Business, Political Commentary, Space

A Chinese/European Space Station?

13 Comments

This is interesting.

APAS is a pretty obsolete system, but it would be nice to have a docking standard for everyone, for safety and rescue reasons, and flexibility. I’m sure that Frank Wolf would have a hissy fit, though, if we were to share the NDS with the Chinese. The question is, would the station share an orbit with the ISS, or be in a different one? One of my dreams is seeing an actual community and infrastructure develop in one place, which again, would promote safety, and eliminate the idiotic (in my opinion, as I describe in my book) requirement for a “lifeboat” to evacuate everyone in the ISS all the way back to earth.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

America’s “Justice” System

7 Comments

Thoughts from Conrad Black:

American prosecutors win 99.5 percent of their cases, a much higher percentage than those in other civilized countries; that 97 percent of them are won without trial, because of the plea-bargain system in which inculpatory evidence is extorted from witnesses in exchange for immunity from prosecution, including for perjury; that the U.S. has six to twelve times as many incarcerated people per capita as do Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, or the United Kingdom, comparably prosperous democracies; that the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its incarcerated people, and half of its academically qualified lawyers, who take about 10 percent of U.S. GDP; that prosecutors enjoy very uneven advantages in procedure and an absolute immunity for misconduct; that they routinely seize targets’ money on false affidavits alleging ill-gotten gains so they cannot defend themselves by paying rapacious American lawyers, most of whom in criminal-defense matters are just a fig leaf to provide a pretense of a genuine day in court before blind justice; that the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment rights that are the basis of the American claim to being a society of laws don’t really exist in practice; and that far too many judges are ex-prosecutors who have not entirely shed the almost universal prosecutorial will to crucify.

But other than that, it’s great.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

All The President’s Thugs

30 Comments

Instapundit has a big roundup of links to the Bob Woodward story.

You know, the last time a paranoid socialist president with an enemies list crossed swords with Woodward, it didn’t end well for him. And the media’s hackery/flackery in the service of The One has never been more fully on display.

[Update a while later]

I do have to say that I find Woodward’s naivety in thinking that the president wouldn’t approve of this a little disquieting.

[Update a few minutes later]

That noted right winger Ron Fournier got similar treatment. At some point, the floodgates might open, at least for those few reporters who still imagine themselves to have any integrity whatsoever. I’ll be there are a lot of stories like this out there. And I have to say, I’m not really surprised that it’s Gene Sperling. He always strikes me as a little weasel whenever I see him spinning.

[Update a while later]

A dissenting view from Kevin Hassett: Gene Sperling is no thug.

I wonder who Fournier’s interactions were with? Certainly Plouffe hasn’t covered himself in glory here.

[Update a while later]

Fournier expands on his previous account. It’s still ambiguous, at least to me, whether he’s saying that this is the same WH official who “threatened” Woodward. But I just find this kind of thing mind blowing:

Reporting by Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered Watergate misdeeds and led to the resignation of President Nixon. My tweet was not intended to compare Nixon to Obama (there is no reason to doubt Obama’s integrity — period) but rather to compare the attack to the press strategies of all the presidents’ men.

…This can’t be what Obama wants. He must not know how thin-skinned and close-minded his staff can be to criticism. “I have the greatest respect and admiration for what you do,” Obama told reporters a year ago. “I know sometimes you like to give me a hard time, and I certainly like to return the favor, but I never forget that our country depends on you.”

Emphasis mine.

“…no reason to doubt Obama’s integrity”? Really? No reason at all?

“This can’t be what Obama wants”? Really?

The fish rots from the head down, Ron.

[Update a while later]

Heh: “Washington is the only place on earth where Gene Sperling and Rahm Emanuel can successfully bully people.”

Business, Space

Inspiration Mars

79 Comments

The press conference starts in about half an hour. I see though, that they have more info at the web site:

An inflatable habitat module will be deployed after launch and detached prior to re-entry.

So they’re not crazy enough to spend over sixteen months in a cramped capsule.

[Update a couple minutes later]

They’re already streaming from the press club. I see Jim Muncy talking on the phone in front of the speakers’ chairs.

[Update a while later]

I think I see Jim Keravala of Shackleton Energy Company in the front row, and closer to the camera, the back of Jeff Foust. And now I see Seth Borenstein, from AP.

