This looks like an interesting movie.
Category Archives: Space
Orion
The slow, inevitable death begins:
Entering into the transition period between presidents, NASA’s administrator, Charles Bolden, has encouraged the next White House administration to continue support for Orion and the Space Launch System rocket, which account for more than $3 billion annually. Congress, too, has expressed a strong interest in continuing work on these vehicles.
However one source told Ars that it may become necessary to choose either the Orion capsule or NASA rocket in the coming years as the space agency looks to pare back its budget, and this might necessitate going to a less expensive, more privately developed vehicle. “Look,” this source said, “if you have to cancel a program, this is a responsible way of lining up a replacement.”
It will be a bloody political battle, but ultimately, SLS won’t be far behind.
Trump, And Space
Jeff Foust’s take. I’ll be talking about this on The Space Show on Sunday.
Off The Air
For those wondering, I flew from LA to Dallas on Thursday, and drove down to Austin, to attend the New Worlds Conference. Patricia flew in to Austin on Saturday, and we’re spending a couple days in Texas Hill Country. I’m sitting in a little house we rented in Comfort, overlooking a creek and deer in a natural meadow across it. A couple of them came up to the window last night and looked in. Between funerals and family visits, and house renovation, it’s the first real vacation we’ve had in a while.
I should be back in the saddle (so to speak) on Wednesday, surveying the aftermath of the electoral disaster to come (regardless of the outcome).
What Kind Of Math Do You Need For Physics?
It depends. Some good advice for aspiring physicists.
I was thinking about this yesterday, because I got into a Twitter discussion about vector analysis and energy methods.
The B612 Foundation
Their annual report is out on progress toward private asteroid watching.
Intruder Alert
It’s nice to see that NASA is taking the asteroid threat more seriously, but we’re still not doing enough to actually prevent them from hitting us. In fact, we’re doing almost nothing.
O’Neill Space Colonies
It’s seemed clear for a while, but Jeff Bezos has now said explicitly that that’s his vision for humanity’s future in space. While Elon remains a planetary chauvinist. Fortunately, there’s room for both visions.
SLS
Bob Zimmerman has some thoughts on potential upcoming (and unsurprising, since it doesn’t really matter whether or not it actually flies) schedule slips:
…it means that it will have literally taken NASA two decades to build and fly a single manned Orion capsule, beginning when George Bush ordered the construction of the Crew Exploration Vehicle in January 2004.
Plenty of time to take it behind the barn and put it out of its misery.
Molten-Salt Reactors
Yes, we could use them both here and on Mars.