There have been a couple of stories going around that are on that line between sorta-makes sense and WTF are they talking about?
The one that sorta makes sense is the story that Thursday (yesterday) Elon Musk said NASA should start working on taking the International Space Station out of service. It sorta makes sense because NASA is already working on deorbiting the ISS. After all, they gave SpaceX an $843 million contract to develop the deorbit vehicle last June. Musk's quote seems pretty reasonable; I mean, it might be wrong or it might be right but what he said makes sense.
“It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station.
It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.
Let’s go to Mars.”
When pressed for an answer to "when" Musk replied that it's the president's call but he recommends two years, or 2027. Instead of the five years to 2030? How much does that save? Or what does it buy you?
The question of whether it's wrong or right applies to the middle line in that tweet (Xeet? What do we call these things, anyway?) There are several sides to this: from the purely political; that is, can it be done in congress as it now sits to whether or not there are worthwhile things that need to be done with the ISS.
In reality, NASA has only been fully utilizing the space station since late 2020, when it began to fly a full complement of astronauts thanks to SpaceX's Crew Dragon coming online. The agency says it has a lot of worthwhile scientific and human performance research to conduct over the next five years.
Don't forget that NASA has had problems with Russian modules on the ISS leaking precious air out of the station. This isn't the first case. While Boeing has a contract to keep the ISS working through the 2030 deorbit date, structural elements of the station have been in space for more than a quarter of a century and there are valid concerns about parts possibly failing. Neither of these is a pleasant thought.
NASA has already voiced support for not just one, but a population of privately developed and run space stations. None of those is in orbit and ready now, so we can't know that one or more private space stations could be working in Musk's "two years."
The other story is referring to Starliner-then-Crew-9 astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams as being stranded in space. Stranded might have been an acceptable adjective last summer, before their long term solution to getting back down was arrived at, but now they're just ISS astronauts at the end of their mission; a mission that happened to last longer than originally planned - as they sometimes do. Maybe it's just my perception, but I think that people in the astronaut corps have the mindset that doing their job might entail serious disruptions to everyday life - and might even end their life. While I'm sure they miss their families, I'm equally sure they consider being in space for eight or nine months to be a privilege.
This photo of the International Space Station was captured by a crew member on a Soyuz spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Roscosmos
The problem with such an off the cuff remarks as Musk's was can be interpreted in different ways. It is somewhat like "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". The listener hears the words and they create a meaning that may have little to do with the speakers intent.
ReplyDeleteIt would be funny if the deorbit vehicle that SpaceX provides is an actual Starship. After all, if Musk says they can start launching Mars missions in a year or so, then flying to the ISS and deorbiting or uplifting will be just as possible.
ReplyDeleteAs to the two Stayliner astronauts, apparently Musk approached NASA about bringing them down before the election and he says that was disapproved because of the Biden administrations hatred towards Musk.
"apparently Musk approached NASA about bringing them down before the election and he says that was disapproved because of the Biden administrations hatred towards Musk."
DeleteThat is 100% believable - the Bidenista regime was as petty and nasty as imaginable.
We are definitely going to need new bingo cards.
ReplyDeleteI merely wonder how many of the current astronaut corps would LOVE to be either Ms. Williams or Mr. Wilmore and be "stranded on ISS"?
ReplyDeleteExactly! That and if either of them really love being there.
DeleteI'd call it "Xitter", with "x" as "sh". So then "xeet" is entirely appropriate. Come to think of it, such an appellation would've been applicable even before Musk bought it.
ReplyDelete