The GAO has issued a new report. I haven’t read it yet.
Category Archives: Space
The Philosophical Divide In Space
Go read this whole thread.
So Trump's science advisor says they are stripping NASA's earth sci division so they can focus on "exploration" ie colonization of space
— Dr. Chanda ?? (@IBJIYONGI) November 23, 2016
On record, @DNLee5 and I told y'all that white supremacist capitalists had a vision of "exploration" in mind and it was NOT Star Trek
— Dr. Chanda ?? (@IBJIYONGI) November 23, 2016
As I wrote a year and a half ago:
…we have to be ready for that debate. There is a moral case to be made for settling space by humanity, warts and all, and we have to be prepared to make it.
I think that many in the space community underestimate the depth of this cultural divide. And they’ve already deployed the race card against human expansion into the solar system.
SLS/Orion
This is almost comical, or would be if it wasn’t such a tragic waste:
In an interview this summer, the engineer who oversees the development of SLS and Orion for NASA, Bill Hill, acknowledged that the vehicles were too costly now to be practical. “We’re just way too expensive today,” Hill told Ars. “It’s going to take some different thinking and maybe a little bit more risk taking than what we’re wanting to do today.”
Gee, if only someone had warned them about this. Or if only insane NASA boosters had realized that how much things cost really does matter.
Star Trek And Battlestar Galactica
How they can teach the US Navy how to defeat China.
Ummmmm…OK.
Trump And NASA
Eric Berger discusses the possibilities for NASA administrator. I think that going with Scott would be the conventional choice, which would belie Trump’s stated desire to “drain the swamp,” but then, I’ve never believed any of Trump’s promises. I’m a little disturbed by the fact that Bob Walker seems to be no longer involved. I wonder what happened there?
[Update a few minutes later]
@Rand_Simberg I believe Walker is out because of Pence's purge of lobbyists.
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) November 17, 2016
[Update a while later]
More thoughts from Keith Cowing. TL;DR: He thinks Scott would be a better choice than Bridenstine. FWIW.
Risk In Space
A blog post with the European perspective, from Jan Woerner. It’s almost as though he read my book.
Alpha Centauri
I think this is the future of space science.
Trump, And Space
I was on The Space Show yesterday discussing this, but Marcia Smith has a good rundown.
The subject of fueling the Falcon while crew was aboard is mentioned there, and it came up on the show yesterday. I need to write something up on this, but my take is the usual one. It’s probably saf(er) to load crew after propellant has been loaded, but it’s not at all obvious to me that doing it with them on board is sufficiently unsafe to justify the extra cost/time. As always, the notion of “human rating” is nonsense, there is no single correct level of safety. It depends on the purpose of the mission. I’d let the astronauts decide (knowing that they will know that if they won’t accept the risk, they probably won’t fly, because others will).
Mars
Bob Zubrin reviews Ron Howard’s National Geographic series, and Elon Musk.
Patricia and I had dinner with Leonard and Barbara David Saturday night in Austin. He’s on a book tour for NatGeo for his new book that accompanies the series.
A Trump Space Program
I don’t understand where this talk about a return of Mike Griffin is coming from. I’d be very surprised if either Bob Walker or Mark Albrecht would recommend that.
[Update a few minutes later]
Not space related, but here is a report on potential cabinet members. Needless to say, I’m not as hair on fire as Jerry Coyne is. Bolton would be a good choice for Secretary of State. I think that Corker would be a disaster. Not sure about Newt.
I think, from a space perspective, the worst thing about the Trump win is that Jeff Sessions has been such a close supporter. If he becomes head of OMB, killing off SLS will be impossible, unless we can come up with something more useful for Marshall to do.