Tech

‘Escape from Gravity’ Take a Brutal Honest Look at NASA


Lori Garver served as NASA’s deputy administrator from 2009-2013. Her new memoir Escape from gravityabout the struggle for her colleagues to embrace space entrepreneurs like SpaceX and Blue Origin, paints a poignant picture of NASA’s inner workings.

“I have honestly told — some would say brutally honest — the story of a company that I love,” Garver said in Episode 522 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “NASA has a club atmosphere. It’s a bit of a ‘Fight Club first rule is you don’t talk about Fight Club.’ I’m definitely breaking the rules by speaking out — the unwritten rules. “

In recent decades, NASA has been plagued by late deadlines and cost overruns. Garver says that in many cases, the people who promote those programs know that their budgets are unrealistic. “I just don’t believe that the people who designed those programs believe they can make them in that range of money,” she said. “I think they sold something that they thought someone was going to buy, and that made their contract go by, and then nobody wanted to cancel the contract, because these are the jobs in our district. friend. All in all a very cozy activity. “

Garver also describes an attitude of amusement at NASA, with many in the organization unwilling to ask tough questions about whether its costly programs serve the public good. “People come to NASA as engineers and scientists,” she said. “They don’t have any background in public policy or economics, and they really don’t understand why that matters. They were like, ‘We want to walk on the moon. I grew up and wanted to walk on the moon. ‘ OK, but does the public owe you that? Not the questions they’re used to hearing, nor the questions they don’t like to hear.”

Garver’s proposal to partner with SpaceX has finally passed, saving taxpayers billions of dollars, but she says a lot of hard work still needs to be done. “We’ve done this at NASA, they can embrace change, which is very difficult in the government system,” she said. “Not all of NASA has changed, and there are many programs in government that could benefit from some of this hard love.”

Listen to the full interview with Lori Garver in Episode 522 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

Lori Garver as published:

I actually got an agency right away, and after a month or so with that agency, I realized they were trying to make a different book than I was writing. They wanted me to talk about UFOs and what I knew about aliens, and I said, “Oh, no. No. That won’t be the book. “Luckily, they let me out of their contract, and in the meantime another agent I contacted had started publishing. Publish redirects headed by Scott Waxman. He is a former agent, so I met him in person and did not use an agent. So that means I can not only tell the story I want to tell, but I can also deliver it in a shorter period of time than a few years, which is typical for publishing. So I was really lucky.

Lori Garver on science fiction:

Science fiction inspired a lot of space leaders in the 1950s and 60s, so it’s a really important element of the science that has evolved in space ever since, and I think it continues to inspire people. As I said in the book, that – especially in the early days – tends to be boys. I’m not one of those people—at least at first—watching Star Trek when I was a kid, or read a bunch of science fiction. I think, we focus on a lot of science fiction that tends to be more masculine, some of which is speculative. I recently received The Robert Heinlein Prize. It was started 34 years ago, and I was the first woman to receive it. So these are early days, I think, because there are more diverse interests and achievements in our space program, and some of that has to do with science fiction.

Lori Garver on Colonial Mars:

I don’t see how we can mass-produce the things we need to have a self-sustaining colony as quickly as Elon Musk guess. I think in the long run, it’s a very hopeful future, so it’s not a negative, it’s just a matter of time. Any transit time to Mars — if you’re going to stay on Mars, there’s still a big question about how you’ll manage the radiation. There is no air to breathe, so what structures will you live in? We don’t know how people can survive that long apart from our protection Van Allen radiation belt. We don’t know how to transport it in a way that allows people to stay irradiated along the way. There are a lot of great challenges there.

Lori Garver on the title:

When I recommend the book, I give it a title Billionaires and Officials: The Race to Save NASA. When the publisher bought it, they immediately said they wouldn’t call it that, and reserved the right to call it what they wanted — publishing is a crazy business, you can’t title it for their own memoir — but they promised us they wanted to talk about it. Their job title is Space Pirates– “space pirates” are what I call really old-timers, probably largely inspired by science fiction, who are interested in going into space for extended periods of time and maintain civilization. I kept pushing for another title, especially when they came up with a cover that looked like teen science fiction, and they received feedback from the sales team that the book was the book is great, but they think the title and cover are not. conveys the serious message of the book. They turned around and said, “So we like to call it Overcoming barriers. ” I said, “Um, okay. Can I do that? “I come to Escape from gravityand it was late in the game and they said, “Fine.”


Stories with WIRED are more amazing

Back to top. Skip: Start of article.



Source link

news7g

News7g: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button