1. Forum
  2. FidoNet
  3. rec.arts.sf.written

  • Re: Re: ?Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine ahead of historic NASA m

    From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, February 04, 2026 18:43:16
    Subject: Re: Re: ?Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine ahead of historic NASA moon launch?

    Bobbie Sellers <blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
    On 2/4/26 14:17, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
    I read somewhere today that Artemis was mandated by Congress to use
    1970s Space Shuttle tech for some reason.

    I don't know about any mandate but that technology worked. And hopefully
    some experts in that effort were still alive and the documentation of
    the older project was useful.

    Hydrogen fuel was a major pain in the neck during the Shuttle era and so many flights were delayed or scrubbed due to leaks. It's true that we did learn a whole lot about hydrogen seals in the process, though.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Torbjorn Lindgren@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 13:55:51
    Subject: Re: Re: ?Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine ahead of historic NASA moon launch?

    Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:
    I read somewhere today that Artemis was mandated by Congress to use
    1970s Space Shuttle tech for some reason.

    The Artemis program has always primarly been about keeping the Pork
    flowing and to the "right" places for the established players in
    Congress and Senate to take credit for money being spent in their
    districts.

    That wasn't the official reason listed of course but it wasn't like
    they even tried to hide it, some where outright blatant about it.
    There's a reason a number of people reads SLS as Senate Launch System
    instead of Space Launch System.

    The earlier Constellation program was also a Shuttle derived program
    designed to keep pork flowing to the right places.

    Both were always primarily works program, any hardware was incidental
    (and in some cases undesirable!) and it's done well in that regard
    which is why the insane money has kept on flowing despite posturing.

    Being ultra expensive is a *feature* (more pork), not a bug.

    Only the realization that China might beat them back to the Moon has
    changed things a bit, but most involved are still firmly stuck in the works/pork mindset.

    Yes, there's some vague handwaving about "reusing proven technology"
    but it was always transparent bullshit.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 08:59:55
    Subject: Re: Re: ?Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine ahead of historic NASA moon launch?

    Torbjorn Lindgren <tl@none.invalid> wrote:
    The Artemis program has always primarly been about keeping the Pork
    flowing and to the "right" places for the established players in
    Congress and Senate to take credit for money being spent in their
    districts.

    That is certainly some of it.

    But there's this other problem: either you do stuff in-house or you contract
    it all out. If you contract everything out, then you need people in-house
    who understand the technology well enough to manage the contractors.

    You get those people either by doing stuff in-house yourself, or by hiring
    them from contractors. Hiring from contractors is a disaster long-term
    because you get the fox managing the henhouse.

    So you have to do some degree of work in-house, even stuff that looks like busywork at times, in order to keep the kind of staff you need to manage
    the work you contract out.

    I'm not saying it's good, or elegant. In fact, it's a hell of a way to run
    a railroad. But the alternatives are worse.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)