Stephen Smith has an analysis. While it’s nice that they slightly mitigated the idiotic language about using SLS/Orion for ISS missions in 2010, the most significant aspect of the bill, to me, is the extension of the learning period. I don’t think the language about mining is all that significant, legally. It simply makes explicit what’s always been customary law since the moon samples.
Category Archives: Space
Space Property Rights
A story on the current state of play, at the WaPo.
StratoLaunch
…getting its wings clipped?
The program has never made any sense to me. And I weep when I think of the better ways Allen’s money could have been/could be spent.
Space Settlement And Starships
Kim Stanley Robinson says they’re impossible.
I call Clarke’s Law about distinguished scientists, even though he’s just a fiction writer.
ULA’s Shot Across McCain’s Bow
When they said they couldn’t bid GPS without RD-180s, they meant it.
Bill Nye
I’m completely unsurprised that he is clueless about the purpose of NASCAR. Does he really think that people would come to watch Prius’s toottling around the track?
A Rewriting Of Space-Policy History
Over at Space News, from the usual suspect.
And then there’s this: SLS rocket could help scientists answer big questions.
Big questions like "Why is this monstrosity chewing up so much budget we can't afford to do any actual science?" https://t.co/q4VgWDs9lo
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 16, 2015
#ProTip To space-telescope aficionados. SLS is the most expensive possible way to put up a space telescope. https://t.co/q4VgWDs9lo
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 16, 2015
The Martian As A Comedy
I didn’t think of the movie as one, but I did almost laugh out loud at parts of the book.
The Learning Period For Regulating Spaceflight Participant Safety
It will be extended until 2023.
If we haven’t started flying by then, we might as well give up.
Tethers Unlimited
Just had an interesting visit there, where they’re working on a lot of tech that will reduce (to the limited degree it exists) the justification for large-fairing launch payloads, with new orbital-assembly techniques, including 3-D printing. They’re working on (among other things) ways of building large lightweight trusses for orbital structure, that could lead ultimately to assembly hangars. They’re also developing ways to recycle a lot of plastic goods (like bubble wrap and zip locks) into cord to feed 3-D printers at the ISS. Very exciting stuff.