NASA Ramblings I like NASA as I am sure many of you also do. I don’t like the idea they waste billions of dollars and seem to be in the back pocket of some of the largest aerospace corporations and give them not only outrageous contracts, but don’t even seem to enforce many provisions in them. I don’t know how many have noticed the fact SpaceX has been getting more contracts from NASA. I think they are starting to feel the heat their past contracts have brought on to them. The Artemis is a total disaster being many years late and many billions of dollars over budget and in its shadow is the giant SpaceX rocket which by any standard is looking more incredible every day and features more powerful engines and room for 100 passengers. NASA has announced it is beginning the assembly of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. It will be powered by two power sources. One is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator and the other is solar power. Since the craft is flying to Europa a moon of Jupiter, the limit for solar power because the solar power gets weaker the further you are from the sun, the solar power will only be about four percent of what it would have been if the craft was next to the earth. It is going to take the craft 5.5 years to reach Jupiter. It is said the solar cells will stretch out to be the size of a football field. The craft itself will be about the size of a SUV. As I am writing this article the war in the Ukraine is raging. This could interfere with NASA’s plans in space by the time you read this. I certainly hope we don’t get to the point where Russia and the United States start shooting down satellites or worse. The main purpose of the Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa has conditions which could be suitable for life. As I have said in the past, all we have to go on is what type of conditions would be needed for human life and it could turn out not to be relevant to some types of alien life. The Russians have threatened the International Space Station saying if relations are broken off or sanctions force Russia to abandon the ISS it could fall out of the sky. A veiled threat based on the fact the Russians control its location. The head of the Russian space entity Roscosmos said, "There is also the possibility of a 500-ton structure falling on India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia; therefore, all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them?" Isn’t it ironic, the Russians are killing thousands of people in the Ukraine and they talk about us being responsible for people dying because we forced them off the space station, if that is what we are going to do? NASA has a lot of projects which have to do with observations of the earth in many different wave lengths. This has helped us in such fields as the weather, archaeology, farming and many more. Some of these surely have military applications. If we look at some of these future missions, we find one like the Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer known as GLIMR. It will examine the ocean biology along with other bodies of water. Whether it has other uses we may never know. It is scheduled for launch in 2026. In 2027 JPSS-3 is scheduled to be launched. It is the Joint Polar Satellite System and a new generation to an existing satellite. It is the third in the series as you can see by the name. This instrument is a joint program between NOAA and NASA. NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The instruments on the satellite are said to be the ATMS which is an advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, CrIS, the Cross-Track Infrared Sounder, OMPS the Ozone mapper and Profiler Suite, and VIIRS which stands for Visible Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite. Many people are fascinated by the secret launches which are made in connection with secret military and government projects. One of these missions was not hidden but what the object being launched was for was kept a secret. I am talking about the vehicle known as the X-37B which looks like a smaller version of the space shuttle except it is unpiloted. The retired space shuttle could have fit two of these vehicles in its cargo bay. Its missions were classified which worried the Russians and Chinese who thought it might be some sort of weapon. Those who have looked into the matter believe it is just a test platform for testing new hardware to be used in space. Could some of this hardware be weapons? Sometimes NASA unwittingly gets involved in matters of the heart which don’t end well. One of those cases concerned a former astronaut and female U.S. Navy Captain. In 2007 she was in a parking lot and met up with the rival for the love of a former shuttle pilot. Things did not go well and the Captain was separated from the navy. It was not an honorable discharge. NASA does not like bad publicity even though this had very little to do with them. The Captain had pleaded guilty in a criminal case to two felonies which were attempted kidnapping and burglary. I have mentioned this before, but a lot of people don’t realize the fact NASA is a military agency according to its charter. Sometimes even military personal are detailed to go to NASA for a specific period of time. One thing I have wondered about is how NASA can maintain some of the projects which as so far over budget and so many years late on their budget? The proposed budget for 2022 is 24.8 billion dollars. The Artemis launches alone will cost NASA 4.1 billion dollars each, and there are four scheduled. Elon Musk has said the SpaceX Starship will only cost 10 million to launch. Remember the Starship is more powerful. Even if the Starship would cost 1 billion dollars to launch, that is less then 25% of the Artemis launch. The 10 million figure stated by Musk is less then 0.5 percent of the Artemis launch. This truly sounds insane and if correct we should scrap the Artemis and lick our wounds while using the Starship instead if it checks out. I have to wonder how much of the Artemis cost was caused by kickbacks?
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