The LA Times has a feature on their editorial section called the “Dust-Up,” which is sort of a daily two-sided debate on a given issue, with each week having a theme. This week, in recognition of the half century since Sputnik, they’re hosting a dialogue between Homer Hickam and yours truly. Homer went first today, and I get the last word du jour. It will be the other way around tomorrow, when we talk about destinations.

And note, I did not lead off with “Homer, you ignorant slut.”

[Update in the evening]

I see that Keith is whining again, that I’m not sufficiently obsequious to the space agency to which I’m giving the best technical advice that I can, for pay.

Well, Keith, here’s the deal. I’m a (I like to think) competent space systems engineer, who can help NASA execute its goals, however misguided. I do that because I like to think that I have professional integrity, and (honestly) because doing such things is my job, and it’s how I pay my bills. They don’t (at least for now) pay me to tell them how to open the cosmos, so I don’t do that for pay from them. I do it in other venues. I just help them do what they’re trying to do, as mistaken as it is, as best I can.

I didn’t realize (as you seem to think) that part of my job is to praise their programs publicly, even though I think them not in the best interests of the nation, or our goals of opening space. If NASA thinks that’s part of my job, I guess I’ll hear about it. If they want to pay me to do that, I’ll consider it, but I doubt if I’d take the job.

But if they did, I think that would be a sad commentary on the federal space program, and NASA’s belief in what it’s doing. And I’m willing to stick my neck and mortgage out and continue to write what I think.

I’ll do you the courtesy of thinking that you do the same.

Dwayne “Dr. Evil” Day (foolishly, but then, as he admits himself, no one has ever credibly accused him of being a genius) describes his plans for world domination.

Seriously, Frontier Astronautics has actually done this (purchased an old ICBM silo, that is, not dominated the world–at least not yet). It’s actually a pretty neat example of swords to plowshares.

In other news (that’s not really news), Taylor Dinerman writes that the Outer Space Treaty has outlived its usefulness, to the degree that it ever had any.

Apparently, he was killed in Needham, Massachusetts (near the college he was attending, and coincidentally, the current home of one of my former college roommates), and no other vehicles were involved. Sadly, he had a passenger with him on the bike. She died of her own injuries a day later. My deepest condolences to both families.

Michael Belfiore reviews the EADS idea of building a suborbital business jet. At the $1.3 billion price tag and unit cost presumably in the high tens of millions, the business case is iffy. In particular, it would probably be a lot cheaper to spin out the Rocketplane XP project out of Rocketplane Kistler and end up with a product that could fly a few years sooner and more seats for the same money.

The Futron study Jeff implicitly cited saying 15,000 customers for suborbital space travel in 2015. If we get 4 providers, it’s hard to see how prices stay much above the marginal cost of the fourth provider. RpK and XCOR might have revised their cost estimates since they were estimated as south of $50,000 back when Space Adventures were selling suborbital seats for $100k each. But let’s be generous and say that EADS rivals are going to push the price down to $100k by 2015. This is lower than the implicit Futron estimate of $140k if flight starts in 2009, spends 3 years at $200k then works it’s way down to $50k in 2021.

At $100k, they could get perhaps $50k in debt payments per seat. They would need 6,500 customers per year to pay 25% interest and 9,400 customers per year to pay back the loan in 9 years. But they are unlikely to get 2/3 of the market if they are fourth to market with a higher price structure. If EADS is indeed the high cost provider, the estimate of how much each flight will contribute to debt repayment is $0. The capacity required to fly 9,400 customers per year at two flights per week per craft with four seats is 23 craft which would add another billion in debt if they are $45 million each.

Mark Steyn has some thoughts on Katie Couric’s less-than-royal “we.” And yes, I didn’t make a mistake in the categorization. It is a space post, though it’s also a politics post.

No, they weren’t an “airborne UN”. They were an airborne America. For a start, if there was such a thing as a UN rocket, the Israeli guy wouldn’t get anywhere near it, except on a one-way ticket to establish the viability of Ahmadinejad’s new designated homeland for the Jews on Planet Zongo. I doubt even an EU space shuttle would be eager to admit any astronauts from the Zionist Entity. As for the “Indian woman”, Kalpana Chawla was the American Dream writ large upon the stars: she emigrated to the US in the Eighties and was an astronaut within a decade. There’s no other country on earth where you can do that. And I’ll bet she had no qualms about using the dread “we” word.

Matt Bowes was a young space enthusiast, who had a blog called Space Liberates Us. I met him at a conference (I think in July, in DC, though it may have been at the ISDC in Dallas, in May).

He was far too young to die in a senseless accident but sadly, the young (particularly those young who want to conquer the newest and highest frontier) tend to be less risk averse, and sometimes, it bites them. He was only nineteen.

When I was his age, I (too?) thought that I was immortal. I imagine that he did as well. But no matter how advanced the technologies, accidents will still happen. I feel older now, and chastened, and mortal. But somehow, because of many of the advances that I read about as a child only as science fiction, but that I can now see on the technological horizon, I hope to live much longer, and my sadness at Matt’s loss (and ours, who knew him) is only magnified by that thought.

From Michael Mealling (who informed me of this via email, noting that it was a motorcycle accident), of Masten Space:

Matt was an intern at Masten Space Systems this past summer. Very sad and shocking…

Indeed.

On Sunday, September 9, 2007 of Bethesda, MD. Beloved son of Dr. Julia A. LaJoie and Robert B. Bowes; loving brother of Audrey and Jackie Bowes. Matt is also survived by a large family and numerous friends. Friends will be received at St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church, 6900 River Rd., Bethesda, MD, on Friday, September 14 from 4 to 8 p.m., where Mass of Catholic Burial will be offered on Saturday, September 15 at 10 a.m. Interment Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Silver Spring, MD. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Anselm’s Abbey School, 4501 S. Dakota Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20017-2795, Olin College of Engineering, c/o Office of Student Life, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492-1200 or to the MARS Society, PO Box 273, Indian Hills, CO 80454.

Please view and sign the family guestbook.

Here another obit, at the WaPo.

[Friday morning update]

More thoughts from Clark Lindsey, Jon Goff (who worked with him briefly at Masten) and Keith Cowing.

John Noble Wilford:

I could hardly think of myself outside the context of the cold war. Without the intense Soviet-American competition epitomized by the space race, I would not have become a science journalist who wrote about astronauts going to the Moon to

I missed this last week, but Henry Cate, who originated the idea, hosted last week’s Carnival of Space.

My Popular Mechanics piece on propellant depots is up now.

[Tuesday morning update]

Jon Goff has related thoughts.

My Popular Mechanics piece on propellant depots is up now.

[Tuesday morning update]

Jon Goff has related thoughts.