It is an absurdly low-cost rocket.
As Gwynne often says, “I don’t know how to make a rocket cost $400M.”
[Friday noon update]
Thoughts from Bob Zubrin on what this means for the moon and Mars.
Category Archives: Business
Forget Boston Dynamics
Climate And Libel
Some thoughts on Michael Mann, the lawsuits, and the sad state of climate science, from Judith Curry.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Terrible: By awarding Mann as super-communicator, the AAAS is telling us that engaging in hyper-partisan gutter politics, targeted against Republicans and colleagues you disagree with, using unethical tactics is great.https://t.co/zA2HJF0tB3
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) February 15, 2018
Colonizing The Moon
I agree that we have the tech to do this affordably, but I strenuously disagree with this:
The activities at this moon base would be focusing on science, as is the case in the Antarctic. It could provide an official U.S. government presence on the moon, and its motivation would be rooted in U.S. national policy—again as are the U.S. Antarctic bases.
To the degree that the focus should be on “science,” it should be about better learning how to live on the moon, and Antarctica is a terrible precedent, in that we aren’t allowed to exploit it for its resources. That’s also why the Outer Space Treaty itself, which was modeled on the Antarctic Treaty, is a problem.
Trump’s Infrastructure Plan
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
It’s always more fun to build new stuff than to maintain it. I discovered when I arrived late at DCA last week that the Metro isn’t running past 11:30 PM, probably so they can finally do long-needed maintenance on it. It’s long been a system run more for its employees than its passengers.
Four Megaprojects
I just finished an essay on space visions, including Krafft Ehricke. I forgot to include lunettas and solettas, but I’ll get a chance to take another whack at it, since it’s been delayed until the spring issue of The New Atlantis.
Falcon Heavy Launch Reporting
Here‘s Loren Grush’s account (I finally met her briefly in person there).
Gwynne Shotwell
Congratulations, she’s deservedly been named Satellite Executive of the Year. She is Elon’s secret weapon.
The NASA Budget
Eric Berger has looked at it, and (unsurprisingly) the Trump administration seems to be in no hurry to get back to the moon. The NASA budget is going to become increasingly irrelevant in the next few years.
[Update a while later]
Dick Eagleson wonders not only if SLS’s days are numbered, but just how low the number is?
SLS, as currently envisioned, is a farce. Its development has been glacial and insanely expensive. It plows absolutely no significant new technological ground. It will be slow and insanely expensive to build. It is entirely expendable. Its associated spacecraft, Orion, is, at best, a Moon-craft, lacking heat shielding sufficient to withstand an Earth return from any significantly more distant point and, in any case, having life support capability for only 12 person-weeks of continuous occupancy.
But other than that, it’s great.
Last week’s launch was a major temblor, I think.
[Update early afternoon]
Here‘s Christian Davenport’s story (I saw him at the launch last week).
[Tuesday-morning update]
Katherine Mangu-Ward: It’s not a crazy idea to privatize the ISS.
Giant Rockets
Thoughts from Elon earlier in the week.
How Elon Musk wants to change space travel pic.twitter.com/KTDbbZmEuz
— The Verge (@verge) February 10, 2018