It is quite sad to follow the sequence of failures by NASA. It is clear that NASA as is, is unable to carry out its mission of outer space exploration. While the Apollo project was a brilliant piece of engineering, what followed, can only be described as buerocratic strangling of engineering briliance via cost cutting and lack of vision.
What should be done? First, I think there should be an admission that the shuttle project was a complete failure.
Secondly, I think NASA role in sending people outside the atmosphere should be taken away from it. The shuttle had proved to be rediclously expensive to operate (that was exactly the promise uner which it was developed), and an alternative vehicle should be devloped emphesizing price of operation. The first flight of the new vehicle should be set to be 10 years into the future, so that there would be enough time to develope it properly. Furthermore, the new vehicle should be designed to be safer by a few orders of magnitude than the shuttle.
If building such a safe vehicle is outside our current technological ability, we should for the time being restrict space exloration to unmanned vehicles. The importance of manned space exploration was based on the dream of men (and women too) conquering space. It is now clear, that this is not going to happen in the near future, since the technical difficulties are overwhelming, and because we need a breakthrough in the technology of sending stuff to space (i.e., we need to be able to send stuff to space under a price which is a fraction of current price). In the current situation, even building a tiny internation space station requires a huge amount of effort, without any major benefit.
This does not mean that we should abondon the effort. Instead, I think we should realize how hard is the challenge, and face it as is. This means long term (i.e., >= 30 years) commitment to basic research needed to achieve this goal. But thats probably not going to happen in the US, considering the current US politics – not important – China can surely lead if the US continues to falters.
Dont do it. (Whatever it is.)
This was free advice provided to you over the web, and if you just wait enough time, you could google for it. Then it would be the TRUTH.
In my next post, I will knowingly and insightfully advise people on how to write advice entries on their blogs. Stay tuned.
New comment on your post #243 “My days of greatness, now gone forever…”
Author : Rafi
Comment:
Reminds me that I have to send you a T shirt saying “You don’t get older, you get better.” 
After all, how can you go backwards from a place called Kadima ? (Hebrew pun)
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Reminds me that I have to send you a T shirt saying “You don’t get older, you get better.” ! After all, how can you go backwards from a place called Kadima ? (Hebrew pun)
New comment on your post #243 “My days of greatness, now gone forever…”
Author : Sariel Har-Peled
Comment:
Yep. Click on the picture for more details. This is in a small town called Kadima in Israel… It is about 30 kilometers north of Tel-Aviv…
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Yep. Click on the picture for more details. This is in a small town called Kadima in Israel… It is about 30 kilometers north of Tel-Aviv…
New comment on your post #243 “My days of greatness, now gone forever…”
Author : Vivek Pandey
Comment:
The cute boy on the right is you, Sariel? And which city in Israel is this?
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The cute boy on the right is you, Sariel? And which city in Israel is this?
New comment on your post #242 “Randomized Algorithms…”
Author : CS497SHP
Comment:
I remember the night before it was due on 24 December, 2002. I had stayed in my office to work on the final but I was not making much headway. To make things worse, I was to leave for home the following morning and I had not yet started packing! After one final heave at the exam, I turned it in and made my way outside DCL. And lo and behold! What a wondrous sight I beheld! There was powdery snow — nearly a foot of it and it was still sprinkling at midnight as I made my way back home. That little wonder of nature made up for all my peevishness after a taxing exam full of computational geometry and vintage Sariel material. I shan’t forget it in a hurry.
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