Looked at the news this morning and the Amazon is burning, Greenland is melting, and this evening David Koch is dead. Yesterday spacexnews had an article about nuclear power in space. The comments were truly idiotic. Surprised my name was not brought up since I endlessly commented about nuclear energy and space propulsion. They areContinue reading “A Night at the Opera”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
SLS 2021
Looks like the second quarter of 2021 for the first flight of the Space Launch System, just under two years from now. Plenty of time for NASA to rationalize their Human Space Flight program by abandoning LEO and redirecting that over 4 billion a year into expanding SLS launch cadence. In my view the criticalContinue reading “SLS 2021”
Visionaries?
Concerning a recent article I read about the Fermi Paradox: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-world-history-silent-cosmos-humans.html The simple explanation could very well be correct: life is too stupid to survive. We may reach a certain level of technology and then invariably self-destruct. My view on this is our own mortality virtually guarantees extinction in a self-similar way. Who cares (veryContinue reading “Visionaries?”
Greenland is Melting
And all that methane in the permafrost is also being released. If we were to start building Super Heavy Lift Vehicles next year and launching them every other month to start, and ultimately once a week, that would be how to address climate change. Actually, the only way to address climate change with any chanceContinue reading “Greenland is Melting”
What is the Future?
Certainly not a shiny starship! I could predict a rock causing loss of life and a second space age launched to detect, intercept, and deflect asteroid and comet impact threats. Or weather events that cannot be interpreted as anything other than climate change and space solar power as the only solution. Perhaps it will beContinue reading “What is the Future?”
Remembering Roy
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”
50 years Ago on the Moon
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
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”
Goodbye Doc
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”
Spudis Blog Comments for December 2017
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”