[Update at 12:56 EDT]

Speakers seated now. Looks like (left to right) Tito, Taber, Jon Clark and Jane Poynter. Sharon Grace from AIAA just came in.

OK, Miles O’Brien is MCing. “Simplicity, audacity, liquidity.”

Jeff Foust has a picture.

Inspiration Mars Press 1

You can see Keravala on the right edge of the shot.

O’Brien: “Sometimes you just have to weight anchor and shove off.”

This certainly fits in with the theme of my book.

Tito speaking now.

“Need to learn how crew responds to deep-space missions before attempting a landing.”

“This mission is a low-hanging fruit.”

Miles O’Brien just tweeted: “#InspirationMars seeking committed couples for a 501 day round trip to #Mars and back. No stopping for directions!”

“I will come out a lot poorer as a result of this mission, but my grandchildren will be enriched.”

Here‘s an interview that Jeff Foust did with Taber yesterday. “It all sort of kept working out.”

“No show stoppers, funding for first two years out of my pocket.”

“Media rights will be incredible, imagine Dr. Phil talking to the couple about their problems.”

Taber speaking now.

It strikes me that Taber and Jane are obvious crew candidates.

[Update a while later]

Now saluting the “program of record” (i.e., SLS/Orion). “Needed to actually explore Mars with team of scientists.” Can just barely do a flyby with current hardware.

Jonathan Clark about to speak now. It just occurs to me that it’s been almost exactly ten years (February 1) since he lost his wife on Columbia.

Jane speaking now. “Really long road trip in an RV, about a year and a half, and you can’t get out.” 3000 pounds of freeze-dried food, that will be rehydrated with the water you drank a couple days earlier.

[Update after end of conference]

Seth Borenstein: “Are you crazy?” OK, that was a paraphrase. Good response by Tito to his skepticism. I was thinking Apollo 8 and STS-1 when he was asking if this isn’t too risky, how do you do it without test flights, how do you do it in five years, bla bla bla.

Jon Clark pointing out that main crew health is a mission operational issue, because they are a part of the system in the need for them to maintain it. Can deal with cancer issues when the get back, but have to be sure that they are capable of performing throughout the mission.

Frank Morring of AvWeek asking about milestones to hit five-year deadline. When will crew be selected?

Taber: Dennis has committed to two years, and they don’t need to worry about money. Have signed Space Act agreement, life support under development, have to put together vehicle strategy soon to hold schedule. Clark says that it is a milestone-driven program. I would note that this is one of the advantages of having a limited window that you have to hit — it concentrates the mind, programmatically.

[Update toward the end of questioning]

Clark Lindsey has some good notes of the event.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Hagel Fight

45 Comments

Was it worth it?

Hagel’s errors about the innovations and strategic benefits the surge would provide and his unwillingness to revisit that view suggest our new defense secretary doesn’t have a clue about the key element of 21st-century war and preparedness — counterinsurgency.

But his failure to understand the surge, then and now, pales in comparison to his disastrous ideas about the key foreign-policy challenge facing the United States: a nuclear Iran.

Hagel is and always has been fine with a nuclear Iran, even though Obama says his administration is not. We’re told one of the reasons Obama chose Hagel was that he appreciated his heterodox views on Iran.

It was incumbent upon those of us who believe unthinkable catastrophe will result from a nuclear mullahcracy (and one whose leaders speak of making Israel disappear) to kick up a fuss about Hagel, if for no other reason than to prevent the administration from subtly and quietly downshifting into a policy of “containment.”

Perhaps most important, the nation and the world had to know there was a serious body of opinion in the United States that would not sit idly by in the face of Hagel’s long history of classic anti-Semitic insinuations about Israel’s supposed secret power over Washington’s decision-making process.

This is the worse foreign-policy team since…ever?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

No Furloughs For NASA

15 Comments

It’s achieving an apparent miracle:

If these warnings, and others coming out of the Obama administration, are to be believed, NASA has pulled off an impressive, if not impossible, feat. But on the other hand, are we really to believe it is the only agency capable of doing so?

I’m going to be supremely cynical here, and suggest that Bolden isn’t being pressured to do this as other agency heads are, because no one cares whether or not NASA shuts down. It doesn’t cause any political pain, as some of the other measures (e.g., TSA reductions) will, so he’s being left alone to manage as best he can.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!