OK, you can fast forward through the bits about “the climate crisis.”
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Seventeen Years
Hard to believe it’s been that long since SpaceShipOne first went to space. I live blogged it at the time. Just scroll down.
Musk Versus Bezos
Stop-Start Technology
It looks like Mercedes has figured out how to make it work properly.
I remember we first encountered it about seven years ago while shopping for VWs (we ended up getting a Toyota instead). I’ve been getting it in rental cars a lot lately, and I don’t like it. It seems like its likely to make a starter fail a lot sooner, unless they make it a lot more rugged. If I owned a car with it (that wasn’t like the Mercedes set up) I’d probably disable it.
That Strange Congressional Hearing On Wednesday
It doesn’t have my byline, but I have a blog post up at the SpaceTech Analytics website.
Herpes
People have been waiting for this since the 80s. At that time, it was thought that there was no cure.
The Four Horsemen
Yes, there are existential risks, but climate is not one of them. And if it is, it would be from cooling, not heating.
California Versus Porsche
The state has killed its new six-speed manual, because it’s “too loud.”
An ELEO Thought Experiment
Imagine that you could have 150,000 tons of cargo (or people) delivered to equatorial LEO annually, at $60/lbm. What would you do with it? What are the markets? We’re talking on the order of $5B/year.
[Update late afternoon]
Note that that’s less than a quarter of the NASA budget…
For that money, we could have 150,000 tons of material/people in orbit, or pay for another year of SLS/Orion.
[Friday-morning update]
Thanks to a comment, I went and rechecked, and found an error in the spreadsheet. The cost is more like $20/lbm.
Easy To Vote
We’re currently a long way from that. And surprise, surprise, surprise.