Category Archives: Technology and Society

Why NASA Human Spaceflight?

Jeff Foust writes that that’s the question the media should be asking of the presidential campaigns. I agree; until we know why we’re doing it, it’s not possible to come up with sensible way of how to do it.

And this is an interesting parenthetical:

…perhaps, the answer would be not to spend the money at all: in the mid-2000s, the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative members of the House of Representatives, proposed cutting funding for President George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration as part of a broader set of spending cuts. The chairman of the committee at the time? Then-Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, now Trump’s running mate.

Though there’s no requirement that it be the case, historically, the vice president has generally been responsible for space policy (going back to Johnson), though that has been much less the case in the second Bush and Obama administrations (thankfully, in the case of the latter).

On The Tarmac

Been in DC since Monday night, and we were supposed to fly to Fort Lauderdale tonight to return to work on the house to sell it. The flight was delayed an hour from DCA, and the place was a madhouse with weather-delayed and canceled flights all over the northeast. They finally switched us to a different gate, in a different concourse, involving a bus ride, and we finally got underway.

As we approached the beginning of the runway, the pilot announced that FAA had rescinded clearance for our route just as we were about to take off, and would update us in half an hour. We’re now sitting out here with engines shut down (presumably powered by APUs, so at least we have air and power.

Sigh.

[Update half an hour later]

The update half an hour later was that there would be another update in half an hour. #YayAmericanAir

[Late evening update]

In case anyone was worried, we did finally get clearance. Just landed in FLL, almost three hours later than scheduled.

Lunar Heart Disease

Does going to the moon increase risk of heart attacks?

I can’t tell from this study, because I consider it insufficiently controlled. For instance, they don’t say what generation they pulled the data from. A sixty-year old today is likely to be in a different state of health than one from thirty years ago. For all I know, the Apollo astronauts got their heart attacks from terrible dietary advice in the seventies, as my father did.

A Penetrating Critique Of Reusable Launch Systems

…from people who currently make good money building expendable launch systems.

In other news, the Buggy Whip Manufacturers Association saw no future in these newfangled “horseless carriages.”

[Update a while later]

Bob Zimmerman has some thoughts on the lie that is Orion, while Eric Berger discusses the GAO concerns about its programmatics.