross?  I gather that sometime this summer or fall, the ability to construct new 8.4 meter tanks at MAF is going to be lost, and it will therefore become much harder to modify that line into supporting the DIRECT architecture.

Offline rsp1202

  • Elite Veteran
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1083
  • 3, 2, 1 . . . Make rocket go now
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #43 on: 04/21/2008 01:26 pm »
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1109/1

Quote:

"DIRECT is an effort by a group of engineers to advocate a Shuttle-derived architecture for the exploration program that is more, well, Shuttle-derived than Ares 1 and Ares 5 (see “Another voice in the wilderness”, The Space Review, February 19, 2007). They say their plan would get us to the Moon faster, better, and cheaper.

"I frankly don’t know what the people involved are doing in terms of advocating their idea, since they did not respond to my emails for this article. The only indication of advocacy is a link on their website for contacting members of the House of Representatives. (There is no link there for contacting the Senate, or anyone else.)

"I mention this group because they of all people would seem most likely to be advocating an alternative this election year. Without some kind of advocacy, their idea will surely go the way of decades’ worth of other well-thought-out Shuttle Derived Vehicle concepts, including NASA’s own aborted Shuttle-C. Moreover, their proposal will soon become moot, as Shuttle launch pads, infrastructure and staff move on irrevocably to Ares."

Unquote.

Is the author just uninformed, or are you guys being too quiet?

Offline kraisee

  • Expert
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10560
  • Liked: 807
  • Likes Given: 40
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #44 on: 04/23/2008 07:22 am »
Our recent activities have not been focussed on gathering *public* support for DIRECT.   Unfortunately, there isn't much that the public can change in this program :(

We have instead been focusing almost all of our attentions over the last few months on those people who really can change things - and it is beginning to work.

We did not contribute to the Space Review article, not because we didn't want the attention, but because we were at the time trying to approach Senator Obama's staff to try to gain his support for this alternative approach.   The Space Review article was specifically about Sen. Obama's stance, and we felt it was unwise for us to make any related comments publicly while making contacts there privately.   It was just an unfortunate "timing" thing.   We would have *loved* to be involved in that discussion, but we had to prioritize.   The Senator with a chance to become President in 8 months time won out in that decision, at least :)

I do hope we didn't offend Greg by not replying to him, that certainly wasn't the intention.   I have contacted him since the article went online and suggested a follow-up article if he'd like, some time in the future when the timing is a bit easier.   We shall see :)

Ross.
"The meek shall inherit the Earth -- the rest of us will go to the stars"
-Robert A. Heinlein

Offline kraisee

  • Expert
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10560
  • Liked: 807
  • Likes Given: 40
Re: Will Direct ever become anything other than a powerpoint?
« Reply #45 on: 04/23/2008 07:28 am »
Quote
Lee Jay - 20/4/2008  11:52 PM

When is all this going to happen, Ross?  I gather that sometime this summer or fall, the ability to construct new 8.4 meter tanks at MAF is going to be lost, and it will therefore become much harder to modify that line into supporting the DIRECT architecture.

The turn-around point is still a long way off.   It would be a shame to lose some of the tooling at MAF and the work platforms in the VAB High Bay #3 for Ares-I-X, but the total cost difference even then is going to be less than $500m still, so it's a long way from being irrecoverable.

I think we still have through 2010 before we would reach a point of really suffering in this respect - and I think we will get some respite before then.

They can't do anything non-reversible at all to either MAF or KSC until after the Hubble mission at least.   And even then they can only begin some changes.   NASA really doesn't have the budget to do much until Shuttle has retired and the program money from there can be switched across and spent differently.   Until then, the alterations they can afford are fairly limited.

Ross.
"The meek shall inherit the Earth -- the rest of us will go to the stars"
-Robert A. Heinlein

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
0