Here’s more on the Return To The Moon Conference a couple weekends ago, by Leonard David. In USA Today. It’s got some new stuff that wasn’t in his initial space.com piece.
[Via Thomas James, who seems to be posting more now that he’s settled into his new digs in Colorado. Though shouldn’t he change the name of his blog to the Colorado Mars Society?]
A just published study (actually still in preprint) suggests that Earth like planets may be quite uncommon. I’m a little skeptical about the reasoning (based on the discussion in the link: I haven’t read the paper). It’s quite possible that the reason we haven’t found system’s like Sol’s is just that we don’t yet have the capability. The existence of systems which evolved in an entirely different way doesn’t really bear on the number of solar systems like our own except very indirectly.
That’s the date that Burt Rutan as set for his first X-Prize attempt. And just to keep things interesting, he’s not alone:
Hot on Rutan
NASA is still trying to salvage the Centennial Challenges program, but Congress remains resistant.
…Democrats on the subcommittee, including Reps. Nick Lampson, Sheila Jackson Lee and Bernice Johnson (all from Texas), expressed reservations about relying on prize money to spur technological innovation.
Dwayne Day says we need another Carl Sagan.
Here’s my candidate for a replacement.
Jeff Foust has a writeup on Paul Spudis’ and Wendell Mendell’s talks at last weekend’s Return To The Moon Conference. Bottom line: as is often the case, NASA has met the enemy, and it is them.
Spudis thinks that NASA officials are deliberately misrepresenting the vision.
As a result of an MRI, Derek Lyons has some thoughts about the near-term future of the space tourism industry.
As big a space nut as I am, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to go myself, at least soon, because I have a tendency to claustrophobia also.
Emailer Jon Goff points out an article by Alan Boyle indicating that the logjam over HR 3752 has apparently been broken. It looks like the legislation can be passed this year. At least this will help things move forward on the private front (which I think is more promising anyway) even if the president’s new vision doesn’t get funded.
It looks like he’s not going to make a public fight for it, since he didn’t take the opportunity of the Apollo anniversary to say anything about it. But he may still try to twist arms behind the scenes.
[Update at 10:30 AM PDT]
Here’s an interesting development. According to space.com, the president is threatening to veto the appropriations bill if it doesn’t fund the new vision. Hard to know whether or not this is bluff. It would substantiate the Cowing/Seitzen thesis that the president truly wants this if he actually does veto this bill, because it would be the first bill that he’d have vetoed in his presidency. Of course, the fact that he’s never vetoed a bill yet takes away some of the credibility of the threat if he’s only bluffing. A president has to choose battlegrounds carefully to maintain clout, because he doesn’t want to get into a position from which he has to back down.
SpaceToday reports that a Russian millionaire may be the next ISS tourist. The giggle factor for space tourism continues its death spiral.
Apparently some amateur rocketeer (though there’s rumor he was actually a fireworks maker) blew himself up in Denver. Sad for the family, potentially very bad news for amateur rocketry.
The University of Georgia has received a 5 million grant to study electromagnetic accelerators. The piece claims they can be used for launchers, but I’m extremely skeptical. Going hypersonic in the lower atmosphere doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. OTOH, for launch from the moon it could be just the ticket, but that’s a long time off.
…from Bruce Gagnon.
I don’t have time to critique it properly, but I toss it out as fresh meat to the commenters and the blogosphere.