Thoughts on the new policy from Alex Gimarc, over at the American Thinker.
Category Archives: Space
A New Space Blog
Looks like it’s been around since January, but Alan Wasser draws my attention to Colin Doughan’s Space Business Blog, where he has an interview with Alan on space property rights.
New Space News
The latest issue is out, with links galore.
And So It Begins
V’ger is starting to go mad:
The first hint of a problem came on April 22, when engineers first spotted the data pattern change. Since then, they’ve been working to fix the glitch and began sending commands back to Voyager 2 on April 30.
Because Voyager 2 is so far from Earth, it takes 13 hours for a message to reach the spacecraft and another 13 hours for responses to come back to NASA’s Deep Space Network of listening antennas around the world.
I hate when that happens.
Where Is My Critique?
You know, the essay I wrote at The New Atlantis last summer has been up for many months now, and I have never seen anyone critique it, with the exception of an idiotic attempt by Mark Whittington. I’ve received nothing but praise for the most part (which is why I wish more people would read it). The editor has also told me that he received no letters to the editor objecting to it. Is anyone aware of a serious, informed critical review? If there are none, I suspect that one of the reasons why is that I circulated drafts of it among a lot of smart people in the process of writing it.
The reason I ask is because I’m in the process of working up a book proposal, and I want to hone it, if there are any serious and useful issues with it, because a lot of the book will be based on it. And of course, people will be reviewing drafts of the book as well.
[Saturday morning update]
I’m not looking for suggestions for improvement (I have no plans to rewrite it or republish anywhere else). I’m looking for things that people think I actually got wrong.
Some Sanity From Jay Barbree
He has a surprisingly (for him — considering what an Ares koolaid drinker he’s been over the past few years) calm and objective assessment of the state of the new plan. I don’t know whether he’s right or not, but it’s politically plausible, for the near term. If we have to waste a few billion continuing to pretend to develop an Ares-based heavy lifter for a few years to keep the Florida rice bowls full, I can live with that, as long as the orbital technology funding doesn’t get starved for it. I’m still hoping that eventually, and before we sink too much money in that money pit, we’ll realize that we don’t need it. As for lunar landings and bases, there’s also plenty of time to change peoples’ minds on that. Everything planned for the deep-space missions will support it, and all we’ll need is a lander (which Masten and Armadillo, not to mention Blue Origin, are developing prototypes of now). If a fueling depot is established at L-1, that’s a natural time to decide whether to use it as a staging point for lunar surface activities.
At The Edge Of Space
U-2 pilot Cholene Espinoza remembers her trips almost to space, on the fiftieth anniversary of the shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers:
Were the risks worth it? Absolutely. The advantage of having a human being in the pilot’s seat of a reconnaissance plane is overwhelming. A person can troubleshoot problems in mid-flight, with creativity that a computer lacks and a proximity to the problem that a remote-control pilot can never achieve. A pilot also has unique situational awareness: I’ve been on more than one mission in which I was able to distinguish promising details that a drone would have missed.
It was worth it personally, too. I’ll never forget the adrenaline surge of landing what was basically a multimillion-dollar jet-powered glider on its 12-inch tail wheel from a full stall while wearing a space suit. And I’ll always remember the peace of sitting alone on the quiet edge of space, out of radio contact for hours.
People would pay for that. Sounds like they would need better suits, though.
Policy Purgatory
As I wrote the other day, what a mess:
Even Nelson, who described Obama’s speech at KSC as “visionary,” has advocated continued Ares rocket testing because it could mean a few hundred jobs at the center, which is set to lose as many as 9,000 workers once the shuttle completes its final three missions.
Much of the gridlock over Obama’s plan can be traced back to one sentence inserted by Shelby into a spending bill last year that bars NASA from canceling Constellation programs this year without congressional approval. Not only has that sentence prevented NASA from quickly switching to Obama’s new plan, but it also has given Congress time to kill his proposal and save Constellation.
Indeed, the tactic has proven so effective that lawmakers loyal to Constellation are considering a similar move in upcoming spending bills. That possibility has bureaucrats on both sides of the issue combing through thick pages of appropriations measures to ensure that the other doesn’t gain ground.
With such scrutiny, the issue may not be decided until Congress ultimately approves its 2011 budget — which may not happen until the winter holiday season.
OK, someone explain to me why, if the government is operating on a continuing resolution into the winter, and the Republicans have taken over one or both houses, and will be in power in January, why they wouldn’t simply filibuster any “Mad Duck” attempt to ram through an appropriations bill in December, and then do a new one in February?
Overstayed Welcome
I have to say, though, that it’s nice to see that the only place that Scott Horowitz can get his self-serving conspiratorial science fiction published is at the Mars Society. What he writes is bad enough, but the colors at that web site make my eyes bleed. I may respond later, but Clark makes a good start. Keith Cowing is unimpressed as well.
The Pressure Is On
…at SpaceX. Alan Boyle talks to Elon Musk.
I think I’m going to be on Which Way LA this afternoon with Elon, talking about the moribund manned space industry in southern California. SpaceX is the only player standing.
[Update early afternoon]
I’ll definitely be on the air, in a little over half an hour. KCRW streams, so you can listen on the Intertubes, if you’re not near an FM radio in southern California.
[Bumped]