…has gotten married, and started a space blog.
Best wishes for both.
A Bad Iran Deal
Hey, I’m old enough to remember when the administration used to say that no deal was better than that.
To be honest, though, I don’t think they ever really believed it. They’ve always been desperate for a deal, and are getting more so as the clock ticks. And the Iranians know it. I’ve never seen a worse negotiator than Barack Obama.
Global Warming
It might be real, but the Left’s “solutions” to it are a fantasy.
Our Valley Forge
Sarah Hoyt says don’t get wobbly (but she uses a few more words than that).
The Jetsons
Will they go to church?
Of course, for some, science is a religion.
A Modest Thought Experiment
Imagine the maximum discharge of the Mississippi (~20,000 m^3/s) being issued in Green River, Wyoming.
What would be the environmental impact?
I’m thinking it would green up the west pretty nicely.
[Saturday update]
I put this in comments, but decided to update the post:
Someone can check my math, but ignoring wall friction in the pipeline, raising a gallon of water 6000 feet takes a head of about 0.02 kW-hrs (a little over 7 kJ). So a tiny fraction of a penny. At a speed of half a meter, for 2000 km, I get about 0.02 watts to move it up the hill (again, ignoring wall friction), over a period of six weeks or so. Seems affordable to me from an energy standpoint. Rather than pipelines, actually, it would make more sense to have a series of aquaducts with pumping stations, for less friction, and probably lower construction cost. At that velocity, 200 meters deep and 200 meters wide would do the job. I’m sure it could be optimized for speed and dimensions.
Of course, max outflow of the Mississippi might be overkill, so a useful system might be quite a bit smaller.
The Delay In Spaceport Brownsville
Joe Pappalardo has the story. I wonder how much of it is due to environmental impact assessment, and if so, if it would be as hard if they were doing an airport instead? Back in 2004, we tried to extend the categorical exception that the aviation industry gets from the National Environmental Protection Act to space transportation, but the result was weak tea, leaving waivers up the discretion of the head of the EPA. Something I’d like to see in an amended version of the Commercial Space Launch Act would be to make it a clean extension, with no discretion from Gina (or any future administrator). It would be interesting to see if that made it veto bait for Obama, though.
The High Cost Of Space Access
Roger Launius has a brief history of the Shuttle, but this number is outdated:
The best expendable launch vehicles (ELV) still cost about $10,000 per pound from Earth to orbit.
As I commented over there (it’s awaiting moderation), Falcon 9 delivers ~30,000 lbs to LEO for ~$60M. That’s $2000/lb. Price, not cost. Falcon Heavy will roughly halve that. If they can reuse cores, they’ll drop the price further.
The Anglosphere
Are Germany and France joining it?
I don’t think this is right:
America is actually moving away from Europe politically and culturally, becoming more like Latin America in character and more concerned with east Asia. Increasingly Britain may have less in common with the United States, let alone Commonwealth countries like India, and more in common with English-speaking Germany – and even France where English proficiency is finally catching up.
If we’re “becoming more like Latin America in character,” it’s because we have people in power who seem happy for us to become a banana republic. Most of America remains more in the Anglosphere than the UK itself, which is becoming more European. It’s not just about language.