Neil deGrasse Tyson decries the lack of action in dealing with the threat of asteroids and comets despite the overwhelming evidence, even before the Chelyabinsk event, of the devastation the impacts of such objects can have to life on earth:
Category Archives: Space Policy
NASA challenges students to design radiation protection systems
NASA has opened an education project in which students “research and design ways to protect astronauts from space radiation”:
The program is framed around the Orion crew spacecraft that Lockheed-Martin is building for NASA.
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As a long time opponent of the $10B+ Orion project, as well as the $20B+ SLS rocket that will launch it, I can’t help but point out that their huge costs preclude funding of improved radiation protection technologies (e.g. magnetic shielding) as well as of in-space transportation systems of a scope to allow for substantial material shielding.
The Inspiration Mars project, which will use a crew capsule (most likely a SpaceX Dragon) attached to a habitat module, expects to provide fairly good shielding by surrounding the crew area with water, food-stuffs, waste and other materials. This privately funded first attempt at a truly deep space mission shows what can be done to protect crews from radiation with current technology and at relatively low cost.
Space Policy: Budgets for NASA for this year and next
The latest on the NASA budget:
- Congress Keeps Working on Budgets: Senate CR, House Budget Resolution Introduced – spacepolicyonline.com
- Mikulski, Shelby Introduce Bipartisan FY2013 CR, Mixed News for NASA and NOAA – spacepolicyonline.com
- Proposed Senate Bill Restores $223 million to NASA’s Planetary Science Division – The Planetary Society
- Senate offers its own take on FY13 NASA budget – Space Politics
Some commentary from Bob Zimmerman: The budget battle at NASA – Behind The Black.
Space policy: Schedule + Budgets + Space law roundup
Upcoming space policy happenings: Space Policy Events for the Week of March 11-15, 2013 – spacepolicyonline.com
And maybe NASA and the rest of the government will get a hint of their budgets for 2014 soon: Waitin’ on the Budget – spacepolicyonline.com
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Res Communis post the latest collection of space and aviation law, regulation and policy links: Library: A Round-up of Reading
NASA needs to shed unneeded facilities
John Kelly believes NASA will have to start shutting down some of its many scattered and only partially used facilities if it is to become a more cost-effective agency: To move ahead, NASA needs to slim down – Florida Today.