

NASA Face in Space - inmygarage
http://faceinspace.nasa.gov/

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Groxx
"Select the Participate button at the bottom of this page and upload your
image/name, which will be flown aboard the space shuttle."

What... as binary data in a USB drive? Or is some poor intern going to print
out all these, put them onto the cart with the wobbly 3rd wheel (the fourth
already fell off) and dump them into the shuttle?

This seems like a bad publicity stunt...

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sliverstorm
I can hardly believe NASA is going to become a relic...

~~~
ggchappell
I believe the plan is to retire the space shuttle, not all of NASA.

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hartror
But retiring their human space flight is almost as bad. I love our robot
probes to death, they do important science at a fraction of a fraction of the
cost it would take humans to do the same. However right now all of our
proverbial eggs are on this tiny spit of sand, unable to escape. We need to
build on the advances in human space flight that were made last century if we
are to ensure our survival in the medium term in this cosmos.

Talking with my father, he hopes to see humans return to the Moon and then
onwards to Mars in his life time. At this rate I am doubtful if it will be
accomplished in my lifetime. Though if we made a concerted effort we could put
someone on Mars within a decade, at least that is my believe given our current
technology and our previous Moon program. Though a long term sustainable
program is far more desirable.

~~~
rbanffy
They are not retiring all of human spaceflight - they are mothballing what's
left of the shuttle fleet. Human spaceflight can continue with Soyuz for now
and with SpaceX if and when they are ready. The Dragon can also ride a Delta.
Also, the Orion was not canned, AFAIK, so, it too can ride a Delta IV to LEO,
as soon as Delta IV's get man-rated. As for the freight capacity, a Delta IV
Heavy can carry as heavy a payload as a shuttle (not sure about dimensions),
so, there is no loss of capability. A shuttle is a 100 ton vehicle with 30 ton
payload. That's 70 more than you need.

If we are to escape Earth, we need something much better than chemical
rockets. We may need them to reach LEO, but, from then on, we need to perfect
more efficient ways to move. The shuttle is a dead end. We need modular
systems that can be assembled in varied ways to suit a given mission profile.
The shuttle is perfect for one thing and one thing only - to bring truck-sized
payloads back from LEO. For all other uses, it is much more expensive than its
competition and the only thing that kept it in operation was an absurd
determination that prevented development of other vehicles.

Don't get me wrong - it's a beautiful machine, but it should never be the only
system available, for it is unsuitable for just about every real usage.

