A tutorial for AOC from Derek Lowe.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Interior Design
…of long-duration space ships. I’d like to attend that event, but it looks like it coincides with the Space Transportation Conference in DC.
These issues are why I’ve never taken any Mars plans by NASA seriously. Until we dramatically reduce the cost of access to space, so we can afford an armada of spacious vehicles, sending humans to Mars will be a pipe dream, but at least Elon is taking that problem seriously, even if he’s doing nothing about the partial-gravity issue.
[Update a few minutes later]
Oops, there is no conflict, but I still can’t go; it starts tomorrow. I wonder if Lurio will attend?
A Luxury Space Hotel
No, the numbers never really added up.
The Global Food Police
Now they want to treat meat and sugar like tobacco.
Sugar is terrible, but the solution is education. And there’s nothing wrong, nutritionally, with meat. It’s the best source of protein.
The Space Access Conference
It’s baaaack. And better than ever, despite the fact that Yours Truly will be there. It will be in the Bay Area, instead of Phoenix, though (the latter is a slightly shorter drive from LA). On the other hand, that’s where it started, with the Making Orbit conferences in San Mateo, almost three decades ago.
To The “Book Community”
“Go f**k yourself.” A righteous rant from Larry Correia.
Bill Nye
The Ignoramus Guy.
Pro tip, Bill. There are railroads in the Great White North, and they already carry food that is grown there.
Raptor
SpaceX is simplifying development to a single version to get to the moon as fast as possible. That makes sense. When it comes to the moon, the real space race is between SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Sixteen Years Ago
Columbia was lost on this date in 2003, putting a final stake through the heart of the Space Shuttle program. We were staying at a Residence Inn in San Bruno (Patricia was working in Millbrae), when I was awoken by someone on the east coast with the news. Here were my immediate thoughts, which held up pretty well, I think. And if you go to this page, you’ll find that post at the bottom, but can scroll up to see my further reflections over the next few days (or click on “Next post” from the first blog link). I had only been blogging for a year and a half or so at the time.
Today, Ian Kluft had a thread on Twitter on his recollection of seeing the disaster live, though at the time he didn’t know exactly what was happening:
Thread.
We were staying at a Residence Inn in San Bruno. I was awoken by a call from a friend on the east coast to tell me that Columbia was missing. Drove back down to LA that day. https://t.co/l7nw2rpsYw
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) February 1, 2019
[Early-afternoon update]
Here is the archived version with comments. In that post, and this one, you can see the beginning of formulating my thoughts for the book, though it wouldn’t happen for another eight years or so.