Safe Is Not An Option

Overcoming The Futile Obsession With Getting Everyone Back Alive That Is Killing Our Expansion Into Space especially the next milestones like the Moon

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Key Takeaways

Congress is micromanaging NASA nearly to death. Innovation is impossible with the current system where failure is absolutely not an option.

Quotes

• Paraphrased since I read the book awhile ago:
  • NASA has an unlimited value on an astronauts life due to micromanagement from Congress
  • Many safety measures, especially flight abort systems, make missions inherently more dangerous.
  • Bacteria grows faster in microgravity, meaning much faster and more effective vaccines could be made, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives a year if the ISS were enabled to do more research instead of station keeping.
  • The first death from a private space launch could actually be a good thing since it would help normalize that death is a part of the risks astronauts take on. Many other jobs and even dangerous jobs have very clear odds of death and society is fine with that so Astronauts should be viewed no differently.