Another space Kickstarter project, with a week to go.
What Does A Moon Base Cost?
In reading this article about whether or not there’s money to be made on the moon, I came across this link, with an estimate from about three years ago of the cost of a lunar base.
The numbers seem way high to me, but of course, they’re based on Constellation. But I can never get over the cost estimate for Altair. Twelve billion dollars to develop a lander? How can that possibly be? The only way I can think that they came up with that is to look at the LEM costs in the sixties, and scale them up in both size and current-year dollars. Which is a completely useless way to do it.
It Begins?
Syria has reportedly shot down a NATO (Turkish) aircraft.
Red Moon Rising?
What are China’s lunar ambitions?
Space, The Mining Frontier
The latest on Planetary Resources.
Safety Is The Highest Priority
The latest from the teddy bears. Or dogs. Or whatever they are.
Liar-In-Chief
Thoughts from Roger Simon.
Between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama (not to mention John Edwards), I have to wonder what it is about Democrats that they are so tolerant of liars as their candidates?
[Update a few minutes later]
Speaking of liars, Jay Carney gets pretty much everything wrong in his press event. Of course, to be fair, he might actually believe what the other liars are telling him. In which case, he’s not a liar, but an idiot (not that the two are mutually exclusive).
[Update a while later]
Boo hoo. David Maraniss regrets telling the truth about the president.
More Good News On Obama’s Legacy
A lawsuit has been filed on the basis that Dodd-Frank is unconstitutional.
[Friday morning update]
Kickstarter Projects
Time to go help out John Mankins. His project for his book on power satellites is only a third of the way there, with only five days to go.
And unrelated, other than it’s Kickstarter, Patricia’s aspiring film-maker nephew is a ways from his goal as well.
Eight Years Since First Flight
On June 21st, 2004, SpaceShipOne made its first journey into space, a test run for the X-Prize-winning flights the following fall. I was there (the top five posts on this page are from Mojave). Jeff Foust has some thoughts on the slower-than-anticipated progress in the industry. Ed Wright and Doug Messier also remember.