Tanya Harrison has the story. As always, a reminder that people who want to settle Mars should hope that we don’t find life there.
Category Archives: Space
A To-Do List For Bridenstine
Some advice from Scott Hubbard. But here is the problem:
…the new administrator must provide NASA and the rest of the world much more clarity on the brief statement issued by Vice President Pence and the newly revived Space Council that the United States will “lead the return of humans to the Moon.” Studies of the future of human space exploration have for decades emphasized that Mars is the target of greatest interest for reasons of science and exploration.1–4 The last initiative that attempted to include both human landings on the Moon and eventually Mars, the so-called Constellation program, collapsed from its own budgetary (over) weight.
Two points: First, the assumption that human spaceflight is about “science and exploration.” I’ve written about this error at length. Second is the notion that Constellation collapsed because it was attempting to do both the Mars and moon. It wasn’t seriously trying to do either. NASA wasn’t seriously trying to do either.
End Of An Era
Georg von Tiesenhausen died on Sunday, at the age of 104. He was the last of von Braun’s rocket team. Amazing that he lived so long after what he went through in his youth.
Boeing’s Imaginary Space Program
Keith Cowing is a cruel man, but fair.
Ted Cruz And Space
Politico has an interview with him.
LOP-G
I agree that it’s probably the best we can do under current political circumstances, but if that’s the case, we should stop wasting taxpayer money on human spaceflight.
Star Wars
Stephen Green has some thoughts on how to save it.
I’ve never been enough of a Star Wars fan to care whether it lives or dies. I would note, though, that $40M went a lot farther four decades ago than it would today.
My Interview On The Space Show
I was on last Monday; it’s been archived.
And sorry for light posting, but last week (and weekend) was wall-to-wall space conferences, between Space Tech Expo in Pasadena, and ISDC by LAX. And now I have three weeks to write a proposal for the LEO Commercialization NASA Research Announcement that came out the week before.
And Then There Were Four
Alan Bean has left the earth for the last time.
I just saw Buzz last night at the ISDC awards ceremony, which was probably the most encouraging in the history of that meeting, in which (amid saving The Expanse for another season, with many of the cast and production crew present) Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, laid out his vision for humanity in space that was shared by all in that room. There will be a party tonight, and I don’t think the organization will have had a more joyous one in its history. It was fitting that it occurred in the very same hotel where the very first conference was held, thirty-seven years ago.
Trump’s Commercial Space Policy
A White House press release.