This is the future of space exploration. Which is why we have to stop talking about “exploration” as a justification for humans in space.
[Update in the evening]
Commenter Paul Dietz recommends >Saturn’s Children
Category Archives: Technology and Society
We’re Still Alive, Somehow
So far. Ron Bailey wraps up the end-of-the-world conference. I hadn’t previously heard the Yeltsin nuclear football story. It makes one wonder how many other close calls we’ve had.
An Interesting New Technology
Just A Rant
And probably a futile one, and one that I’ve even probably kvetched about before. But when did top posting become the norm for email? Was it Microsoft and AOL’s fault?
And is there anything that can be done at this point? In many extended discussions, I feel like I’m driving on the wrong side of the road in my own country.
Good News On The Life Extension Front
From Instapundit.
I think that this stuff is going to sneak up on us, and the political establishment is going to not have any idea how to respond to it. But it will be a disaster for social security in its current form, as well as pension plans, though a boon for those of us who have never counted on it.
Nuclear Phobia
Time to end it. It’s a technology we need in space, too.
Man Versus Nature
A few horrifyingly hilarious tales. Don’t miss the exploding whales.
“Snarkyboy” Persists
In a follow-up to the original Orion worship post:
The Saturn V, the biggest thing we’ve ever launched (just go with me here) weighed in at 6,699,000 lbs, or 3,350 tons, and managed to put a measly 100,000 lbs (50 tons) into lunar orbit.
So lets pretend we want to build a classic L5 space colony. How big does it have to be?
Sorry, but we’re not going to “go with you there.”
This is an inappropriate methodology, and the assumptions here are completely nonsensical. The problem has nothing to do with scaling Saturn Vs, and no one in their right mind ever thought that a “classic L5 space colony” would be built completely out of materials launched from the planet.
There is no good reason that we can’t have launch costs of less than a hundred dollars a pound with chemical rockets, and give rides to millions of pounds of passengers and cargo. All that is needed is to make the investment into space transports, and set multiple teams of engineers loose on the problem, something that we have not done to date.
The cargo would be used to bootstrap production facilities for extraterrestrial resources, with high-value/pound payloads (i.e., electronics) coming up from earth. We do not need Orion to build space colonies. We need a lot of other things, but not that.
An Effective Alzheimers Treatment?
Let’s hope so. Alzheimers is, to me, one of the worst diseases, because it steals not just your body, but your mind, to the point that you’re essentially dead while the empty husk metabolizes on. If it’s actually possible to reverse the progress of the disease, that’s huge news. But I wonder if in doing so, you’ve still lost some irretrievable memories? And if so, who are you?
Space Elevators
Alan Boyle has a report from this weekend’s conference on them. It’s unfortunate that it conflicted with NewSpace 2008, in the other Washington. But there are only so many weekends in a year.
[Update a few minutes later]
Alan’s report is great, but there sure is an appalling level of ignorance in the comments.