Author Archives: billgamesh

Rutger Hauer died on the 19th. His role in Bladerunner was one of the most famous in science fiction cinema. Today I watched the trailer for the 4th season of The Expanse. As my entry into old-man-hood at 60 approaches, the deaths of all these actors and actresses I grew up with “gives me pause.”Continue reading “Remembering Roy”

By Gary Michael Church Today marks half a century since humans landed on the Moon. I was 8 years old. Sadly, I have no memory of the event. Most likely my father was at sea and my mother busy with her many children. I cannot ask them as they are now gone. I remember StarContinue reading “50 years Ago on the Moon”

Space is the Cure for Climate Change by Gary Michael Church The energy problem cannot be solved on Earth; the energy must come from off-world. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), states immediate action on climate change is required if civilization is to avert disastrous levels of global warming. This problem was foreseenContinue reading “Space is the Cure for Climate Change”

I finally seem to have ended mourning Dr. Spudis. It was a terrible blow losing him. On the bright side, the Toxic Dragon blew up yesterday. Hopefully it is one more nail in the coffin of Commercial Crew. It might finally be time to try and take this blog mainstream and start allowing comments. IContinue reading “Goodbye Doc”

After Apollo we accomplished “LEO return” which was both a step backward and a wrong turn. LEO stopped being space exploration after Apollo 8 left it far behind. Abandoning LEO in favor of funding “LLO return” is the right path to correct that near half a century old mistake. The three problems with LLO areContinue reading “Spudis Blog Comments for December 2017”

From Apollo 4 story: Dosing and debilitation are remedied with massive water shielding and tethers. Not really any other options except accepting dosing and debilitation which is….unacceptable. Trivializing these two most critical problems is the standard response but…obfuscation, denial, and misinformation is not going to fly when it is obvious radiation and zero gravity willContinue reading “More TSR Comments”

Jeff Foust has allowed me to post comments on his blog “The Space Review” and I have linked Ice on the Moon with those comments. I am in fact surprised none of the people replying to my comments have been here yet. They will come. Here are some of my comments from the review: “ItContinue reading “TSR Engine Wars comments”

We live at the bottom of gravity well that dictates design, analoguous to Feynman’s quote- “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” This means that no matter how many sci-fi movies portray SSTO and no matter how many NewSpace infomercials scream cheap, “there is no freeContinue reading “More Comments for Dr. Spudis”

After watching this downhill slide into mediocrity for years I have to say in regards to space there is no truer maxim than “truth is stranger than fiction.” There are a short list of guiding principles concerning space exploration that are simply ignored in a bizarro manifestation of collective cognitive dissonance. They are simple truthsContinue reading “Letter to Paul”