Ed White, Roger Chafee and Gus Grissom died on the launch pad, an event that resulted in the formation of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, and a complete overhaul of the design and management of Apollo. It was the first of the late-January tragedies that make this time of year a sad one for NASA. Tomorrow will be the twenty-sixeventh anniversary of the loss of Challenger, and Friday will be the tenth anniversary of the loss of Columbia.
Category Archives: Space
The Hazards Of Scientific Research
A plane has gone down with three on board in Antarctica.
How could they have let them fly in that kind of weather? NASA would never have taken such a risk, because space research is much less important than Antarctic research.
[Update a few minutes later]
So, if they don’t survive, will Antarctic researchers shut down all operations until they’ve had a national commission investigate it, perhaps for years? That’s what NASA/Congress would do.
In my book, I go through the litany of the number of problems they’ve had at Scott-Amundsen Station, and conclude:
…despite all of these problems, one of them fatal (and Nielsen might have lived longer had she gotten better treatment sooner) there has never been a call by anyone to spend billions of dollars on a unique specialized emergency vehicle to provide 24/7/365 access to and from the Antarctic station, though given sufficient resources some clever engineers could probably come up with such a thing. And unlike NASA, the National Science Foundation has (sensibly) never gotten those kinds of resources. Because we recognize that sometimes research is worth taking risks for, and that the lives of the researchers do not have infinite value, or even billions of dollars worth of value. Except, inexplicably, when it comes to space research.
I may add this incident to the book.
My Space Safety Press Event
I’m trying to do one on February 7th, immediately following the final session of the Space Transportation Conference in DC, which is only two weeks off. I’d probably need about three or four grand to do it, though, given the cost of renting a conference room at the Westin, and my travel expenses, and PR. I’m thinking about raising the money via Kickstarter, but not sure what the rewards would be. Just signed book copies? Autographed copy of the press release?
How Much Would A Death Star Really Cost?
To the disappointment of thousands who signed the petition, the Obama administration recently informed us that it has, and will have no plans to build a Star-Wars-style death star. Now, there may indeed be good reasons to forgo this addition to the nation’s defense, but the first one listed, that it would cost 850 quadrillion dollars, was based on an extremely flawed estimate. Which isn’t surprising, because among the people doing the estimating, only one has any experience in aerospace engineering (and probably none in costing of such projects). Continue reading How Much Would A Death Star Really Cost?
The Xichang Disaster
The story of the worst launch catastrophe in history is finally being told.
[Via Clark Lindsey, who has video]
ISS Solar Power
John Hare has an interesting idea to augment ISS capabilities.
Our Future In Space
The National Space Society has started a Kickstarter project for a video documentary.
A Plague On The Earth
That’s what misanthrope extremist David Attenborough thinks of humanity.
I suspect he also wants to confine the infection to a single planet.
And as always, my advice to such people is to lead by example.
[Update a while later]
Here’s another person who should lead by example. Paul Ehrlich, who’s been wrong about pretty much all of his predictions for forty years, says that no one has a right to twelve, or even three children.
Deep-Space Industries
I attended their press conference this morning in Santa Monica. Clark Lindsey has notes from the webcast. I was the person who asked the question about their role versus that of Planetary Resources, and whether they viewed them as complementary, or competition.
The Human Spaceflight Cargo Cult
This is strongly related to my concept of the Apollo cargo cult. If we want to justify humans in space, we have to stop using the word “exploration,” because it simply raises the issue of letting robots do it. Talking instead about space development and particularly settlement implies humans, by definition. And if we can’t persuade the taxpayers that those are worthwhile goals, and instead try to sell them a bill of goods, then we don’t deserve taxpayer money for our hobbies. And cults.