Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

Propellant Depots

35 Comments

Over at Aviation Week, Frank Morring says the NASA studies continue:

Michael Gazarik, NASA’s space technology program director, says that CPST and the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket currently under development are complementary technologies. “To explore deep space we need a heavy-lift vehicle — SLS — and we need this technology. We need to be able to demonstrate how to handle cryogenic fluids in space.”

He has to say that. It’s literally politically incorrect to say anything else, and will be until SLS dies. But the reality is that propellant storage on orbit is essential to spacefaring. Heavy lift is not.

[Update a while later]

And…the empire strikes back. A piece defending SLS/BMR by Mike Griffin and Scott Pace, over at Space News. Will I have a response? You bet. Stay tuned.

[Update a while later]

Here is one point (though there are others) that I will really pound on:

The challenge for fuel depots is simply that the marginal specific cost of payload to orbit is generally lower for larger launch vehicles. There may be exceptions, but the trend is clear.

There are at least two avenues of attack. What mine will be is left as an exercise to the students. Oh, and initial link fixed. Sorry.

[Late evening update]

Clark Lindsey has started to rebut, and it’s a good start. But there are a lot more fish in that barrel…

Economics, Education, Political Commentary

An Open Letter To Greg Mankiw

27 Comments

In which oversized children at Harvard demand that they be mistaught economics. I love the comment from “Karl Marx.”

[Update a few minutes later]

The Crimson‘s response is brutal:

…the students’ attempt to connect their classroom protestations to the Occupy movement illustrates the disjointed and often unfocused nature of the movement. Indeed, it seems ironic that students in an introductory economics course at Harvard feel that by walking out of their completely optional lecture taught by a famous economist on the theme of income inequality feel that their actions ought to be considered a sign of solidarity with the Occupy movement. Such protests don’t show solidarity, they show ignorance and a lack of self-awareness.

There’s a lot of that going around at #OWS.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

More Guns Found In Arizona

And the Pinal County Sheriff isn’t happy:

While Sheriff Babeu and his deputies are doing their best to fight these cartels with limited resources, the Obama Justice Department has been arming the enemy with weapons Babeu’s deputies don’t even have.

“Outrage and betrayal. This has never happened before in the history of our country. We may have given armaments and weapons to our allies who may have later become our enemy, but we’ve never given them directly to our enemy,” Babeu said when asked about his initial reaction to Operation Fast and Furious.

“These are the most violent criminals in North America and we facilitated and gave weapons, weapons that my deputies don’t even have, to these cartels,” he said. “It’s more than insane, it is horrific to think that our own government did this.”

Elections have consequences.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Oakland

36 Comments

…has been occupied:

True, the Occupy Oakland general strike was not entirely violent. Throughout most of the day occupiers only terrorized shoppers, destroyed private property, and shut down commerce at the Port of Oakland. The real mayhem didn’t begin until protesters occupied an abandoned building near San Pablo Avenue and 17th Street. The occupiers erected barricades using tires, pallets, and garbage cans and set them on fire when riot police began evicting them from the building. An all-out battle followed with police using tear gas, flash grenades, and bean bag rounds on the occupiers, and the occupiers responding with firecrackers and bottles.

By 12:30 AM, the occupiers had been removed from the building and retreated to their home base at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Despite all the damage and mayhem they have caused, the liberal leaders of Oakland only want to embrace the movement further. The Oakland City Council will take up a resolution today supporting the Occupy encampment and calling on city administrators to “collaborate with protesters.” The resolution is expected to pass over the objection of Council President Larry Reid. “We’ve given up control of the city” to the occupiers, Reid said. “We don’t call the shots anymore – they do.”

Remember when the Tea Party did this sort of thing?

Me, neither.

Hey, Obama, do you still support this movement? Hey, Democrats. Want to go into the election a year from now with these people at your side?

[Update a few minutes later]

Speaking of which, the president’s reelection odds are plunging.

[Update a while later]

From Iowahawk: “Good times for America’s beloved Nazi-endorsed bomb-chucking arsonist rape camp.”

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!