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
Category Archives: Economics
Sea-Level-Rise Acceleration
Judith Curry’s latest thoughts (this is part of a series, to be continued).
The more times goes on, the less concerned I get about climate change (not that it may not change for the worse — that’s always a possibility — but in the sense that we really understand and can predict it). For example, consider the Iceland event of 1783. If that happened today, it would be much larger than anything we’ve been doing with CO2, and it’s entirely unpredictable.
As always, our best bet is to get as wealthy as possible so we’ll have the resources to deal with whatever the future holds. Instead the climate alarmists advocate polices that make energy needlessly more expensive (and hence everything more expensive, inhibiting economic growth).
[Update late afternoon]
Judith’s weekly climate roundup, which is usually interesting.
Space Transportation Conference
I’m tweeting about it, which is a better way of rapid updating than blogging, and it gets a lot more views. So…
[Update a while later]
Meanwhile, SpaceX will be testing elements of BFR next year.
Also, the failed center corefirst stage that they failed to expend from the previous Falcon 9 launch couldn’t be safely recovered, so the Air Force scuttled it with an air strike.
Yes, as per comments, I screwed up in the middle of listening to a talk on launch regulations at the same time.
Tesla
Elon is still having manufacturing problems.
I frankly don’t care. I wish he’d just focus on space.
Falcon Heavy
SpaceX’s plans, from Falcon 1 to Falcon 5, to Dragonlab, and perhaps now this, tend to outpace their accomplishments. And that’s a good thing.
[Update a few minutes later]
A preview of the flight.
Only pad 39A is outfitted for crew flights, which are expected to start later this year (an ambitious timeline, according to the Government Accountability Office). Should the Falcon Heavy damage 39A, how will that affect NASA’s commercial crew program, which has been waiting to launch astronauts from American soil since 2011? It’s a fair question, and you can bet NASA officials will be watching this demo flight with clenched teeth.
Maybe, but with the successful static fire, I don’t think it should be as big a concern.
The Tax Bill
No, sorry, blue states, you can’t fix it.
This may be one of the most consequential things of Trump’s presidency. So far, anyway.
The Latest On SpaceX
Chris Bergin has the story. As he notes, the company is clearing out its inventory of previous-block boosters.
[Update a while later]
Hearing that they’re targeting 13:30 on February 6th for the launch attempt. That’s cutting it close to when I have to fly up to DC.
Want To See A Stupid Piece On Space?
Here is a stupid piece on space.
I don’t even know where to begin.
Example: Try to logically parse this sentence:
"A NASA spokesperson confirmed to Salon that those contracts have a fixed maximum value, yet the companies get their payments when they achieve milestones."
What does "yet" mean in this context?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) January 21, 2018
On the other hand, this is a good antidote to the idiocy.
The Latest ASAP Report
I haven’t gotten around to reading it, but Bob Zimmerman has, and he’s not impressed.
The NYC Climate Lawsuit
Bill DeBlasio is suing oil companies for creating bad weather. Ross McKitrick points out what are no doubt only a few of the lies and BS in the filing.