Inside Story Americas - Are US space missions running out of steam?

[plank]

commercial space related

I liked this video so much I wanted to shear it with everyone here. Its a Very good discussion on the future of commercial spaceflight in light of what recently just happened.  Also this is the first topic that I posted so I thought that it would be more appropriate to post it here than anywhere else.  So mods if this does not belong here feel free to move it. 

[JohnFornaro]

They're using steam now?  I'd better watch the video...

[JohnFornaro]

Very interesting discussion indeed.  I was surprised to see that this is an Al-Jazeera presentation.

A bit of a quibble with Dave Brody, who talked a bit about zero-gee manufacturing, as if to imply that there were many products we need today which could only be made in this fashion.

John Logsden had two good observations.  One, that we're in an analogous situation when the world changed from mainframe computers (NASA) to PC's (all the private space companies). 

Secondly, he also corroborated the odd observation that some people have made about the Republican party; somehow they're skeptical of private investment in space, more so than the Democrats.

[plank]

Very interesting discussion indeed.  I was surprised to see that this is an Al-Jazeera presentation.

A bit of a quibble with Dave Brody, who talked a bit about zero-gee manufacturing, as if to imply that there were many products we need today which could only be made in this fashion.

John Logsden had two good observations.  One, that we're in an analogous situation when the world changed from mainframe computers (NASA) to PC's (all the private space companies). 

Secondly, he also corroborated the odd observation that some people have made about the Republican party; somehow they're skeptical of private investment in space, more so than the Democrats.

referring to the manufacturing comment, he probably means the improved manufacturing methods with exiting technique for existing products.

[watermod]

The video was an ISS centric discussion.   With no discussion of other payload destinations (Iridium etc.) or things like Bigelow modules it leaves the taste that NASA/ISS is the only potential customer for commercial space ventures.  This leaves the impression of a much less vigorous and robust potential commercial field.

[docmordrid]

Very interesting discussion indeed.  I was surprised to see that this is an Al-Jazeera presentation.
>

Al-Jazeera has been covering this for quite a while - enough so that I monitor their site for  stories and videos.  They're becoming a more mainstream outlet as time passes.

[mduncan36]

Very interesting discussion indeed.  I was surprised to see that this is an Al-Jazeera presentation.
>

Al-Jazeera has been covering this for quite a while - enough so that I monitor their site for  stories and videos.  They're becoming a more mainstream outlet as time passes.

Indeed. I'm as much an info junkie as anything else. (Mom called me Walter Cronkite as a kid) Al Jazeera has its moments but there are times when they are beginning to be like an Arab version of the BBC. This is an interesting piece more so because it shows that some attention is being paid by the mainstream media and audience. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Moe Grills]

They're using steam now?  I'd better watch the video...

YES! You burn hydrogen and oxygen, you get steam.  LOL

[truth is life]

Al-Jazeera has been covering this for quite a while - enough so that I monitor their site for  stories and videos.  They're becoming a more mainstream outlet as time passes.

You have to differentiate between AJE (the English-language version) and AJA (the Arabic-language version). While they're both Al-Jazeera, they aren't ~exactly~ the same or run in the same way. I quite agree that AJE is becoming rather BBC-like...actually, have thought that for a while. Maybe even more BBC-like than the BBC itself, since AJE has a more "balanced" coverage (whereas BBC tends to do a lot of stories about Britain, not that that's surprising).

[SpacexULA]

You have to differentiate between AJE (the English-language version) and AJA (the Arabic-language version). While they're both Al-Jazeera, they aren't ~exactly~ the same or run in the same way. I quite agree that AJE is becoming rather BBC-like...actually, have thought that for a while. Maybe even more BBC-like than the BBC itself, since AJE has a more "balanced" coverage (whereas BBC tends to do a lot of stories about Britain, not that that's surprising).

AJE and RT both have picked up a lot of their writing, production, & presenter talent from English, European, and American outlets.

I like to get my middle eastern news from RT, American news from CT, and European news form AJE.  The disinterested parties tend to have a more balanced view.

[yg1968]

American news from CT

What is CT?

[Go4TLI]

American news from CT

What is CT?

Computed Tomography....or Connecticut. 

[yg1968]

Very good video. More detailed than I would have expected from TV.

[tigerade]

Very good video. More detailed than I would have expected from TV.

Same.  It makes me miss the days when our TV news reported news, and not mindless crap about celebrities and partisan talking points.

Very good report here by AJE.

