Part 9

People Solutions-
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1. Hiring Freeze on Managers.
2(*). New Hiring of Engineers to replace retiring managers.
3. Separate Science from Flight! The goal IS NOT... "find the little green men (or,... little green whatevers...)" and get YOUR name in the history books and your Pic on all the front pages of all the magazines. The GOAL.... is Flight and Flight Systems. The rest is "Science", most of which is tangentially associated to the degree it will pass the sniff test,.... some of it, just barely, but it will pass...! That ALL goes into a different organization! Difficult... I know... BUT... it should go over to FFRDCs in close coordination with NASA. (I know that is hard to take, I'm sorry, but we'll build you a ship or TWO of your own later, WHEN WE ARE ABLE TO DO SO... cause... we're NOT going to get there at this pace!?!?!?!?)
4. Cellularize. Create SMALLER teams of Engineers, that are more self-contained, and tailored to the purpose at hand. (See the Intel model)

I don't know anything about this NASA program, or that NASA program. I don't know if we should do this or that, or what makes more sense, or the price pre pound ratio, I don't know about any of that stuff.

But,... I do know people fairly well. I KNOW what government is really like. I KNOW I'm not alone in wanting to fly. I'm not the only one with this dream....

I just know.... we ARE NOT OPTIMAL.... and these are some of my ideas for correcting the things that, over time, I believe would help a great deal….

-IVI

Part 8

Organizational Solutions-
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1. Transfer ALL the bean counters, into a sub-organization that reports to a SEPARATE Management Chain.
2. Assign bean counters to a rotating schedule that keeps them from getting friendly with those for which they are DOING THE ACCOUNTING! And especially from getting friendly with those who would otherwise write their Evaluations. (HELLO????)
3. Once the schedule is rotating, make each bean counter RESPONSIBLE for that Department’s numbers. If the next bean counter in a given seat finds a mistake, it's the last person's fault, until they’ve made too many large-type mistakes at which point you’ll need to find another career. Guess what? EVERYONE accounts for EVERYTHING, each time they move! You don't want the next person in your seat finding anything in the shorts you just washed (do you?), SO YOU DOUBLE-CHECK!!!! (HELLO????)
4. So,… what is the purpose of this kind of accounting? To change the emphasis from a “Spend everything you can” culture, to one that saves as much as possible so that it can be moved into a Trust and locked away from Congress and management. You have TWO options at present; 1) Spend it. 2) Give it back, so someone else can spend it. Only ONE option is ever taken, SPEND IT! If you want to get out of the Binge/Bust/Bulge cycle, you need another option. 3) Sequester it for the purpose of making more you'll be able to spend next year, without having to beg or negotiate for it.

Part 7

However, I still want to help:

Money Solutions-
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1. Create the "Legal Constructs" for binding a NEW kind of Trust Fund, to Government, for long term use.
2. This kind of "Trust", would NOT be able to expend Principal, ONLY... Interest, Earnings, Dividends, and then… only a percentage of those.
3. This kind of "Trust", would allow an Agency (NASA) to place excessive funds per anum, back into it's OWN "Trust Funds" to be invested and the resultant revenues utilized.
4. MAKE Congress allow excessive (or.. saved budget) transferable to these Trusts, W/O penalizing the agency in the next cycle, by reducing the baseline budget.
5. Setup Trust Funds by Program and/or Objectives where the beneficiary is NOT a NASA General fund, BUT rather… a specific cost center for a specific purpose. Let people then contribute to programs (feeling free to make prioritization suggestions of course) THEY support, because the funds go DIRECTLY to that program. You want to support a better Engine? Contribute to the JPL Engine Development Trust!
6. Could Congress contribute to a Trust, PERMANENTLY sequestering capital to a given purpose rather than into a nebulous cost center? I’m sure of it….

Part 6

Pictures for the PR machine (love um), data for the Scientist (great, love it), but….. where is the effort to LIFT people and THEIR various interest off this rock,…? It’s in the back seat where Pols and Bureaucrats (also, a phalanx of GVT lawyers) want it…. Too many problems, and the competition will spoil the novelty driving the hope and BUDGET…..

