http://www.thehoustonchronicles.com/index.php/2010/02/02/five-stages-of-grief/ Tales, Anecdotes, and Perspectives from Space City Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:26:18 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.thehoustonchronicles.com/index.php/2010/02/02/five-stages-of-grief/comment-page-1/#comment-105 Chris Castro Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:19:29 +0000 http://www.thehoustonchronicles.com/?p=101#comment-105 Why do they hate the Moon as a destination so much?!?! The opponents of Constellation---the Mars-or-anywhere-else-but-the-Moon crowd---have felt the constant need to put down the lunar sortie mission profile. But what were the Space Shuttle flights up until the time of the ISS and Mir dockings? They were mere LEO sortie missions lasting 10 days or two weeks! Why is it that we can do the boring & the mundane routinely---over & over again---no problem from anybody; but as soon as it comes to doing something extraordinary: like a journey-to-the-surface-of-another-world mission, we get nothing but cantankerous calls for us to not even start it?? The Mars fanatic crowd really sicken me---because they are the people who would destroy the extraordinary just to uphold the mundane!! Robbie Zubrin himself, urges NASA to do his Red Planet mission with the technology that is available today. (Not some "Battlestar Galactica" future technology.) Yet, at the same time, the Mars-centrics vociferously condemn Constellation for relying on an Apollo-like mission architecture. So which demand is it?! Do we now have to wait for some beyond-amazing, "Star Trek" kind of space technology, before we dare land on the Moon's surface again?! Oh yeah, and while we're all striving for Red Planet glory, let us go there with only current, here & now engineering! I see right through all these contradictions of what the Mars zealots say that we must do & must not do. They howl in outrage over a possible Apollo on steroids, but yet they seem to have no problem at all with the Space Shuttle on steroids! I mean...with all that new zero g research they so badly need done...maybe that's just what they'd prefer: the ISS on steroids! More larger & gigantic aluminum castles in LEO. Plus a mini variant of the Space Shuttle orbiter to do the 200 mile up commute. Yes, folks, this is what whets their appetite when they think about future space exploration! Shuttling endlessly to & from LEO for decades to come! All the while being engaged in some cutting-edge, stupendous research & experiments!! Meanwhile, the Moon is to be declared a Forbidden Planet, where no one is ever to go to---ever again. Surely, I am not the only person on Earth who sees something very wrong with this picture?! We need to get out of LEO, therefore we need Constellation!! This is a to-be or not-to-be moment in spaceflight history. Why do they hate the Moon as a destination so much?!?! The opponents of Constellation—the Mars-or-anywhere-else-but-the-Moon crowd—have felt the constant need to put down the lunar sortie mission profile. But what were the Space Shuttle flights up until the time of the ISS and Mir dockings? They were mere LEO sortie missions lasting 10 days or two weeks! Why is it that we can do the boring & the mundane routinely—over & over again—no problem from anybody; but as soon as it comes to doing something extraordinary: like a journey-to-the-surface-of-another-world mission, we get nothing but cantankerous calls for us to not even start it?? The Mars fanatic crowd really sicken me—because they are the people who would destroy the extraordinary just to uphold the mundane!! Robbie Zubrin himself, urges NASA to do his Red Planet mission with the technology that is available today. (Not some “Battlestar Galactica” future technology.) Yet, at the same time, the Mars-centrics vociferously condemn Constellation for relying on an Apollo-like mission architecture. So which demand is it?! Do we now have to wait for some beyond-amazing, “Star Trek” kind of space technology, before we dare land on the Moon’s surface again?! Oh yeah, and while we’re all striving for Red Planet glory, let us go there with only current, here & now engineering! I see right through all these contradictions of what the Mars zealots say that we must do & must not do. They howl in outrage over a possible Apollo on steroids, but yet they seem to have no problem at all with the Space Shuttle on steroids! I mean…with all that new zero g research they so badly need done…maybe that’s just what they’d prefer: the ISS on steroids! More larger & gigantic aluminum castles in LEO. Plus a mini variant of the Space Shuttle orbiter to do the 200 mile up commute. Yes, folks, this is what whets their appetite when they think about future space exploration! Shuttling endlessly to & from LEO for decades to come! All the while being engaged in some cutting-edge, stupendous research & experiments!! Meanwhile, the Moon is to be declared a Forbidden Planet, where no one is ever to go to—ever again. Surely, I am not the only person on Earth who sees something very wrong with this picture?! We need to get out of LEO, therefore we need Constellation!! This is a to-be or not-to-be moment in spaceflight history.

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