[subzero788]

Totally agree. The mainstream media often do a shocking job of communicating space issues and events--it's nice too see a well researched report and discussion for once.

[bunker9603]

At the 19:40 mark. Logsden says there were a number of problems as the Dragon made its approach to the ISS. Besides the LIDAR, what other problems were there?

[Ben the Space Brit]

The video was an ISS centric discussion.   With no discussion of other payload destinations (Iridium etc.) or things like Bigelow modules it leaves the taste that NASA/ISS is the only potential customer for commercial space ventures.  This leaves the impression of a much less vigorous and robust potential commercial field.

In fairness, at least in HSF terms, the ISS is the market at the moment.  Bigelow is iffy and will remain so until the first module is operational and housing paying customers of one sort or another.  You can make all sorts of theoretical projections but, right now, the only cargo- and crew-to-LEO mission is to the ISS.

The satelite launch market is pretty crowded; only time will tell if SpaceX can make enough of an impact to ensure that's a reliable revenue stream.

FWIW, I think that a worthwhile commercial space experiment would be to launch a BA330 and set it up as an uncrewed microgravity chemical plant for medicines or something similar.  Raw materials loaded on one end, end products moved to a Cargo Dragon RV at the other with the option to send up maintenance crews by either Dragonrider, Dreamchaser or CST-100.  The objective of this experiment would be to see if such things can be done and get an idea of what the costs and benefits from the technology and methodology would be.

What catches my idea about this idea is that it could easily be the first genuinely commercial space project with little or no government involvement.

[mr. mark]

At the 19:40 mark. Logsden says there were a number of problems as the Dragon made its approach to the ISS. Besides the LIDAR, what other problems were there?

Not sure but, remember many NASA flights have had their fair share of problems that were fixed or lived with, one famous flight being John Glenn's mission in Friendship 7.

[JohnFornaro]

They're using steam now?  I'd better watch the video...

You burn hydrogen and oxygen, you get steam.

... which explains all that white stuff shooting out from under the rocket...

Interesting thread comments about AJE.  Stands to reason that AJA reports the "news" with a different perspective.

Backing up a bit to the OP.  I didn't get the sense from the video that they were saying that the US effort is stagnating.

[plank]

They're using steam now?  I'd better watch the video...

You burn hydrogen and oxygen, you get steam.

... which explains all that white stuff shooting out from under the rocket...

Interesting thread comments about AJE.  Stands to reason that AJA reports the "news" with a different perspective.

Backing up a bit to the OP.  I didn't get the sense from the video that they were saying that the US effort is stagnating.

I don't think the title of the video was "saying" anything.  Its just a questioning of NASA and the state of the Spaceflight program in the U.S.

[JohnFornaro]

They're using steam now?  I'd better watch the video...

You burn hydrogen and oxygen, you get steam.

... which explains all that white stuff shooting out from under the rocket...

Interesting thread comments about AJE.  Stands to reason that AJA reports the "news" with a different perspective.

Backing up a bit to the OP.  I didn't get the sense from the video that they were saying that the US effort is stagnating.

I don't think the title of the video was "saying" anything.  Its just a questioning of NASA and the state of the Spaceflight program in the U.S.

To clarify a bit:  Backing up to the OP, and the title of the OP.

[edkyle99]

Number of 2012 orbital flights to date by nation/region, based on launch vehicle manufacture.

China: 10 (1 crewed)
Russia/Ukraine: 10 (1 crewed)
U.S.A.:  6
Europe:  3
Japan:  1
India:  1
Iran:  1 [corrected]
North Korea:  1 failed attempt

 - Ed Kyle

[JohnFornaro]

Number of 2012 orbital flights to date by nation/region, based on launch vehicle manufacture.

China: 10 (1 crewed)
Russia/Ukraine: 10 (1 crewed)
U.S.A.:  6
Europe:  3
Japan:  1
India:  1
Iraq:  1
North Korea:  1 failed attempt

And John: 0

Perspective and all, don't ya know...

[Jason1701]

Number of 2012 orbital flights to date by nation/region, based on launch vehicle manufacture.

China: 10 (1 crewed)
Russia/Ukraine: 10 (1 crewed)
U.S.A.:  6
Europe:  3
Japan:  1
India:  1
Iraq:  1
North Korea:  1 failed attempt

 - Ed Kyle

Iran, not Iraq.

[edkyle99]

Iran, not Iraq.

Oh boy.  Thanks!  I've corrected my original post.

 - Ed Kyle