For people interested in non-terrestrial life, this should be a higher priority than Europa. It’s farther away, but a much more benign radiation environment.
Category Archives: Space
Buzz
Emilee Speck got the court documents. As someone who’s known them all for years, this is very sad.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s a statement from Christina:
Personal Statement by Christina Korp @Buzzs_xtina regarding article about @TheRealBuzz lawsuit in the @WSJ pic.twitter.com/okyW8aztvY
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) June 25, 2018
[Wednesday-morning update]
Here’s the latest, from Chris Davenport.
[Bumped]
[Late-morning update]
Marina Koren has more at The Atlantic.
Space Force
There’s been a lot of stupid talk about Trump’s announcement at the Space Council meeting. Here’s some smarter discussion.
[Noon update]
Here’s Eric Berger’s take. The bureaucracy will fight it.
[Friday update late morning]
Here’s a pretty good history and context, for those unfamiliar.
[Bumped]
The Risk Of Spaceflight
A new paper assessing spaceflight mortality. Not sure how useful it is, given the admitted paucity of data.
[Update a few minutes later]
When a Mars simulation goes wrong. Yes, we have a lot to learn before we go to other planets, and even then, people will die, often in terrible ways. Part of the answer is that we have to be more ambitious about how many we send. Six simply isn’t enough.
SpaceShipOne
It’s the fourteenth anniversary of its first space flight. Here’s a blog post I wrote in Mojave the evening before.
And fourteen years later, not a single passenger has flown in this flawed concept. https://t.co/fi4iBuTH7b
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) June 21, 2018
[Update a while later]
The future ain’t what it used to be: Space tourism edition.
I do think though, that with Blue Origin getting ready to start test-passenger flights, it’s finally arriving.
No, Donald
You did not “reopen NASA.” You make yourself look like a fool to anyone who knows what’s going on, but that’s not your base.
Big Falcon Rockets
…are falcon big. This is a cool video to give you a sense of scale.
Mark Sundahl
He’s going to be on The Space Show in a few minutes (2 PM PDT), talking about space law and space property rights. I’ll be interested to hear what he has to say.
BTW, just turned in the proposal to NASA this morning, so I’m sort of decompressing.
[Update a few minutes later]
Welp, five minutes past, and so far he’s a no show.
[Update a couple minutes later]
OK, sounds like they’re about to start now.
[Update toward the end]
Nice to hear him endorse the multilat idea I’ve been (and will continue to be) promoting.
Freeman Dyson
An interesting interview of one of the most fascinating men of the 20th century. I saw him at ISDC, and he is holding up well mentally, though he’s been physically frail for decades.
[Wednesday-afternoon update]
Well, the comments have certainly drifted on this one.
The New Astronauts
Chris Davenport has an in-depth story on the coming age of American human spaceflight. I’d note that in the future, one will not need to learn to speak Russian to go into space. That will be a relic of a happily bygone era.