Category Archives: Space

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society

At Smallsat

3 Comments

This is my first trip to this venerable conference, which for decades was held in Logan, UT, where the university there, Utah State, was a hotbed of this developing technology as a result of innovative faculty. This year it’s at the convention center in Salt Lake City, and it’s huge, as would befit this burgeoning industry. There’s a cavernous exhibit hall with hundreds of exhibitors.

My concern is that the industry may be in a bubble. I’m seeing several vendors for some of the technologies, and it’s not clear to me that they’ll all survive, or how they’ll compete. But that’s the dynamic nature of new tech.

History, Space, Space History

Jim Lovell

17 Comments

I think there are only five left, four of whom walked on the Moon. Lovell was the only one who circled it twice, but never set foot on it. It’s getting increasingly possible that they’ll all be gone before another person does, thanks to Congress and feckless administrations over the decades.

[Update a while later]

Bob Zimmerman has an obituary.

[Saturday-afternoon update]

Here’s the obit from the New York Times. I don’t think this is right, though: “In a nation battered by domestic turmoil and devastated by Vietnam War casualties, the safe return of the astronauts lifted American spirits and renewed attention to the space program, which had drifted in the aftermath of the first two manned landings on the moon.”

Not really. In fact, it was a wake-up call that if they continued to do lunar missions, it was not unlikely that they would lose a crew, and Apollo 13 was part of the impetus to not fly 18 and 19.

Business, History, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society, War Commentary

Trump’s Second-Term Space Policy

19 Comments

Yes, it’s an ongoing mess.

[Wednesday-morning update]

Yes, putting a nuclear reactor (in fact, several of them) on the Moon is a great idea, but it’s out of context with the policy mess. If we want to put reactors on the Moon, we have to come up with a scalable, affordable transportation infrastructure to get not only them, but lots of things there. We don’t currently have one, and no one in the administration seems to be concerned about it.

Administrative, General, Health, Space

Light Blogging

15 Comments

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I had a hernia repaired a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been having some post-surgery complications. I’ve also been writing an op-ed for the WSJ, and answers to FAQs for the Reason project. We’re going to Vegas on Monday for the AIAA ASCEND meeting, where we’ll be all week.

For those concerned, though, I should be fully recovered and back up to speed by next weekend.

[Monday-morning update]

Driving to Vegas today for AIAA/ASCEND. I’ll try to check in during the week from there.

[Bumped]