Category Archives: Technology and Society

Science And Society, Space, Space Science, Technology and Society

No Gravity Required

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This is good news for space settlement:

The scientists ran their experiment on Arabidopsis plants—a go-to species for plant biologists. The control group was germinated and grown at the Kennedy Space Center (A), while the comparative group was housed on the International Space Station (B). For 15 days, researchers took pictures of the plants at six-hour intervals and compared them. Their results surprised even them: the plants in space exhibited the same growth patterns as those on Earth.

The researchers were looking for two specific patterns of root growth: waving and skewing. With waving, the root tips grow back and forth, much like waves. Skewing occurs when a plant’s roots grow at an angle, rather than straight down. Scientists don’t know exactly why these root behaviors occur, but gravity was thought to be the driving force for both.

So much for that theory. This means the potential for fresh food at ISS, if you’re a vegetarian (or even if not). They should be learning how to do weightless hydroponics. Of course, we still don’t know if animals, and particularly humans, can gestate, or how, and that’s true of partial gravities as well. And we’re not likely to until SSI gets funding for its variable-gravity lab.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society

Moongrabber

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No, that’s not the next Bond film, but the clueless fantasy of a physics professor in Coloradoalifornia:

Other concerns bubbling over private space travel are that it will increase the amount of space debris and the potential weaponization and militarization of space.

Williams said that “whatever nation controls the moon controls the Earth.”

“If you had a moon base with space weapons, you could control all the launches on Earth,” she said.

Really? Even the ones when the moon is on the other side of the earth? How would one go about that? What kind of “space weapons” is she talking about? How does one prevent anything from happening on earth from a location that is days away? And this is a professor of physics?

It gets worse:

The Outer Space Treaty states that each nation retains jurisdiction over its citizens should they perform activities in space. So the U.S. would not only govern Golden Spikes’ operations, it would be liable in the event of a catastrophic accident.

“Should the common U.S. man and woman, the 99 percent, pay for the costs and risks of the ‘space happy’ dreams of billionaires?” said Williams, who sits on the board of directors of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

A report released this year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office pegs potential federal liability for third-party claims tied to commercial space exploration at $2.7 billion.

“We need to engage in a national dialogue on the risks and costs of commercial space travel before private space corporations and their rich clients can take and make them at U.S. taxpayers’ expense,” Williams said.

What “catastrophic accident” is being fantasized here that isn’t already a risk with other commercial launches? No one would be harmed if there were an accident on the moon, other than members of the expedition. The U.S. is not liable for them — only for uninvolved third parties. The taxpayer isn’t on the hook for this at all, other than the standard launch indemnity. I’m all for a national dialogue, but I don’t expect one, and if there is one, I hope that it’s led by people more informed than Professor Williams.