The National Space Society has come out with a policy paper on it. I haven’t read it yet, but it should be a useful reference for those who continue to confuse it and the Space Corps/Force.
Category Archives: Space
A Third Of A Century
Today is my birthday, which also means that it’s the anniversary of the loss of the Challenger and its crew (and the beginning of the long drawn-out end of the Shuttle program). Hard to believe it’s been that long.
Light And Scattered Blogging
We’re closing on the house (just signed yesterday, and should get funds next week) and Monday’s my birthday (and the 33rd anniversary of the Challenger loss), so we’re splurging on a trip to Vegas this weekend. Be good in comments.
Space Policy
This anti-business piece is sort of a mess:
Indeed, legislation has been proposed in Congress since the UAG was formed that promotes the Council’s professed goals of expedition, streamlining, and commercial dominance, and it enjoys bipartisan support from lawmakers representing “states and districts where aerospace technology plays a significant role in the local economy,” according to an analysis from Daily Kos. This shared financial interest has brought together far-right, anti-science legislators like Ted Cruz and Lamar Smith in co-sponsorship with Democrats from states with aerospace-heavy economies. [Emphasis mine]
The premise is that space is supposed to be about science, but that has never been true. And as Mark Whittington pointed out on Twitter, it wasn’t Ted Cruz or Lamar Smith who were running ads blasting their opponents for supporting a mission to Europa.
Jeff’s Space Colonies
The impending divorce doesn’t seem to have dampened his vision. Speaking of Blue Origin, apparently this morning’s New Shepard flight was a complete success.
Rover Update
Bob Zimmerman has the latest in activity on both the moon and Mars. Looks like we’ve lost an Opportunity, so to speak.
The Stainless-Steel Starship
I would note, though, that the idea of transpiration cooling has been around for a long time. It’s just never been implemented. But I guess what he’s saying has never been proposed before is the structure also serving as heat shield.
[Update a while later]
New Glenn has been redesigned. Looks like the upper stage is expendable.
Looks like they were inspired in part by Falcon 9. It’s interesting that we’re starting to see spacecraft designs converging, as aircraft designs did in the thirties.
Star Trek Discovery
I haven’t seen it, but it looks like the first season was dreadful, because it had to be woke.
The End Of Rockets?
No, Futurism:
All that essential, but not actually useful, extra weight jacks up the cost of a mission. Falcon Heavy launches cost $1.2 million USD per ton of payload. Again, that’s a crazy improvement from earlier missions, but that many zeros on a space mission mean these launches will stay out-of-reach for consumers or smaller companies.
No one outside of SpaceX knows what Falcon Heavy costs (and that depends on whether you mean average cost or marginal cost).
And then there is the environmental cost. These souped-up rockets use more fuel, and Falcon rockets rely on what’s basically kerosene and oxygen. Per launch, the carbon these missions spew isn’t that much. But if space flight frequency reaches the twice a month threshold that SpaceX is aiming for, experts think the overall carbon output could reach 4,400 tons a year. If every private space company chimes in with their own launch emissions, that number could climb dramatically.
Not everyone uses kerosene. Blue Origin (and ULA) plan to use liquid natural gas (mostly methane), which has much lower carbon content. And they both plan LOX/LH2 upper stages, whose exhaust is water. And even at a hundred times that amount, it would continue to be dwarfed by the airline industry.
There are also all the potential atmospheric impacts that we don’t understand very well. Burning rocket fuel emits soot and a chemical called alumina, and scientists have started to study how these molecules break down our ozone layer, something we’ve been working hard to restore over several decades.
Again, not all rocket fuel. Methane will produce almost no soot, and hydrogen none. And only solid rockets emit alumina, and only ULA plans to use them (OK, well, NASA will have them on SLS, if it ever flies, but it will hardly ever fly).
No, it will be a long time, if ever, before we need space elevators, even if they’re technical feasible and practical.
Blue Origin
Next New Shepard flight is now scheduled for Monday. I wonder what the delay has been about? In 2017, they said they’d be flying people in 2018.