Starliner's future

The contract specialist who OK'd Starliner development as a fixed price contract should have quoted the Solyndra Affair at DOE as a reason not to try to build this on the cheap. It is time to renegotiate, make Boeing whole and fund whatever is needed to get a second test vehicle, with all problems resolved, launched during Crew 9's stay. Send up two NASA astronauts and the members of Crew 9 where were bumped and switch out Butch and Sunny.

Can we afford this? Absolutely. We cannot afford not to do it. 

I suspect that there is little standing in the way between Kursk and Moscow. A little pressure will mean freedom for the ethnic minority regions and the end of the Russian Federation. Putin's demographic profile is not favorable.

It is time to redraw the boundaries of Asia, north, middle and south. Some parts of Russia can go to China, others to Mongolia - with freedom for the Uyghurs and inner Mongolians as part of the deal. Throw in ending the ban on Chinese partnership in the international space world to sweeten the deal. We can have Astronauts who speak Chinese instead of Russian as a second space language. All things are possible.

Going to the Moon

1. Quit deorbiting tonnage. Never land Starship or Falcon S2. Reuse in space.

2. Put (at first) automated factories in lunar surface to process hydrogen and oxygen and use Starships to bring fuel back to Earth orbit to fuel:

a. Earth orbit operations, including snatching tonnage from LEO to a central orbital staging area and station

b. trans lunar injection tugs (Falcon S2) to move people and materials to lunar orbit, either in their own or to push Starships and planetary space stations.

3. Test feasibility and calibrate artificial gravity systems, ideally with inflatable modules, to prove we can actually travel to Mars or stay in orbit without vertigo.

4. Develop Moon Jumpers to land people and cargo on the surface and travel around the Moon with total reusability.

5. Develop land able modules for moon colonies with landing systems so that colonists can clear boulders from colony space to land them as a unit.

6. Russia will fall apart when Putin dies. Offer civil society help as Oblasts declare independence and take money from defense to space exploration, because every defense worker is a space geek at heart and, given the choice, that is what they would rather do - and where their skills are most useful.