…takes a detour to the moon.
Yup.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s another story. With an endorsement by Bill Gerstenmaier. Funny he never tells that to Congress.
Category Archives: Space
A Goldin Oldie
This “safety is the highest priority” mantra is apparently older than I thought. I ran across this doing some research for an op-ed, from almost two decades ago.
Journeys Through Time And Space
There’s a new, free downloadable anthology out. Looks potentially interesting.
SpaceShipTwo’s Propulsion System
No, it was not a “minor nuance” on the fatal flight.
Masten Space
A nice profile, over at Popular Mechanics.
Is There A Structural Analyst In The House?
I thought there were some existing parametrics for the savings in mass fraction for a stage or a lander launched dry (versus wet), but apparently not. Is there anyone out there who whomp up a simple system in AutoCAD or Solidworks? Say 50,000 lbs of LOX/Hydrogen, launch acceleration 6 gees?
Lyndon Johnson’s Daily Brief
I’ve been looking forward to this. Some formerly classified documents from the Apollo era have emerged.
Gary Gygax
Thoughts on his suggested reading list:
Ideological diversity in science fiction and fantasy was a given in the seventies. We are hopelessly homogenistic in comparison to them.
The program of political correctness of the past several decades has made even writers like Ray Bradbury and C. L. Moore all but unreadable to an entire generation. The conditioning is so strong, some people have almost physical reactions to the older stories now.
All part of the reason that I don’t read anywhere near as much SF as I did as a kid.
Molly McCormick And Mark Street
Best wishes to her and congratulations to him. Ragged Point is a beautiful place to get married.
Wonder how they’ll work out the geography, though, with her in Hawthorne and him in Midland, unless he’s staying in Mojave.
More Thoughts On Mars
…from George RR Martin:
Mariner’s findings thrilled scientists around the world and gave us a detailed and accurate picture of the nature of the inner planets, but for the readers and writers of science fiction, the excitement was mingled with disillusionment and dismay. This was not the Mars we wanted. This was not the Venus of our dreams.
I never wrote that Mars story. Nor any stories on Venus, or Mercury, or any of the worlds of the “lost” solar system of my youth, the worlds that had provided the setting for so many wonderful tales during the 30s, 40s and 50s. In that I was not alone. After Mariner, our genre moved to the stars in a big way, searching for the colourful exotic settings and alien races that could no longer be found here “at home”.
I think that there’s still too much romanticism about the planet.