Category Archives: Space

Artificial Lunar Lakes

Here’s a cool idea:

Angel, a leading astronomer at the University of Arizona, is proposing an enormous liquid-mirror telescope on the moon that could be hundreds of times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Using a rotating dish of reflective liquid as its primary mirror, Angel’s telescope would the largest ever built, and would permit astronomers to study the oldest and most distant objects in the universe, including the very first stars.

One thing I don’t get, though. How would you point it? It doesn’t seem like it could be angled up very much out of local horizontal without both messing up the surface shape and requiring higher spin rates. That means that it’s only going to point at the area of the sky corresponding to the current local vertical at the lunar location (presumably they’d want to be on the far side to avoid light interference from the earth). And even then it would take a month to see the whole sky on a swathe, with no ability to go back and take a second look until twenty-eight days later. But if you had a bunch of them scattered all over the far side, you could have a pretty flexible system. This also means you’d have to have data relay satellites, either a constellation in lunar orbits, or a halo around L-2, if you’re going to be able to do earth-based astronomy with it.

As the article notes, this would probably require hand assembly to a large degree, which could provide a lot of motivation for lunar bases and lunar construction workers, and potentially even affordable, as long as you don’t let NASA get involved. It’s the kind of project that demands a lunar infrastructure, for communications as noted above, and habitats. It would be a great way (and perhaps incentive) to industrialize the moon. NSF should tender some bids, and see what the private sector comes up with.

[Via John Hood]

How’s Mike Doing?

A lot of great discussion on Griffin and ESAS over at Space Politics. Consensus is that he and it are a disaster in the making, with the only defender of this ongoing slow-motion train wreck being Mark Whittington, who doesn’t even seem to be aware of the difference between ESAS and VSE. From “anonymous” (who unlike many of the anonymouses here, is the opposite of a moron):

How’s Mike Doing?

A lot of great discussion on Griffin and ESAS over at Space Politics. Consensus is that he and it are a disaster in the making, with the only defender of this ongoing slow-motion train wreck being Mark Whittington, who doesn’t even seem to be aware of the difference between ESAS and VSE. From “anonymous” (who unlike many of the anonymouses here, is the opposite of a moron):

How’s Mike Doing?

A lot of great discussion on Griffin and ESAS over at Space Politics. Consensus is that he and it are a disaster in the making, with the only defender of this ongoing slow-motion train wreck being Mark Whittington, who doesn’t even seem to be aware of the difference between ESAS and VSE. From “anonymous” (who unlike many of the anonymouses here, is the opposite of a moron):

Religious Persecution

That is, persecution by a “religion.” Keith Henson needs your help:

The petition I asked you to sign asks Schwarzenegger to pardon Keith or commute his sentence. Ask for what you want, but I think she is right that humanitarian and compassionate grounds are best right now, for whichever boon you wish to request.

His full name is Howard Keith Henson, awaiting a hearing in the Yavapai Superior Court, jailed in the Yavapai Detention Center, where last night he was kept awake till 2 while another inmate rolled around in agony from kidneystones, then was taken to the infirmary and given aspirin. Then Keith was awakened at 4 a.m. for blood pressure check and meds–which we’re glad he got, but 2-4 hours of sleep a night in an extremely noisy dormitory, with no contact lens supplies to clean his lenses, and no blanket in a jail where even the young people complain of the cold (over airconditioned in the daytime, down to the 40s at night here in the mountains). His blood pressure has continued dangerously high for some days. The worst thing about Riverside, of course, where he appears to be headed now is not the weather or the lack of supplies (or having to write with only a stub of a pencil because pens or regular-sized pencils are not allowed) but the control of $cientology over the jail there.

I’ve categorized this as “Space” because Keith is one of the founders of the L-5 Society, and it is one of his passions (as well as extropianism in general). Unfortunately, so was taking on Scientology.

[Update a few minutes later]

Emailer Jim Bennett notes:

It’s a good start. But this seems like a good First Amendment case if nothing else – it really doesn’t seem like Keith had very good
legal help.

Is there a pro-bono First-Amendment lawyer in the house? Where the hell (pardon my French) was the ACLU? Too busy fighting creches and ten-commandments placards, I guess…