Category Archives: Space

Space

So, What’s Wrong With Capsules?

15 Comments

Frequent commenter “Habitat Hermit,” commenting on my Space Show appearance on Sunday, wrote:

There’s still plenty of room for disagreements –I have some myself (perhaps even a big one when it comes to capsules although it depends on the details, I think they’ve still got lots of more or less unexplored potential…

I agree that there are lots of interesting concepts for capsules and their recovery modes. But that’s beside the point. The reason that I don’t like capsules, of any form, is quite simple. They imply that the only part of the vehicle (at least the upper stage of it) that returns is the capsule. Hence they imply at least a partially, if not fully expendable launch system. I don’t believe that we are going to seriously open up space by continuing to throw hardware away.

Space

So, What’s Wrong With Capsules?

Frequent commenter “Habitat Hermit,” commenting on my Space Show appearance on Sunday, wrote:

There’s still plenty of room for disagreements –I have some myself (perhaps even a big one when it comes to capsules although it depends on the details, I think they’ve still got lots of more or less unexplored potential…

I agree that there are lots of interesting concepts for capsules and their recovery modes. But that’s beside the point. The reason that I don’t like capsules, of any form, is quite simple. They imply that the only part of the vehicle (at least the upper stage of it) that returns is the capsule. Hence they imply at least a partially, if not fully expendable launch system. I don’t believe that we are going to seriously open up space by continuing to throw hardware away.

Space

So, What’s Wrong With Capsules?

Frequent commenter “Habitat Hermit,” commenting on my Space Show appearance on Sunday, wrote:

There’s still plenty of room for disagreements –I have some myself (perhaps even a big one when it comes to capsules although it depends on the details, I think they’ve still got lots of more or less unexplored potential…

I agree that there are lots of interesting concepts for capsules and their recovery modes. But that’s beside the point. The reason that I don’t like capsules, of any form, is quite simple. They imply that the only part of the vehicle (at least the upper stage of it) that returns is the capsule. Hence they imply at least a partially, if not fully expendable launch system. I don’t believe that we are going to seriously open up space by continuing to throw hardware away.

History, Space, Space History, Space Science

The Cosmic Ghoul Missed One

7 Comments

Congrats to JPL on the successful (so far) landing of the Phoenix. Interestingly (though almost certainly coincidentally), it happens on the forty-seventh anniversary of Kennedy’s speech announcing the plan to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

And (for what it’s worth–not much, to me, and even more certainly coincidentally) it’s the thirty-first anniversary of the initial release of Star Wars in theaters. I didn’t see it that day, but I did see it within a couple weeks. I remember being unimpressed (“the Kessel run in twelve parsecs”…please), though the effects were pretty good. But then, I was a fan of actual science fiction.

[Update late evening]

It’s worth noting that (I think) this was the first soft landing on Mars in over twenty years, since Viking. Surely someone will correct me (or nitpick me) if I’m wrong.

[Monday morning update]

OK, not exactly wrong (it has been over twenty years), but it’s thirty years. I’m pretty good at math. Arithmetic, not so much.

Political Commentary, Space

Space Show

1 Comment

I had a post about this last week, but I forgot to remind people today, that I was on The Space Show this afternoon (I took a break from yardwork, where we’re tearing out old hedges, and still finishing up guttering–on the radio, no one can hear you sweating). Here’s a place to comment for anyone who happened to listen in.