Chris Lewicki

This would be an incredible mission to witness. @richardbranson and @JeffBezos have both experienced their own vehicles. It’s time for Elon to do the same, and Jared can support his mission.

Here's an idea: @elonmusk and @rookisaacman should visit the International Space Station before they consider accelerating its destruction. Go on a spacewalk to perform some maintenance.

YouTube video by Story & Science (Formerly S3) "NEW SPACE" Frontier Film

Great, inspirational film featuring a lot of friends and pioneers. Looking forward to it feeling dated in just another year — things are moving fast!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOlp...

Moved to tears 20 years ago, on January 15 2004, a little before 2 AM Pacific time, was the payoff.

20 years ago, on January 15 2004, a little before 2 AM Pacific time, was the payoff.
It was cause for celebration.
But first, I wept. 😂
medium.com/@interplanet...

This photo is beautiful beyond words in a techno-architectural way.

More beautiful to me than a Starship at sunset, or mach diamonds from a new rocket.

My thanks to NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Sciences teams for capturing this historic moment. 3/3

They also hold some secrets for our future. The material you are looking at could be converted to fuel for space transportation, raw materials for manufacturing, or key ingredients to build an industrial capability in space. And quite probably, for things we have yet to imagine. 2/3

Absolutely incredible. This is raw material gently recovered from the surface of an asteroid has been orbiting the sun for billions of years after it condensed into this solid matter. These dark fragments hold secrets to the origin of our Solar System. 1/3
www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

If you’ve been able to overcome a failure and benefit from it, I'd love to hear your failure story.

Ever wondered what it feels like to destroy a Mars mission? This is my Mars Rover failure story.

chrislewicki.com/articles/fai...

Hey. What’re you up to Thursday?

www.crowdcast.io/c/newcorey-r...

Trick or Treat at the White House today.

NASA's Mars rovers could inspire a more ethical future for AI Since ChatGPT's release in late 2022, many news outlets have reported on the ethical threats posed by artificial intelligence. Tech pundits have issued warnings of killer robots bent on human extincti...

Great positive example from Mars Rovers and new technology. New tech needn't replace or enslave us, but can extend our reach further into the realms of the unknown. Innovation is a decoder ring, revealing not our shackles, but new horizons of possibility.

techxplore.com/news/2023-09...

But alas, this isn't really how we've evolved programs and projects to work in the current system.

We try our best, and if they don't work, we negotiate/beg for more funding to try again, as it has been better to come back to the well than to ask for a bigger bucket on the first trip.

The end-to-end complexity of sample transfer in MSR has an unusually high (for NASA) probability of not working on the first try. It seems appropriate to work with that assumption from the outset (despite our best efforts something will surprise us, causing a failure).

Last, my biggest concern about huge investments like these is that they're success-based, as civil-government usually is. Defense usually considers more contingencies, with the resulting cost. But it feels penny-wise pound foolish.

The sentence that follows it is what may provide for finding a new path forward:

"Alternate architectures may offer an opportunity to revisit the acquisition strategy for some of the elements or components of the architecture."

(that and more realistic funding)

be a winning strategy for grand projects like these.

I'm glad the "unwieldy structure" was highlighted, as its the report also notes it

"took the validity of the two NASA Acquisition Strategy Meetings at face value in this approach."

Independent reviewers find NASA Mars Sample Return plans are seriously flawed "MSR was established with unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning."

MSR is between a Mars rock and a hard place.

It's more complex, and operating in a more challenging environment than JWST.

Yet it's expected to succeed more quickly and with half the budget. Despite being faulted for unrealistic budget and schedule expectations, it appears to

"If results depend on effort, then you will carry yourself far.

If results depend on effort and luck, then you will have done what you can to influence the outcome.

And if results depend on luck alone, then the outcome is random, but you will have won the battle with yourself."

Love this bit of wisdom from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:

"Work hard."

It continues:

Interested in Lunar Water? Caltech's Lunar Trailblazer website is a great resource for learning about the history, present knowledge and contributions Lunar Trailblazer plans to make in informing Lunar Water resources, launching in November 2024. https://trailblazer.caltech.edu/lunarWater.html