General Science

Traveling To Phoenix


I’ve always been fascinated by how quickly the flora can change in just a short distance. Driving to Phoenix from LA on Thursday, I shot this picture of a saguaro–the first one I saw on the trip (forgive the quality–I shot it from a moving car, and cropped it from a much larger photo). It was just a few miles east of the California/Arizona border (and accordingly just a few miles east of the Colorado River). I’ve never seen a saguaro in California–they seem to know where the state border is, at least at this latitude.

This is the transition region from the desolate Colorado Desert (the low desert south of the Mojave that encompasses much of non-coastal non-mountainous southern California) and the beautiful and cactus-filled Sonoran Desert, of which the saguaro cactus is emblematic. It doesn’t seem to be the river itself that demarks it–you don’t see the cactus until you start to climb up into the hills just east of it, out of Blythe. Apparently it’s a combination of longitude and altitude, though as you get farther east and south, toward Tucson where the national monuments are, the suitable altitude can vary considerably.

I’m still going to post on the conference itself, but this is the only picture that came out well, other than one of Jim Muncy. I didn’t have enough light from the distance I was at with my little two megapixel Nikon.

Political Commentary

Is Kerry Troughing Too Soon?

It’s almost become a cliche in politics about a candidate peaking too soon, but the opposite seems to be happening to Kerry, at least from the standpoint of the Republicans. If it were really true that this were part of the Republican Attack Machine™ they wouldn’t be instigating the medal meltdown now–they’d wait until after the convention, when it’s too late.

There’s a serious danger that the Dems may abandon Kerry if he’s tanking too much in late spring, and replace him with a serious candidate (e.g., Lieberman or Biden). In fact, I wonder if the current medal feeding frenzy means that the press has decided that Kerry doesn’t have a chance, and they’re turning on him now in the hopes that they can make it happen.

On the other hand, given the internecine state of the party, it’s not clear that they can really come up with a better one at this point. Hillary might be eyeing it, but I think that her negatives remain too high to win. People may have forgotten her shady past by 2008, but not yet.

[Update]

Here’s an example of Donkey enthusiasm for their candidate (warning: language).

Space

Don’t Try This In LEO, Robots

In the midst of an article in which he recommends that the administration encourage the Chinese to race us to the moon, Dwayne Day writes: “There is nothing that a human can do in low Earth orbit, other than the study of other humans, that a robot cannot do better.”

I hope that he didn’t give very much thought to that statement, because it’s demonstrably untrue. Could a robot have done this better? How about this? Or especially this, which happened over three decades ago?

I doubt that we have the robotic capability today to do those things, let alone at the time. Dwayne can argue if he likes that they weren’t worth doing (I would disagree in all cases, especially in the case of Skylab), but to say that there’s nothing that robots can’t do better than humans in LEO is…mistaken.

Interestingly, of course, this is being discussed as an alternate means to save Hubble, but it will clearly be a technical challenge, and it’s not being done because it’s a better way, but because NASA is unwilling to send a crew.

Space

Don’t Try This In LEO, Robots

In the midst of an article in which he recommends that the administration encourage the Chinese to race us to the moon, Dwayne Day writes: “There is nothing that a human can do in low Earth orbit, other than the study of other humans, that a robot cannot do better.”

I hope that he didn’t give very much thought to that statement, because it’s demonstrably untrue. Could a robot have done this better? How about this? Or especially this, which happened over three decades ago?

I doubt that we have the robotic capability today to do those things, let alone at the time. Dwayne can argue if he likes that they weren’t worth doing (I would disagree in all cases, especially in the case of Skylab), but to say that there’s nothing that robots can’t do better than humans in LEO is…mistaken.

Interestingly, of course, this is being discussed as an alternate means to save Hubble, but it will clearly be a technical challenge, and it’s not being done because it’s a better way, but because NASA is unwilling to send a crew.

Space

Don’t Try This In LEO, Robots

In the midst of an article in which he recommends that the administration encourage the Chinese to race us to the moon, Dwayne Day writes: “There is nothing that a human can do in low Earth orbit, other than the study of other humans, that a robot cannot do better.”

I hope that he didn’t give very much thought to that statement, because it’s demonstrably untrue. Could a robot have done this better? How about this? Or especially this, which happened over three decades ago?

I doubt that we have the robotic capability today to do those things, let alone at the time. Dwayne can argue if he likes that they weren’t worth doing (I would disagree in all cases, especially in the case of Skylab), but to say that there’s nothing that robots can’t do better than humans in LEO is…mistaken.

Interestingly, of course, this is being discussed as an alternate means to save Hubble, but it will clearly be a technical challenge, and it’s not being done because it’s a better way, but because NASA is unwilling to send a crew.

Space

Back From Phoenix

But there’s a lot of non-blogging stuff to catch up on. I’ll try to get a post and pics up of the conference in the next day or two, but no promises. Bottom line–there’re lots of exciting things happening, and the days that NASA dominates manned spaceflight are looking increasingly numbered.

Space

XCOR Gets Their Ticket To Suborbit

Thanks to Michael Mealling, I’ve got connectivity enough to announce that the FAA presented XCOR with their launch license this morning, at the Space Access Conference. It was the 180th day after completion of their licence application submittal, so they brought it in under the wire.

More later, but further details can be found at Michael’s wiki. Up to the minute pictures are also available on the wiki page.

[Update on Sunday evening]

If you haven’t seen it, Alan Boyle, who was in attendance with me (and who I greatly enjoyed meeting), has a more extensive story.

Space

More Non-Posting Excuses

As though I wasn’t busy enough, I find this at NASA Watch (I also heard about it from a friend at Boeing).

White papers are invited that address initial challenges facing Project Constellation and Project Prometheus in general, and the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) in particular. Enclosed are the key focus area, issues, and suggested white paper topics. White papers that examine one or more of the topics are invited. Papers that address other important aspects (in a manner consistent with the information requested below) are also welcome. Viable white papers should be consistent with the January 14, 2004, U.S. Space Exploration Vision, as well as with generally accepted laws of physics. Innovative approaches

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!