Guest blogger Sam Dinkin has a couple pieces at The Space Review today–an interview with Dave Criswell, co-inventor of the Lunar Power System (Bob Waldron, who used to work for me at Rockwell, is the other co-inventor), and an assessment of the global implications for the development of such a system.
I have to confess to being an LPS skeptic, but DoE has wasted a lot more money on a lot less promising things. In any event, the key to making any of these things happen, whatever their technological feasibility level, remains the cost of access to space.
One of the most hilarious things that I found about the Florida voting fiasco in 2000 was the Democrats’ cheerful willingness to advance the proposition that uninformed morons, unable to read a ballot or punch a hole all the way through a flimsy piece of cardboard, were a key (in fact, apparently essential) part of their constituency (a notion that I mercilessly mocked a couple years ago). Shamelessly, and utterly innocent of how foolish it makes them look, they’re apparently still at it.
Those who read the byline on the last three posts will notice that I have a guest blogger, Sam Dinkin. Sam is a regular contributor to The Space Review, but wants to start publishing (on both space, and other topics) more than once a week. So if the rate of new content picks up noticeably in the next few days, that will be why.
On page 722 he describes one NASA manager as an “incompetent jerk engineer”. On page 710 Binder refers to another NASA manager as a “arrogant, fat little bastard” and after repeating this compliment dozens of times, adds “pompous” to his tirade on page 728. On page 421 he refers to someone else as a “back stabbing SOB”. And so on. If I spent 5 more minutes I am sure I’d find more examples of gratuitous name calling.
Sounds like an editor was in order–in fact, badly needed. This is a shame, as I’d previously had a pretty high opinion of Dr. Binder.
Partial solar eclipse this afternoon. I’ll have one of the best views in the US, if the weather clears. It should be about 45% occlusion in Palm Beach County.
I was too busy to comment at the time, but when I saw this post at NASA Watch the other day, I said “Huh?”
In recent days [Courtney] Stadd has made it known to people that he would be interested in the position of Deputy Administrator – if asked.
My own sources indicate that Courtney could have had the administrator job, back before O’Keefe was picked, but didn’t want it because he couldn’t afford to take it, and didn’t want to become as consumed with it as he’d have had to in order to even hope to straighten out the agency. So why would he now be interested in playing second banana to Mike Griffin, when the workload would be just as high, and the pay and authority less? As Keith notes, however, Courtney has denied it (as I would have expected).
I was too busy to comment at the time, but when I saw this post at NASA Watch the other day, I said “Huh?”
In recent days [Courtney] Stadd has made it known to people that he would be interested in the position of Deputy Administrator – if asked.
My own sources indicate that Courtney could have had the administrator job, back before O’Keefe was picked, but didn’t want it because he couldn’t afford to take it, and didn’t want to become as consumed with it as he’d have had to in order to even hope to straighten out the agency. So why would he now be interested in playing second banana to Mike Griffin, when the workload would be just as high, and the pay and authority less? As Keith notes, however, Courtney has denied it (as I would have expected).
I was too busy to comment at the time, but when I saw this post at NASA Watch the other day, I said “Huh?”
In recent days [Courtney] Stadd has made it known to people that he would be interested in the position of Deputy Administrator – if asked.
My own sources indicate that Courtney could have had the administrator job, back before O’Keefe was picked, but didn’t want it because he couldn’t afford to take it, and didn’t want to become as consumed with it as he’d have had to in order to even hope to straighten out the agency. So why would he now be interested in playing second banana to Mike Griffin, when the workload would be just as high, and the pay and authority less? As Keith notes, however, Courtney has denied it (as I would have expected).