People have been speculating about this sort of thing for years, but one of the nice things about having a decent-sized orbital facility is that we can actually prototype them, and figure out if any are interesting enough to think about building inflatable stadia for them.
Category Archives: Space
Dog Bites Man
Mark Whittington has a completely pointless post:
…not much remarked, is the implicit endorsement of NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration by one of the leading new commercial space companies
Is this supposed to be news? Is Mark aware of any commercial space company that is opposed to the VSE, or sending humans to the moon and Mars? I’m not. So what’s the big deal?
Or is he confusing ESAS with VSE again?
Carnival Of Space
Number 51, over at Astroengine.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
Well, not all of it, but quite a bit. Rob Coppinger has some thoughts on the issue of ISS downmass requirements, which is something that doesn’t get as much attention as the launch payload. Once Shuttle goes away, we lose an awful lot of downmass capability, at least in theory, though I don’t think we’ve been returning all that much in it lately.
What Next?
Jeff Foust has a brief report on the next steps for Spaceport America, now that the vote is out of the way.
I’m Shocked, Shocked
Procurement “irregularities” at Marshall Space Flight Center? On the Ares program?
Why, who could ever imagine such a thing? Particularly after it got off to such a completely non-corrupt start, with no conflicts of interest at all, via Scott “Revolving Door” Horowitz.
I’m Shocked, Shocked
Procurement “irregularities” at Marshall Space Flight Center? On the Ares program?
Why, who could ever imagine such a thing? Particularly after it got off to such a completely non-corrupt start, with no conflicts of interest at all, via Scott “Revolving Door” Horowitz.
I’m Shocked, Shocked
Procurement “irregularities” at Marshall Space Flight Center? On the Ares program?
Why, who could ever imagine such a thing? Particularly after it got off to such a completely non-corrupt start, with no conflicts of interest at all, via Scott “Revolving Door” Horowitz.
Whither VSE And ESAS?
Or should it be “wither VSE and ESAS”?
My analysis on what the presidential election could mean for NASA’s current plans for human spaceflight, over at Popular Mechanics.
Bottom line: don’t expect “steady as you go…”
[Update late evening]
Mark Whittington has his usual (i.e., idiotic) response:
The problem here is that without a lot of those billions being spent not only on technology development, but operational experience, it will be a long time before private business gets us to the Moon, if at all. And we they do get there, they may have to have visas signed by the Chinese who will have beaten everyone there.
Yes, [rolling eyes] having to have visas signed by the Chinese to land on the moon should be our biggest concern. Not the fact that NASA has chosen an architecture that is fundamentally incapable of establishing a fully-fledged lunar presence and is unlikely to survive politically (and ignoring the fact that the Chinese are on a track to get a human on the moon sometime in the next century, at their current rate…).
Slow Learners
I haven’t had time to read it yet, but Dennis Wingo has a long essay on NASA’s forty-year failure to close the deal with the American people. More thoughts when I have a chance to read, but some of the other folks here may be interested.