For some reason the WaPo failed to publish its own poll showing a new low in Obama popularity.
Year Of The Dragon Permalink
It’s been republished over at Space Daily.
A CCW Joke
From an email list:
A guy cruises through a stop sign and gets pulled over by a local policeman.
He hands the cop his driver’s license, insurance verification, plus his concealed carry permit.
“Okay, Mr. Smith,” the cop says, “I see your CHL permit. Are you carrying today?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Well then, better tell me what you got.”
Smith says, “Well, I got a .357 revolver in my inside coat pocket. There’s a 9mm semi-auto in the glove box.
And, I’ve got a .22 magnum derringer in my right boot.
“Okay,” the cop says. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, back in the trunk, there’s an AR15 and a shotgun.
That’s about it.”
“Mr. Smith, are you on your way to or from a gun range…?”
“Nope.”
“Well then, what are you afraid of…?”
“Not a damn thing…”
An Internet First
I rarely link to Mark Whittington’s site, but I think that this is history making. He has finally revealed one of his previously imaginary friends in his “Internet Rocketeer’s Club.” In this case, finally, it’s not imaginary.
I don’t think I really deserve the honor though, unlike Mark, I do know something about rocketry, having actually done it for a living. I also know about launch costs, economics, policy, politics, history, grammar, spelling, HTML, and many other things of which Mark seems innocent. But I hope I’ll get a secret decoder ring soon.
Notes On “Plymouth Rock”
Jon Goff attended an interesting meeting at SwRI last week.
While a dual-Orion mission may be doable for a two-person crew, I still think that it’s more of a stunt than a serious mission, and I actually question the value of sending people to a NEO early, other than to demonstrate and practice deep-space capability. I’d also send an “armada” of two. I’m not sure you get sufficient redundancy from a single dual-Orion mission, due to potential common cause for the two docked vehicles. With two separate “ships” flying in a loose formation, you’d have a lot more depth in safety.
Of course, Orions won’t be cheap. Maybe Dragons instead. Then you’d get the bonus of having an asteroid map with the words, “Here be Dragons…” 🙂
But as Bigelow said, what you really want is an expandable habitat, and just take the capsule along for the entry, as (I suggested to Keith Reiley at Boeing yesterday on the phone) a motor home drags a car along for short excursions. Also, I can’t speak to what Boeing plans, but if I were them, I’d be scarring CST for deep space.
[Update a while later]
Now that I think about it, if you really want to eliminate common cause (other than a major solar flare), your armada would consist of a CST-based craft, an Orion-based craft (if you could afford it) and a Dragon-based craft.
More Dragon Commentary
…from Henry Spencer. With some Mercury history, for the NASA worshipers.
For Zombie Fans
Or, better yet, zombie haters, here’s sixty-nine seconds of non-stop zombie slaughter.
Oh, the unhumanity.
Where is Unhuman Rights Watch? Aren’t zombies people, too? This is worse than Pol Pot.
[Via Jonah]
My Life With Jessica
Described here. Though she’s not quite as creative. Generally, she sleeps on the desk by the monitor, and when she wants food, she walks over the keyboard, sits on the edge, and reaches out to tap me on the face with a paw. Also, I’ve noticed that she doesn’t want food so much as attention and service. She’ll complain, even when there’s still food in the bowl, and demand that I add more. I don’t have to add a lot more, but I have to go through the motions.
Year Of The Dragon
I have an editorial up at Launch Space today. Unfortunately, there is no permalink. It’s at the top right now, but in the future, you’ll have to scroll down to the December 12th entry.
Nothing New Here
The home team loses in Detroit, as usual.