NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable

submitted by Cancelthis from arstechnica.com

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[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Computing which rocket is the cheapest or most reliable isn't rocket science, so clearly everything is going according to plan.

This is like saying global warming is a huge technical problem; it's not, but governments just need to have a desire to fix the problem and allocate funds appropriately. Many countries have oil assets, which they reckon has the most value for them if it's burnt in some car. By the time the oil becomes really scarce there will suddenly be new technology as if it is a miracle, but it was just planned that way.

[–]Cancelthis[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The point is, rocket development is an utter waste of money.

Typical rockets can be assembled by the lowest bidder from parts taken off the shelf.

An example is SpaceX.

No special machining shops - and no special fuel.

It would and is vastly cheaper just to pay for payload. And more up front about how much stuff really costs.

Pay for payload, and the total cost is payload and insurance.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Rocket development needs to happen regardless, because you also need them for missile defense. It just is a matter of when a war breaks out when you have the knowledge and tooling to produce more, or if you have to beg to some billionaire.

I think it is unrealistic for a company to not keep secrets, regardless from the level of "oversight". That alone means the government needs to do it, as long as they want to remain a credible sovereign state. If they say it's OK to completely depend on companies, then we can just as well say the fascism transformation is complete, because the power literally lies with the companies.

You can already see that Twitter is not being shutdown, even though there are plenty of reasons for doing so (like not labeling ads).

[–]Cancelthis[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Rail guns and lasers are much less expensive to develop.

And currently, the Israeli Iron Dome is completely off the shelf.

No development money needed.

[–]binaryblob 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If missiles were obsolete, we would be hearing left and right that rocket companies were going out of business and laser companies would be booming (which they aren't).

And currently, the Israeli Iron Dome is completely off the shelf.

How do you guarantee there are no backdoors in their systems?

[–]IkeConn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

When I was a kid in the 1960's we just used a Saturn 5. Too bad they didn't keep the blueprints.

[–]Cancelthis[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

They were probably kept on nitrate plastic and had a major accident.