Category Archives: Space

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Aerojet

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An interesting report on the internecine battle within the company in the wake of the FTC disallowing the acquisition by Lockmart. I found this amusing:

Aerojet has traditionally structured itself as an engineering company with high fixed costs and low margins, Thompson said. But if private equity buys the company, it will want to see more robust financial returns, which could come at the cost of innovation.

“This really comes down to whether the financial interests or the engineering interests within Aerojet prevail in the struggle,” he said. “My heart is with the engineering interests. My brain, which knows the history of these types of struggles, assumes the financial interests will ultimately prevail.”

Yes, for me, the first word that comes to mind when I hear the word “Aerojet” is “innovation.” Not.

Business, Economics, General Science, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Space, Space Science, Technology and Society

To Mars Or Not To Mars?

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That is the question at this Oxford debate this evening (in a couple hours, sorry about the short notice).

[Update toward the end of the debate]

As I’ve noted in the past, debates like this are pointless, because they are a false choice based on a false premise. We don’t have to choose between populating Mars and saving the planet; we have abundant resources for both. The false premise is that this is going to be a collective decision whose outcome will be determined by an Oxford debate. People who go to Mars will be doing so with their own money, so people on Earth who oppose it are going to have to make it illegal to prevent it. There is a word for people like that: jailers.