Reply #6: You bring up some good points (K&R) but NASA is responsible for its loss of focus [View All]

During the 1960s we had huge chemical rockets to shoot a capsule of Astronauts into space. NASA's current plans for manned space: to engineer less-huge chemical rockets that can shoot a capsule of Astronauts into space.

Where is NASA's spirit of innovation? They want to do things pretty much the same as it was 50 years ago! They should be looking into advanced technologies that will bring down the cost of putting a payload into space:

Google the following:
1. Magnetically levitated space launch systems, http://www.launchpnt.com/portfolio/aerospace/satellite-launch-ring/
2. Space Elevator, http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital%20Travel/Space%20Elevators/Space%20Elevators.htm
3. VASIMIR propulsion system, http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-10/plasma-rockets-could-make-pit-stops-mars-and-beyond
4. Laser powered space launcher, http://www.spacedaily.com/news/laser-97b.html

And probably a dozen more that I have never heard of.

The reality of NASA is that it is a gargantuan bloated bureaucracy built of people who want to continue their own careers. Those are the people who have systematically thwarted any change in the "rockets and capsules" paradigm. If they allowed these revolutionary technologies to take hold, where would their own lucrative careers be, who would need their expertise on rockets, capsules, etc?

In similar fashion, the "auto experts" you read in magazines, on TV, and elsewhere do not like the electric car. Why? Because their $$$ career is tied to continuing the fantastically complex and inefficient internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles are so simple to build that thousands of people have torn out their gasoline engine and all its poisons and are now driving on pure battery power. Imagine if those with careers to protect were in a position of power so as to ensure that this threat to their career never sees the light of day.

Had NASA continued its early tradition of constant improvement as technology advanced, we may be in a different world right now. Instead, private companies will be taking over the job of putting humans into space. Brilliant career move!