*Which is kind of embarrassing. Still, if you somehow need American live bodies
in outer space, can't the government just pony up a modest sum and have
the Russians ship them as space tourists? That's absurdly cheap compared
to the price of one shuttle.
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/22869/?nlid=2108
"A 10-person committee charged with reviewing the future of U.S. human spaceflight will hold its first public meeting today, beginning a process that must cover a lot of territory in very little time.
"The independent panel of experts will examine NASA's Constellation Program, which plans to send humans to the International Space Station (ISS), the moon, and possibly Mars, and will consider alternatives to options already on the table.
"The review comes at a time when the Space Shuttle is facing retirement, and a new launch system, called Ares, isn't scheduled to begin operations until at least 2015, leaving a gap in U.S. launch capability of five years or more. NASA's Constellation Program has attracted criticism for the Ares design, as well as for slipping timelines and budget overruns.
"In a speech at MIT last week, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, outlined three key questions that the panel will examine: whether it's possible to reduce the gap in launch capability, what the options are for extending the use of the ISS beyond 2016, and what a timetable for missions beyond low-earth orbit (LEO) might look like, given budget constraints...."
*If I were Chinese, I'd wait two years until the Americans quietly bury their
space ambitions and dismantle all their industrial capacity. Then, I'd suddenly
announce a glamorous manned Moon mission! First guy back to the Moon gets to
declare himself the official superpower hegemon! Old-school prestige
space-race, gloves off, ha ha ha!
*Of course, there's always the risk that democratic India would beat the hell out
of me and make me look like a real Soviet chump...
