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One thing that has always seemed to rub me wrong in space exploration is the giant need to stay in touch with Earth. Supposedly the space shuttles are crewed b
by TGJ 16y ago
One thing that has always seemed to rub me wrong in space exploration is the giant need to stay in touch with Earth. Supposedly the space shuttles are crewed by the great explorers of our time, but it always seems that everything is governed by people on the ground and not in the air.
- Nick_C 16y agoBasically it's resource management, both human and materials. I'll leave the human side out, but recommend Gene Kranz book Failure Is Not an Option for more info on why ground controllers are important. It costs a huge amount of money (in fuel) to lift anything up, even just a kilo or two. You're better off lifting only a telemetry system and putting all the processing, display and engineering on the ground. That means having ground controllers to manage it. Of course, in the early days, you couldn't physically fit computers in the capsule. Now we can, but it is still more economical to have most of it on the ground and just use radio to let the systems communicate.