[Update a few minutes later]
Did the Cordray power play backfire? Gee, maybe people care about the Constitution and the law more than the Dems want them to.
The Great Ships
An interesting history of a bygone era.
Self-Healing Electronics
This is the kind of breakthrough we will need for deep-space missions.
Marginal Launch Costs For Reusable Vehicles
I’m writing a paper that contains the following sentence: “Current reusable suborbital providers, such as XCOR Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, or Armadillo Aerospace, are likely to expand their performance envelopes into orbit over the next 10 to 15 years, driving prices down much closer to the marginal cost of propellant, which means potential prices of less than $100 per pound of payload to LEO.”
Can anyone find me a citation to substantiate this statement? I don’t really want to show my work in this document.
[Late evening update]
Ummmmm…folks in comments?
This is all fun, but I don’t need the argument — I know the argument. I need a citation of someone at least semi-credible who has made it, somewhere else.
Good Night, Moonshot
Matt Welch has some thoughts on the mission creep of the “If we can put a man on the moon” analogy. It’s also an introduction to this month’s issue of Reason magazine, which is focused on space. It’s on the stands and in the mail now, and other pieces in it, including my own, and contributions from Greg Benford and Bob Zubrin, will be going on line over the next couple weeks.
[Update a while later]
I have some related thoughts over at Open Market.
The Lunar Yellow Peril
I have some thoughts on China’s recently announced space plans, and some conservatives’ overreaction to them, over at PJMedia.
[Update mid morning]
Tea Party in Space has responded to Cal Thomas as well.
Average Women
…are quite attractive. I have to say, though, that my faves are Israeli, Peruvian and Russian.
[Evening update]
Comments would indicate the age-old aphorism that there’s no accounting for taste.
Save The Blacksmiths!
Why creative destruction is the core of capitalism.
Newt’s (and Rick Perry’s) attacks on Romney and Bain Capital are undermining the argument for limited government. They’re also giving ammunition to Obama in the fall if Romney is the nominee.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: Romney doesn’t have to apologize for his Bain career.
Well, That Should Settle It
Charlie Sheen says he’s not crazy any more.
Underfunding Phobos-Grunt
…was the cause of the failure. Ultimately, I suppose so. But I’m not sure about this:
On the positive side, Phobos-Grunt’s aluminum fuel tank holding 8.3 tons of toxic fuel is likely to safely burn up during re-entry. “Aluminum has a very low melting temperature and rarely survives,” says space debris expert Nicholas Johnson of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
That’s assuming that the propellant isn’t frozen. Do we know that?