Author Archives: billgamesh

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nasa-borucki-climate-change_56036125e4b0fde8b0d14588 “No,” he said. “The possibility of being able to send people, particularly a large number of people, to settle another planet orbiting another star seems extremely small.” I never cease to be amazed me at the lack of imagination among scientists and engineers. Of course this is matched by the bizarro flights of fancyContinue reading “Closed Minds”

“In 1966 Gemini 11 did a tether-generated artificial gravity experiment. A several thousand foot long tether system with equal masses on either end generating one gravity is the solution that people have been doing calculations for since the 1930’s (it was not known if humans would remain conscious without gravity so the tether was aContinue reading “One Revolution Per Minute”

Unfortunately Dr. Spudis closed his discussion board down before I could respond to these replies and comments. So I am going to respond in italics here: October 10, 2015 at 10:41 am “A reusable Extraterrestrial landing vehicle could operate between the Earth-Moon Lagrange points and LEO and between the Lagrange points and the lunar surfaceContinue reading “Responding to the Naysayers”

October 10, 2015 at 8:27 am “The more ambitious your space aspirations become, the more it makes sense to look carefully at using space resources. To me, this gets to the real debate behind the debate. Arguments over whether to use lunar resources or not really break down into one’s long-term desires for space—permanence versusContinue reading “Letters to Paul again”

“-the skills and technologies needed to acquire and use off-planet resources-“to launch tons of water from Earth is to completely miss the point of attempting it—we are learning how to “cut the umbilical cord”- Excerpts from Paul Spudis’ article in Air and Space Magazine. Any dialogue with the NewSpace sycophants presently hijacking the discussion aboutContinue reading “Letters to Paul”

Op-ed | Humanity’s Outpost on the Edge LEO is “90 percent to anywhere in the solar system.” What a farce. And I am banned from making any comments on this site. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2774/1 “For better or worse, the Apollo and shuttle days are gone, forever. But that is not a bad thing. We now have privateContinue reading “Propaganda”

Click to access Lunar_resources_review_preprint_accepted_manuscript.pdf The naysaying that is thrown at any comments on the internet made about using lunar resources (ISRU) is quite amazing. Figure 10 in the recent paper on lunar resources is one simple way to slap such foolishness down.

By Gary Michael Church Triton is my favorite moon and it is so far out there I always think about how long it would take to get there. Earth escape velocity: 11.2 km/s If each H-bomb can impart 100 mph then 1000 bombs can provide 100,000 mph. Using this figure for travels to icy bodiesContinue reading “Interplanetary Missions”

Gary Michael Church The dirigible airship, the Zeppelin, may well spell the end of the satellite industry within a decade or two. Using new technology to make safe (with a double hull nitrogen ignition barrier), manipulate, and utilize the hydrogen lifting gas, these airships are the ultimate telecommunications platforms. The superiority of these stationary platformsContinue reading “The Coming Zeppelin Satellite Apocalypse”

Gary Michael Church In my view Paul Spudis has the correct solution; he has on several occasions written about a “Space Navy” as a separate agency. Having been in on the birth of the Department of Homeland Security I know this is not impossible. The DHS was brought into existence and I was made aContinue reading “Amazon Women on the Moon”