enthalpy

enthalpy

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The truth shall set you free, but first it's going to piss you off

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Posted 4/23/2008 05:30:00 PM by Douglas

The future of the American manned spaceflight program, after this year's election.

Cortez, according to the story, burned his boats to force his men to move inland with no option of going back. The Shuttle program is, metaphorically, like Cortez's boats. After 2010, the Shuttles are gone. The Constellation project will provide the vehicles for the next big step in space exploration. That is unless Barack Obama becomes our 44th president.

Back to the Cortez analogy. The space boats are being burned on schedule as the Shuttle program phases out. The way forward is on the Ares 1 rocket and the CEV - Cortez's guns and horses. But Capitan Hernando Obama says, "Men, let's keep the guns clean and the powder dry, but not feed the horses for five years while we sit here on the beach and hope."

I've said it before: Either America wants a space program, or it doesn't. NASA and its contractors sit in so many Congressional districts across the country, I doubt any President has the power to do something so drastic. But just like every other government program, it's just a show of hands in Congress away from becoming the strategic helium reserve. Maybe not so much of a bad thing, but NO private entity has the capacity to get into, or out of, low earth orbit, without government money. Is another moon mission a good use of 0.7% of your tax penny?

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