I would argue, THAT… is the real problem.

Part 5

I hate to include Scientists, but… you have to do so if you’re going to look honestly at the problem. Scientists have a different goal, they have a different method, they have a different agenda, and, consequently,… a different set of problems. They seek answers, for the sake of colleting and cataloging those answers on behalf of humanity. Science is a genuinely laudable effort, perhaps even a noble effort (in my opinion), and an effort WORTH pursuing by any rational standard.

AND,… (unfortunately) at odds with the actual mission NASA SHOULD pursue.

Yes,… NASA uses “Science”, but it’s NOT the goal! The GOAL is FLIGHT which advances humanity into space! I would submit, that is why it’s wallowing around accomplishing little or nothing at all with regard to getting “average people” and/or "working people" off this rock!

Part 4

If you ask a NASA Bureaucrat today, what they need to get things moving again, do you know what they will tell you? The number ONE answer: BUDGET! If you were to go back and ask the original NASA Engineers; “what do YOU need to get things moving”, do you know what THEIR number one answer would be?

"XX months!".....

To the Engineer, “Budget” is just one more of the parameters which must be calculated to reach the objective, like weight or distance. To a Bureaucrat, budget…. IS…. the Objective.

NASA HAS... Engineers (to be sure), but it's not run BY Engineers any longer. Methane has floated to the top of the pond, which is a sure sign that Bureaucracy has taken hold in the mud below. NASA, like EVERY Government agency tends to age, and in that aging process, it has taken on TOO many bureaucrats, far TOO many managers, TOO many Pols, and (I don't enjoy saying it...but,...) TOO many Scientists.

Part 3

NASA, once run by Engineers, has been slowly replacing them year after year by Pol Appointees, Bureaucrats, Scientist (cause it's virtually the only game in town), Administrators, Clerks, PR Teams,... etc,... etc,... etc,..... effectively choking out what made it GREAT(!) in the first place. All the original greatness was replaced with politics and bureaucracy. It really makes my heart sick thinking of the progress we've thrown away, and what hath been wasted and delayed.

Imagine if tomorrow the next Chicxulub should fall, what 30-40 years of sustained development of flight COULD HAVE meant to our chances at avoidance or survival?

NASA has popularity nearly equal to US-MIL. Many, many, many people share the idea, and are supportive of the effort. I would say, so much so the OTHER nations of the West have setup their OWN versions of the same organization. That is NOT A QUIRK! That is the basis of a unifying Dream!

Part 2

I get the distinct sense that when NASA was FIRST formed, when it brought the best and brightest over from the "previous program", it was FULL of Engineer types, hard-charging “GO-GETTERS”! Type A realists that were used to achieving and were 100% totally up to the challenge. They were given a CLEAR mission,

“PUT THE USA on the moon first, bring them back home alive, and... you have this much time in which to complete this objective.”

THAT is exactly what those kinds of people, and those specific people were used to doing! They made it work, and I’m not surprised at that, because it was normal... FOR THEM! What a great example they set, what a tremendous achievement on behalf of Mankind! It was truly WONDERFUL,... in every sense of that word!

Now, what have we got? Most, if not all, of THOSE Steely-Eyed Rocketmen are gone from the payroll, many aren't even with us any longer.

Part 1

1. I am a HUGE fan of EVERYTHING space (except instant death). I want to go personally, I want to help others go (if they want to do so), I want to develop this that and the other things that are required to move Mankind towards that future, as I do believe it to be our true destiny.

2. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would say I am the #1 Space exploration fan on the Planet, however… there is SO MUCH competition for that seat, it’s only really an honest emotion. I’m not even close to being alone in that regard, not by a long-shot, and could never wear the crown.

3. Having said that, I am increasingly less and less impressed by NASA’s direction and it's management in general.

I've always thought that the MOST "ecologically friendly" resource on this planet, which uses the LEAST "carbon footprint", and which has 0 (zero!) external emissions, AND WHICH.... is capable of wiping out all poverty, all disease, and would halt the use of most if not all the exploitation of all the OTHER natural resources.... is.....

capital..... (SURPRISE!)