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NASA’s commercial spacesuit program just hit a major snag (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago by llamacoffee@lemmy.world to c/spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
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If NASA were to re-open competition, one of the bidders could be SpaceX, which has already designed a basic spacesuit to support the private Polaris Dawn mission.

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[-] cybermass@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

I have no faith in SpaceX suit, it definitely doesn't look ready for moon exploration, barely ready for spacewalks.

The whole suit competition is embarrassing. After COVID ended it seems like all the rich folks stopped caring about space travel despite its importance.

Not sure what the solution is but capitalism won't be one until there's a way to profit.

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

The SpaceX ones are privately funded, so who cares if the first generation of them sucks? At least they're trying and might have a path to success.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Not sure what the solution is?

Proper funding for NASA and for an equivalent for sea exploration while we're at it, get the private sector the fuck out of space.

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

SpaceX has saved NASA a ton of money on launch and ISS cargo/crew services. Rocket Lab and some CLPS providers are also shaping up to do so. I'd be down with getting Boeing and Lockheed out of space, though.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

They did because NASA has been underfunded for decades

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

Imagine if they didn't have to play political games and spend $5 billion (20% of their budget) on SLS+Orion. That's TEN Discovery Class missions per year.

I think NASA should focus on scientific research and exploration, then buy commercial when it makes sense. Rockets are "solved" and they don't need their own. Space suits... they really should have finished xEMU.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

That's TEN Discovery Class missions per year.

Don't threaten me with a good time.

[-] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

SpaceX has saved NASA a ton of money on launch and ISS cargo/crew services.

Privatizing a government sector and then subsizing its for-profit commerical replacement is the opposite of saving NASA (or taxpayers) money. I'm all for companies getting into space, but they should be getting support in the form of publicly available fundamental science and technology development from a properly funded NASA, not bids to do the work for them at a profit to those companies.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 2 points 6 days ago

You could make the same argument about anything else.

"Nutrition and proper healthcare are obviously very important, so there should be public backing behind them." (Which btw I support)

[-] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

I agree with you.

We're paying for it anyway when a private enterprise develops this technology, but we don't get to keep the results of any of that development. That's my big problem with it. It's like any other tragedy of publicly funded projects/programs that ultimately only profit a select few like healthcare, stadiums, and pretty much any software as a service or closed source systems sold to public sectors. Those are just a few, but I'm sure there are more. This stuff is too important to the public good to be controlled and horded by corporations. The scariest thing in the alien franchise wasn't the xenomorphs, it was The Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 2 points 6 days ago

I haven't seen the alien franchise, but I agree with the rest.

To me, it seems to be a problem with IP ("intellectual property"). Setting IP higher should in theory advance private research and investment, while causing scarcity to the public having to rely on these services. Low IP means more equality within society, but also slower research/progress.

Personally I think that spaceflight is only at its very beginning; And it should be heavily invested and researched into. And stronger commercialization of space flight can help with that, IMO.

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

NASA should let private companies do the "easy" stuff so they can focus on bigger and better things. And use the flow of private development money coming from venture capital or share offerings as a multiplier for their budget.

The numbers for Falcon and Dragon don't back up what you're saying. They were developed for less money than it would have taken NASA and are cheaper than other options. They're also sold to non-NASA customers, which means a reduced unit cost from increased volume.

  • Cargo Dragon is cheaper than Cygnus
  • Crew Dragon is cheaper than Starliner
  • Falcon 9 is cheaper than Atlas V or Vulcan
  • Falcon Heavy is cheaper than Delta IV Heavy

There's also the issue of availability and readiness for all of those, where SpaceX wins handily.

Another example is the CLPS providers, which are expected to cover some of the development money and find more customers to make up that difference. They're doing entire Lunar lander missions for less than the cost of an Atlas V launch.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Boeing seems to be getting themselves out with their "we won't do any more fixed price contracts" attitude.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago

Until there’s a way to profit from space? There are already tons of ways to profit from space.

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

At least these are "only" the ISS suits, not the Lunar surface suits from Axiom, so this doesn't make the Artemis situation worse. Hopefully SpaceX can evolve their new suits enough to be useful for space station EVAs for Vast or whoever.

Setting this up as a task order contract never made sense to me. Firm fixed price for this also doesn't make sense to me. It's a development program with 0 commercial customers and no ability to lease them to private customers. What a weird, late, mess.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I wonder if they could ever purchase some of the Feitian space suits... politically awkward, but it might work.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
62 points (98.4% liked)

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