Haven’t looked at this in detail, but I suspect that by 2030, heavy-lift expendable rockets will be obsolete. and how in the world are they going to do a vertical landing with a solid booster?
Category Archives: Technology and Society
The Kids In The Cave
The oxygen levels are getting low.
This seems like a solvable problem, using ECLSS technology. Get some LiOH canisters and oxygen tanks in there. Also, Elon has sent some of his tunneling engineers to see if they can help.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Alan Boyle has the story on the Boring Company and SpaceX support. The former would presumably be tunneling, while the later would provide life support based on Dragon technology.
[Noon update]
Elon has gone full superhero.
[Update a while later]
This visually helps pic.twitter.com/MyX2YPbybq
— Rome Strach (@romn8tr) July 6, 2018
[Update Saturday afternoon]
Elon is building a mini-submarine, designed to fit through the tunnels, at SpaceX HQ to fly to Thailand.
Early-morning update]
Thought their politics suck, The Guardian is providing good live blogging of the operation.
[Monday-night update]
There were questions in comments how they got there. Here is Bridget Johnson’s story, including how the Buddhist monk training of the coach helped get them through.
[Bumped]
U.S. Space Guard
After all these years of advocating for it, I’m happy with how much traction the concept is finally getting.
The Latest Buzz On Buzz
Marina Koren talked to Christina and Andy. I just hate to see this.
Heart Function In Monkeys
…has been restored with human stem cells.
Faster, please.
Blue Origin
They’re serious about the moon, even if NASA and Congress aren’t. They plan to start colonizing within half a decade.
Agriculture
Was it a mistake?
No; it enabled modern civilization, but it did so at a cost to human health. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, it’s long.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I got all the way through it. She doesn’t really address the health effects of a grain-based diet.
Facebook’s “Fact Checking”
You’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that it’s one sided. I wonder if all this social-media censorship will revivify the blogosphere?
[Thursday afternoon update]
Facebook’s algorithm removed the text of the Declaration of Independence as “hate speech.” Because of course it did. I mean, Jefferson was a slaveholder.
How To Defeat Facial Recognition
Ummm…no thanks.
Dinosaurs And Gravity
I saw an interesting postulation on Twitter that the reason the dinosaurs could grow so large was that there was less gravity during the Mesozoic. My response:
All I know is that, if earth’s gravity was really less for the dinosaurs, it’s one less excuse for them to have not had a space program that could have prevented them being wiped out.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 4, 2018