Category Archives: Technology and Society
Space Transports
What is the future of reusable launch vehicles?
It should be clear by now that it’s hopeless to expect the government to do it.
Centennial Challenges
It’s dead, Jim. Give it to FAA, and let Davidian run it again.
Space Settlement
Al Globus lays out the potential paths.
How The World Almost Ended
Apparently we had a very close call in 1883.
It’s amazing to me how unseriously we take this threat, at least judging by our policy choices.
3-D Printing
Revolutionizing military logistics.
It’s going to be a crucial technology for space development and settlement as well.
Carbon Emissions Reductions
The U.S. leads the world in them, but don’t tell anyone:
Efforts to curb so-called man-made climate change had little or nothing to do with it. Government mandated “green” energy didn’t cause the reductions. Neither did environmentalist pressure. And the U.S. did not go along with the Kyoto Protocol to radically cut CO2 emissions. Instead, the drop came about through market forces and technological advances, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.
…”It’s good news and good news doesn’t get reported as much,” John Griffin, executive director of Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan, said of the lack of reporting about the CO2 reductions. “The mainstream media doesn’t want to report these kinds of things.”
Doesn’t fit the narrative.
One Third Of The Way There
It’s been up less than 24 hours, but I’ve already raised 33% of my goal on the Kickstarter. Hope I can keep it up, and vastly exceed it.
The Problems With The Last Dragon Flight
…weren’t as bad as originally reported. I found this interesting, though:
As for the engine shutdown issue, data analysis has yet to result in any definitive conclusions. Although the analysis will continue, the observation that this particular engine had undergone a comparatively high degree of pre-flight testing, may ultimately lead to the conclusion that the shut down was related to the accumulating fatigue of an engine firing more than its nominal mission requirements. If this turns out to be the case; it would prove to be both somewhat ironic, as well as easily addressed by limiting cumulative firings for flight engines. Ongoing analysis has likely pushed the likely date of the next Dragon flight to ISS into the early March time frame.
Wouldn’t “limiting cumulative firings for flight engines” have interesting and problematic implications for reusability?
If this is really a problem, sounds like they’ll have to have a more robust engine design (or perhaps downgrade performance) for reusable versions. And of course, it’s possible that the new engine to start being used next year will resolve whatever the issue is.
Safe Is Not An Option
I’ve belatedly launched my Kickstarter project to publish my book on our irrational attitudes toward safety on the high frontier. I’ve put a short fuse on it — just fifteen days to raise four grand. I’d like to raise a lot more, to really publicize the thing, but that’s the minimum I need to have a quality product, I think.
Everyone who contributes at least five bucks will get some form of the book. Please consider donating generously, if you want to see this get more attention in the new year.