Category Archives: Technology and Society

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Space Exploration Delenda Est

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Not really Christmas related, but I was working on a section of the report about this, and realized that I hadn’t blogged it at the time, a few days ago. Pew Research released an opinion poll, in which they asked “what role the US government should play in advancing space exploration,” in the context of a broader poll asking what the government role should be in a wide range of activities. For “space exploration,” the public was basically split according to Pew, with almost half favoring a government role, and almost half favoring little or none. But there was a crucial assumption in the question: That everyone agreed on what “space exploration” meant.

I think polls like this are meaningless, because the public is so ill informed, and the notion of “space exploration” so (no pun intended) nebulous. Planetary probes? Space mining? Space settlement? Astronomy? The answer is going to depend very much on what the individual thinks that space exploration is. That’s why I’ve declared warfare on the phrase.

Business, Culinary, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Food Fight Over Government Nutrition

No, the Republicans aren’t “politicizing it”:

For decades, the government has advised Americans on what they should eat. The advice isn’t just advisory; it drives everything from school lunches and agricultural subsidies to marketing for those bowls of candy we call breakfast cereal. But the science behind this enterprise has always been shaky.

Yes. And Michelle’s lunch program continues to constitute literal, physical child abuse.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Space, Technology and Society

Refurbishing Rockets

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Loren Grush talked to some Shuttle engineers to assess SpaceX’s chances. I’ve pointed out to several people on Twitter that Shuttle provides very little relevant experience.

[Mid-morning update]

I mentioned it in comments, but this piece I wrote at Popular Mechanics four and a half years ago is just as relevant today: Six False Lessons From The Space Shuttle:

…the reality is that the shuttle taught us nothing about the cost of a properly designed, fully reusable launch system, because that’s not what it was.

It’s a little depressing to see how well that holds up.

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society

Reusing Rockets

33 Comments

I love the opening of this piece from James Dean:

In more than 65 years of launches from these shores, a rocket landing anywhere near its launch pads meant something had gone terribly wrong.

Not anymore.

Nope.

[Update a few minutes later]

He quotes Elon as saying that the rocket “costs” sixty million, but isn’t that the price? It has to cost less than that for them to make a profit. And I don’t think they’d want to reveal the actual cost, for business reasons, but it would be nice to know just how much margin they have, and how much they can reduce the price if it’s fully reusable.

[Update a few more minutes later]

And here we have an article from Mike Wall, where he quotes Elon as saying it cost $16M to build (if true, that gives them a huge profit margin and room to drop prices in the face of any competition). I saw others reporting that on Twitter on Monday, but no one really clarified if he said “sixty” or “sixteen.” It would be nice to get the actual number.

[Update a while later]

Here’s Miriam Kramer’s take.

[Update a couple minutes later]

And Jessica Orwig’s.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Rounding the Cape of Bojador.

[Afternoon update]

Here‘s SpaceflightNow’s take on it.