There’s a good article at The Space Review today on the pros and cons of L-1 versus L-2 as a stepping stone for operations on the moon and points far beyond cis-lunar space. I tend to favor L-1 myself, for the travel-time reasons, but there are good arguments to be made both ways. Eventually, I would expect the market to sort it out, and there will probably be facilities at both locations.
Category Archives: Economics
Heavy-Lift Pork
Thoughts on the current NASA mess from Ric Locke.
Earth Hour In London
A first-hand report on the Marching Morons, from Mark Steyn:
The money-no-object Metropolitan Police had helicopters whirring non-stop over Central London during today’s mass hallucination (they’re still overhead as I write), but, as usual, not a lot of competent policing on the ground. As is their wont, they did little to prevent property damage – or the general intimidation of visitors to the capital by so-called “anarchists” (an odd term for pro-government welfare-funded thugs).
An odd term indeed.
[Late Sunday evening update]
More thoughts on the oxymoron of leftist “anarchists.”
Heavy-Lift Follies
Keith Cowing, Marcia Smith and Jeff Foust all have reports on General Bolden’s comments yesterday, some of which were in response to questions from Keith. I would note (as Jeff does) that Congress doesn’t want a vehicle sized in metric tons — it asked for one in tons. NASA seems to have confused this issue by sizing in MT, and now Keith and Marcia are stating that as though it’s the requirement. But that oversizes the system considerably, as I noted in my satirical but sadly accurate robot theater a few weeks ago.
No Kidding
Our tax code is corrupt.
Government Worship
Taken to new heights, by “no one messes with” Joe Biden. Matt Welch eviscerates accordingly.
Dampening The Asteroid Mining Market
Behold: a carbon-nanotube catalyst that’s over six hundred times more effective than platinum.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sorry, that was sloppy. More cost-effective (that is, cheaper) than platinum, not six hundred times better as a catalyst.
This Explains So Much
According to noted exobiologist Hugo Chavez, life on Mars was destroyed by capitalism.
Time To End The Fed?
It’s worth thinking about.
Solving The Real Problem
One of the most bizarre aspects of contemporary space policy is the degree to which the policy establishment has completely thrown in the towel on reducing the cost of access to orbit, as exemplified by the Senate Launch System. Stewart Money lays out the technical issues on the off chance that the community will come to its senses and decide that this is an important goal.