SpaceX claims that it has redesigned the satellites to ensure that they’ll burn up in the atmosphere.
Hopefully at end of life, and not on the way up. Seriously, if true, this is good housekeeping.
Category Archives: Space
More Boeing Delays
Looking a lot like SpaceX is going to get the flag at the ISS this year. And between this, the 737 Max, and SLS, Boeing is having a really bad year.
Brazil’s Cursed Spaceport
Can Alcantara be salvaged?
No Sunk-Cost Fallacy Here
Going all in on stainless steel for the new spaceship, SpaceX has scrapped its composite tooling.
The SLS Saga
Over at The Space Review, Jeff Foust has the story on last week’s events.
[Update a few minutes later]
Also over there a sort of debate on the pros and cons of NASA’s approach to getting back to the moon. I’d note that Hedman’s objection to transpiration cooling is both weak (in the sense that even if Starship was expended, it would still deliver more payload for much less money than SLS ever will) and moot, since Elon has stated that with the steel and standard thermal protection, they may only use it in areas that are scorched when they return.
The Younger Dryas
It was apparently much worse than we thought:
As Kennett noted in a recent article in The Current (a university press maintained by UCSB), the crater would have led to widespread destruction, characterized by biomass burning, megafaunal extinctions and global cooling. “It’s much more extreme than I ever thought when I started this work,” he said. “The more work that has been done, the more extreme it seems.”
The discovery was made possible by a Chilean group of scientists who were studying sediment layers at the well-know Quaternary paleontological and archaeological site, known as Pilauco Bajo. Years ago, these scientists recognized changes in the sediment record that were associated with the YDB impact event.These included a “black mat” layer that coincides with the disappearance of South American megafauna fossils and human artifacts dated to the Pleistocene (12,800 years ago), indicating a severe shift in the climate. This was a major find since the vast majority of evidence for the YDB Impact has been found in the northern hemisphere.
Imagine that happening today. And here we’re obsessing over two degrees Celsius.
Better get moving on that vital SLS, so we can protect ourselves. #NotReally
NASA’s “Inability” To Do Space Assembly
A righteous Twitter rant from Phil Metzger:
Follow the thread. He lambastes the Alabama delegation, and how this actually harmed Alabama. He’s right. It’s tragic.
Cave Systems On Mars
Bob Zimmerman thinks that this is very significant to settling the Red Planet.
EM-1
More reporting on Bridenstine’s announcement from last week, from Ken Chang at the NYT, and from Jonathan Callaghan at Forbes, the latter of which contains several quotes from Your’s Truly.
The Overview Effect
Loren Grush scored an interview with Beth Moses about her recent trip to space.
I’m always amused at people who say that no one will want to do this twice, or that the market is limited. The only real limit to the market is the affordability.