As the Empire burns, a cold front is coming in from the west. The snow will clear away the soot and make the air again smell fresh and clean like evergreens on a hopeful Christmas day. Winter is upon us.
We know winter always comes before the spring. Rebirth may be around the corner, but first the Snow Princess Garver will survey what has been put asunder and draw on the elfish Changelings to compose a plan of redemption. The Emperor will be handed pink swaddling to cloak himself in as he departs the debacle and the Viceroys will likewise take leave, each carrying his head out the door in a basket of fine wicker.
The Bumble's weakness has been recognized and it is sinking. It will not bounce this time. The chief elves, Hefferen, Ladwig, Whitesides, and Monje will attempt to put Santa's workshop back together and new reindeer tryouts will immediately commence. ARES and Orion will be banished to the land of misfit toys, to be forgotten as footnotes on a misbegotten path. Not even Yukon Cornelius will rescue them from their imminent demise.
We collectively hold our breath and look forward to a favorable touch from the Snow Princess's wand. It won't be long now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
But what do we know of the man? Nothing! We have no inkling of his past!
Correct, and that is an asset. A man's past can cripple him, his background turns into a swamp and invites scrutiny.
To this time, he hasn't said anything that could be used against him.
Well, I'm certainly open to the thought - it would be sheer lunacy to support the President for another term.
No one will go along with that. Look at the facts, gentlemen, the response from his appearances on 'Rockets and Such' blog was overwhelming - he has excited and awakened the people of this country at a time of despair.
He's personable, elusive, yet seemingly honest. He's riding a crest of popularity that builds with every statement. As far as his
thinking goes, he appears to be one of us. I firmly believe, gentlemen, that he is our only chance. Rocket Man, for emperor.
The tough decision will be how to not make matters worse in terms of Alabama and FLorida employment while still making the obvious decision to kill ARES. Seems like more shuttle flights might be in order along with a stretch out in manifest. I can definitely see some new initiatives in earth sensing systems. Seems highly likely Orion will become ISS only for now. They should get back to developing technology as well- the things that were hacked by Griffin. There were many enabling technologies that were simply pivotal for any real exploration program. Obama can make a real statement that any return to the moon must be for valid scientific reasons and should be modeled on Antarctic research. That means no half-assed "Apollo on steroids" approach but instead a rational attempt to actually create a base with permanent human presence.
Is there anyone out there that is able to shed some light on the thought process behind the decision to shut off all guidance while undergoing first stage separation?
For some number of seconds, the remaining stack will be at the mercy of eight solid rocket motors. No steering allowed during this time. What happens if one doesn't fire or burn correctly? Do we still hit that window in space or will we hear those famous words over the NASA channel, "Houston! We have a problem!"
Interesting about the guidance halt during staging.Normally this is to prevent the upper stage from steering the engine in such a way that the staging geometry is compromised. ARES is a funny beast in that this axial staging is done with considerable dynamic pressure still present. This means that there are aeroforces to contend with that can act to interfere with staging. I suspect they are just brute-forcing it and using solid staging motors to get the required staging clearances. With modern motor ignition systems you can effectively rule out motor failure. After all it is a small motor that lights a big SRB and that event is assumed bullet-proof.
Since when did the Orion become an offender?
Sure, having been in the presence of Ares it has been sliced and diced a bit too much, but Orion is not a program which should be cut. It is still a very worth replacement for Shuttle. What it needs is a higher performance launcher to allow it to be what it was originally intended to be.
Both that, and an architecture which isn't anywhere near so "performance and cost challenged".
kt said "Shuttle - flies and lands". He forgot the part about failing every 60 odd flights. I think Orion has a lot of flaws, and with a higher throw capability, you just run the risk of adding more creature comforts (food warmer anyone?). But at any reasonable level of investment, a capsule approach will be safest and quickest to replace Shuttle.
Talked to an associate today and it was mentioned that the term "cancellation" was being mentioned in the same sentence as Ares 1. Saw it somewhere in print. I am going to look around to see if I can confirm.
Post a Comment