The Space Studies Institute has resurrected a old television discussion of the prospects for space colonies.
It’s interesting to note that when this occurred, we didn’t know how much hydrogen was available on the moon and in the rest of the solar system.
The latest, and it looks promising. Humans aren’t rodents, but no reason in principle we shouldn’t be able to do similar things.
[Tuesday-evening update]
Intermittent fasting seems to help. I’ve been doing this as part of my weekday routine for a while. I go all day without eating until dinner time, other than coffee in the morning, but it’s mostly out of convenience rather than for health reasons. I’m glad to hear it might be good for me.
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I’ll be on this afternoon, at 2 PM PDT, to talk about space settlement, the OST, and probably ranting about the latest safety insanity from NASA.
They’re frustrated that they have to actually be competitive in the launch market. And they keep using this word “subsidy.” I don’t think it means what they think it means. If anyone gets a subsidy, it’s ULA, not SpaceX, and sure as hell not Blue Origin. Plus, an open admission that their rocket is a jobs program.
Thoughts from Tim Fernholz on his space legacy.
No, Tor.com, GenCon isn’t racist: A fisking (from Larry Correia).
Click. You know you want to.
OK, so I read this, and the steam that shot out of my ears took the fresh paint off the wall of the kitchen on both sides of the room:
His committee recommended that NASA and the other ISS partners should plan for ways to operate the station with a reduced crew if commercial crew vehicles aren’t ready to enter service by the fall of 2019.
“Given these schedule risks, we recommend the partnership pursue plans to protect for a minimum crew capability to ensure ISS viability during the flight development phase,” he said. “NASA’s biggest priority is maintaining the U.S. presence on the ISS in case the commercial crew launch dates slip.”
One option he mentioned at the meeting is “providing training to Russian crewmembers on the USOS critical systems.” That training, he said, would be provided to cosmonauts scheduled to fly to the station on Soyuz missions in September 2019 and March 2020.
So, let me get this straight: In order to avoid any risk of loss of crew (and there is no way to do that), we are going to not only make ourselves more dependent on the Russians, but further reduce, if not eliminate any actual utility we’re going to get out of a facility in which we’ve invested over a hundred billion dollars and, as a bonus, put that facility at risk.
All because “safety is the highest priority.”
This is insane.
Gerald Black writes that it’s a waste of time and money.
You don’t say. Its only purpose is to give SLS/Orion something to do.
Sam Dinkin looks at the business case.
There’s not currently a ferry terminal in the South Bay, so they’d have to build one somewhere, maybe by the Marina or King Harbor to make it more convenient to LAX.
Loren Grush on the significance of today’s launch.
At this point, SpaceX rules the world on expertise in developing and operating space transports. BFR is largely simply scaling up current systems. And rockets scale up quite nicely, within facilities limits.
[Update a few minutes later]
More from Doug Messier.
[Update a while later]
And more, from Chris Gebhart.
This will be an historic day if the flight is successful. Or even if it’s unsuccessful. Only way it won’t be historic is if they scrub.
[Update Friday morning]
OK, they scrubbed yesterday, and have another opportunity today. I haven’t heard yet if they found the problem, but here’s a transcript of a very interesting telecon with Elon yesterday.
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[Afternoon update]
I did a little tweetstorm.
Point many don't understand yet: SpaceX has shown not just the way to reusability, and low-cost launch, but low-cost DDT&E. It's revolutionary in the launcher business to be able to affordably do so many flight tests of a vehicle.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) May 11, 2018
As I note over there, in terms of opening space to humanity, historians will record that today was a more significant day than July 20th, and the most significant event in spaceflight since Sputnik and Gagarin. We’re finally making spaceflight routine and affordable to others than governments, over half a century after we first started.
[Monday-afternoon update]
More from Jeff Foust over at The Space Review today.
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