The Marshall Institute is going to have a forum on the subject. However, considering that all the panelists (not to mention the moderator) have a dog in the SLS/Orion fight, I’m not encouraged that the discussion will be very interesting, when SLS/Orion are actually the biggest barriers.
Category Archives: Space
#HumansInSpace
If you want to provide input to the committee on human spaceflight, you can tweet it to them tomorrow.
Not sure that you can have a useful policy discussion in 140 characters…
Falcon 9 Heavy
An ominous first flight, by a major SpaceX investor.
Dream Chaser
Ouch:
…the Commercial Crew prospect – after enjoying a perfect flight in the air – suffered a mechanical failure during landing, resulting in her flipping over on the runway.
Hopefully it’s repairable.
[Update mid-afternoon]
Here’s the official statement from Sierra Nevada, trying to put the best face on things. And Alan Boyle is reporting that preliminary reports indicate that it will be fixable. “The pilot would have walked away.”
It’s interesting that they did the test on a Saturday. I wouldn’t have thought that Dryden employees would be thrilled about working weekends. Though maybe it’s a better day for getting airspace clearance. We used to do a lot of weekend flying with the T-39 for parabolic flight out of Mojave, because the Air Force was more flexible in terms of giving us a big box of air to work with.
SpaceX’s Methane Engine
I’d note, though, that 661,000 lbf is not 300K kilograms — it’s about three meganewtons.
Electronics In The Air
Some thoughts on email and battery conservation in airplanes.
Also from Achenbach: a nice review of Gravity (with spoilers, for those who, like me, haven’t yet seen it).
The Space Debris Problem
Can we fix it by taxing it?
Commercial Spaceflight
…weathers the shutdown. Jeff Foust’s report on last week’s ISPCS conference.
The Article VI Problem
Copenhagen Suborbitals has discovered it.
At ISPCS last week, I was talking to another space lawyer about the need to deal with this, sooner than later (though Planetary Resources and other mining companies don’t seem to understand the problem). As I noted in the conclusion to my property-rights piece in The New Atlantis last year, The words “continuing supervision” open us up to all manner of mischief:
it is worth noting that, while the OST arguably does not prevent the recognition of property claims per se, it may prove to be a hindrance to any kind at all of large-scale space activity, not just settlement. In that regard, this is the most troublesome sentence in the entire treaty: “The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty.”
Consider the implications of the words “continuing supervision,” if taken literally. It could be argued that satisfaction of this requirement would demand that any person operating off the planet would be required to have a government minder with him at all times. Prior approval — for example, a launch license — might not be sufficient, because supervision could be argued to imply not just observation, but physical control. This wording in the treaty could imply that even the remote monitoring of private activity in space, which itself would be a significant hindrance for space settlement, would be insufficient.
With new affordable spaceflight technologies on the horizon, extensive private activity in space will be a serious possibility in the near future. If we wish to see humanity flourish in space, we have to recognize that the Outer Space Treaty is a relic of a different era. Fresh interpretations may not suffice: we may soon have to renegotiate and amend the treaty — or even completely scrap it and start from scratch — if we want not just to protect space as a mere scientific preserve but to open it for settlement as a grand new frontier. [Emphasis added]
I think my next project may be called “The Article VI Project.”