Free Models - DIRECT Jupiter-120 & Jupiter-232

lancer525

Member
I built these for the DIRECT team, for a meeting at NASA HQ, and thought I'd offer them to the Paper Modeling Community.

They can be found at both Niels Knudsen's and at Jon Leslie's sites.

http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models_real.html

http://www.nielspapermodels.com/

Happy building!

Direct.jpg
 

BARX2

Member
Thanks for the great models. By the way, what do you think the chances are of Direct being selected for the follow-on to the Shuttle?
 

lancer525

Member
Barx2, I really, really wish I had an answer for that question, but I'm afraid I just don't know. In a perfect world, someone in the new Administration would look at the technical specifications, compare them to the piece of junk that Ares is, and say "this is a no-brainer!" but we live in an imperfect world, and the decision won't be made solely on technical merit. It will be a political one as well. Funding is needed, and the new President and Congress may decide that not all of that money can be spent developing this right away. The one thing that they need to be aware of, and you should write your congressmen and the President, and say to them, "If Ares fails, and all that money spent so far was wasted, what effect will that have on NASA and the future of American technological superiority? DIRECT is a better program, derived straight from NASA engineering studies, and optimized to get us there less expensively, much more safely, much faster, and with greater flexibility than Ares can ever provide."

If enough people hand write letters like these, then someone will HAVE to take a much closer look at it.

But that's just MVHO.
 

lancer525

Member
Thank you for designing these fantastic models. It was certainly a timely release -- NASA's "Battle of the Boosters" is the cover story in the February 2009 issue of "Popular Mechanics" magazine, and is reprinted here:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4295233.html

The reader comments seem to reflect the passions stirred by this debate.

The one thing that gets me, about all the anti-DIRECT people is that they don't refute the facts, the numbers, and the analysis. All they do is say things like "mickey-mouse plan" and "NASA-hater" and such.

The facts are clear. The evidence is overwhelming. Ares doesn't work. It is FOUR YEARS behind schedule, after only existing for three years!

It can't lift Orion, so they make Orion smaller and less safe. Huh?

I actually built these models for the meeting with the Transition Team people, so that the DIRECT team would have a real visual aid during the meeting. I'm glad you like them. Post pictures of your build!
 
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