Another space Kickstarter project, with a week to go.
Category Archives: Space
What Does A Moon Base Cost?
In reading this article about whether or not there’s money to be made on the moon, I came across this link, with an estimate from about three years ago of the cost of a lunar base.
The numbers seem way high to me, but of course, they’re based on Constellation. But I can never get over the cost estimate for Altair. Twelve billion dollars to develop a lander? How can that possibly be? The only way I can think that they came up with that is to look at the LEM costs in the sixties, and scale them up in both size and current-year dollars. Which is a completely useless way to do it.
Red Moon Rising?
What are China’s lunar ambitions?
Space, The Mining Frontier
The latest on Planetary Resources.
Safety Is The Highest Priority
The latest from the teddy bears. Or dogs. Or whatever they are.
Kickstarter Projects
Time to go help out John Mankins. His project for his book on power satellites is only a third of the way there, with only five days to go.
And unrelated, other than it’s Kickstarter, Patricia’s aspiring film-maker nephew is a ways from his goal as well.
Eight Years Since First Flight
On June 21st, 2004, SpaceShipOne made its first journey into space, a test run for the X-Prize-winning flights the following fall. I was there (the top five posts on this page are from Mojave). Jeff Foust has some thoughts on the slower-than-anticipated progress in the industry. Ed Wright and Doug Messier also remember.
Space SF Art
…from the fifties.
Celebrity Watching
So I’m watching the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on commercial space, and seeing Jim Muncy and Laura Montgomery (FAA-AST legal counsel) sitting behind Gerstenmaier as he testifies.
[Update a few minutes later]
Now I’m seeing Alex Saltman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation over Mike Gold’s left shoulder. And Patti Grace Smith is behind Alex’s left shoulder.
[Update a few minutes later]
Now I see Stu Witt of the Mojave Air and Spaceport off Gerst’s left shoulder.
[Update]
Hearing adjourned. We certainly heard a lot of the usual ignorance from the usual suspects. Nelson didn’t know that NASA science missions are FAA licensed.
China’s Space Race
It isn’t with NASA, or any government. It’s with SpaceX and U.S. private industry. Though it’s amusing that the author actually believes that the SLS will be sending anyone to the moon or asteroids.