Jeff Brooks has an intriguing, but I think fundamentally flawed idea: to set up an international organization to manage Martian land sales.

I’m all in favor of granting title rights off planet, and agree that it could provide a useful mechanism to raise private funds for planetary exploration, but I’m afraid that a transnationalist approach is doomed to failure. Better to simply amend the OST (or withdraw, failing that) and allow sovereignty claims (in fact the treaty could come up with a way to equitably distribute the claims). But I wouldn’t trust an international organization to safeguard my civil or property rights, given the nature of the international community.

We’re not going up to see the launch tonight, because the probability is still only about 30%, last I heard, and we have to go to a company Christmas party down in Miami. But if anyone is planning to drive over there, don’t expect to go in to Titusville:

Normally considered a great place to watch a launch, the main thoroughfare through the town will be closed in both directions this evening for the city’s Annual Christmas Parade. Motorists should expect significant delays.

Dan Schrimpsher has some thoughts.

James Sensenbrenner didn’t get the ranking member position he wanted on the House Science Committee. He lost out to Texan Ralph Hall. Hall will be much more devoted to JSC, while Sensenbrenner, with no NASA centers in his state of Wisconsin, would have been better for commercial space.

Russia says they’ll help us build a moon base, if we provide them with funding.

Sorry, I think we tried the foreign aid bit back in the nineties on ISS. As I recall, the result was late deliveries of hardware, and a proliferation of dachas, Mercedes, and Cayman accounts.

Russia says they’ll help us build a moon base, if we provide them with funding.

Sorry, I think we tried the foreign aid bit back in the nineties on ISS. As I recall, the result was late deliveries of hardware, and a proliferation of dachas, Mercedes, and Cayman accounts.

Russia says they’ll help us build a moon base, if we provide them with funding.

Sorry, I think we tried the foreign aid bit back in the nineties on ISS. As I recall, the result was late deliveries of hardware, and a proliferation of dachas, Mercedes, and Cayman accounts.

Now these are what I call hot rockets. Question is, which are the rocket geeks going to pay more attention to, the rockets, or Sheri?

It reminds me of the old engineer joke. An engineering student sees one of his buddies, a fellow engineering student, riding a bike toward him.

“Hey,” he says. “When did you get the bike?”

“It’s a weird story,” he replies. “I was just walking on the quad, and this girl rides up to me, gets off, drops the bike, takes off all her clothes and lies there, saying ‘take what you want.'”

“Good choice,” says his friend. “The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit.”

Now these are what I call hot rockets. Question is, which are the rocket geeks going to pay more attention to, the rockets, or Sheri?

It reminds me of the old engineer joke. An engineering student sees one of his buddies, a fellow engineering student, riding a bike toward him.

“Hey,” he says. “When did you get the bike?”

“It’s a weird story,” he replies. “I was just walking on the quad, and this girl rides up to me, gets off, drops the bike, takes off all her clothes and lies there, saying ‘take what you want.'”

“Good choice,” says his friend. “The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit.”

Now these are what I call hot rockets. Question is, which are the rocket geeks going to pay more attention to, the rockets, or Sheri?

It reminds me of the old engineer joke. An engineering student sees one of his buddies, a fellow engineering student, riding a bike toward him.

“Hey,” he says. “When did you get the bike?”

“It’s a weird story,” he replies. “I was just walking on the quad, and this girl rides up to me, gets off, drops the bike, takes off all her clothes and lies there, saying ‘take what you want.'”

“Good choice,” says his friend. “The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit.”