November 12, 2006
Crossing Fingers...

...that the astronautical abomination known as the Stick is facing a none-too-soon abortion. It's either that, or NASA prioritizes its added requirements for Orion.

On the other hand, another group at LM appears to be thinking ahead to the possibility that the Stick might go bye-bye. Hmm...

Maybe if we get lucky, the Stick will be dumped and the GAO's recommended review of NASA's MCAD selection will result in a switch from Pro/E to CATIA V...and we'll get rid of both of the two worst elements of Constellation.

ADDENDUM: John Goff posts a bit more, based on info in the L2 forums at NASASpaceFlight.com (which I really need to buy a subscription to, myself). Given other changes NASA wants in the CM, John's discussion makes me wonder if chucking the Stick in favor of a more capable vehicle might open the door to a return to the 5.5m capsule diameter.

Posted by T.L. James on November 12, 2006 10:54 PM | TrackBack

Comments

What?! Pro/E is just great! It beats Catia V5 (the pro clone) hands down!!! You will be assimilated!

(Were the exclamation points over the top?)



Posted by: Victor at November 13, 2006 12:20 PM

T.L.,
Now that I've used both Pro/E and Catia (as well as Solidworks and Unigraphics), I do have to say that of the "big boy" cad systems, I prefer Catia over Pro/E. But I prefer Solidworks for anything that doesn't need Catia's horsepower.

As for L2, it's definitely highly recommended. It's not perfect, but as an additional data point, it's definitely interesting.

~Jon Goff



Posted by: Jonathan Goff at November 13, 2006 10:58 PM