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From: baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station to be Cheap
Message-ID: <1990Nov6.234925.26062@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 6 Nov 90 23:49:25 GMT
References: <0093F1AE.5AE929E0@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <9011021617.AA08225@iti.org> <0093F1DA.1F2A5920@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <1990Nov3.225832.20332@zoo.toronto.edu> <0093F2DB.F2D56F60@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <1990Nov4.062813.29481@zoo.toronto.edu>
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Reply-To: baalke@mars.UUCP (Ron Baalke)
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In article <1990Nov4.062813.29481@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <0093F2DB.F2D56F60@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) writes:
>>>>building a large platform which people can live and work in...
>>>
>>>Quite true.  Of course, by this standard, most of the NASA centers involved
>>>in the space station are incompetent for the job too, since only one (MSFC)
>>>has ever built anything like this before...
>>
>>JPL qualifies. ...
>
>???  They've never built a manned spacecraft at all, and as far as I recall
>offhand they have zero experience in "large platform" work.  Their normal
>line of work -- unmanned deep-space exploration -- is as far from space
>stations as you can get and still be in space.
>-- 

JPL is involved with the Space Station program.  A JPL Systems Office has
been opened in Reston, Virginia to support the Space Station.  The office
is made up of a professional staff hired from around the Washington, D.C.
area, and from JPL employees relocated from Pasadena.  JPL had traditionally
worked with unmanned deep space mission, and will continue to do so, but it
also expected expand their experience base to support nonrobotic spaceflight
components by being involved with the Space Station and the Space
Exploration Initiative.  Specifically, JPL will be working with the station's
communciations and tracking system, including ensuring the integrity of
the design as it relates to the entire end-to-end space to ground 
communications systems.  JPL is also developing a derivative of the Spacelab
Drop Physics Module for the Space Station.
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     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov
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