Rockets, Space books, Space Policy

“The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé” – now in paperback at Amazon

Rick Boozer‘s book The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé is now available in paperback at Amazon:

Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week

Here’s the list of guests on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Sept. 2, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome back SIR MARTIN REES to discuss starships, extra-solar planets, SpaceX, quasars, etc. Sir Martin will be in California soon for the meeting celebrating the 50th anniversary of discovery of quasars and he will be talking about this as well.

2. Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): ANATOLY ZAK is with us regarding the history of the Soviet & Russian space program and current Russian space program issues.

3. Friday, Sept. 6, 2013, 9:30-11 AM PDT (11:30- 1 PM CDT, 12:30PM-2:00 PM EDT): STAN KENNEDY and MAUREEN O”BRIEN are with us with updates for Oakman Aerospace, Inc. (oak-aero.com).

4. Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013, 12-1:30 PM PDT (3-4:30 PM EDT, 2-3:30 PM CDT). We welcome ROB LOWE from the UK to discuss the space tourism company, ShipInSpace (www.parabolicarc.com/2013/08/26/shipinspace-announcement).

See also:
/– The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
/– The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
/– The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

Asteroids & Comets, Mars, Space Science

Early Mars good for starting life

Life in the solar system could very well have originated on Mars:

Martian microbes could have been transferred to earth via meteorites derived from debris hurled into space from asteroid or comet impacts on Mars. See

 

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Sept.1.13

“Legendary” Chris Kraft,  the first NASA manned spaceflight director, lays into the SLS mess again: Sunday conversation: NASA veteran Chris Kraft upfront with criticism – Houston Chronicle

A sampling of his comments:

  • “The problem with the SLS is that it’s so big that makes it very expensive. It’s very expensive to design, it’s very expensive to develop. When they actually begin to develop it, the budget is going to go haywire.”
  • “Then there are the operating costs of that beast, which will eat NASA alive if they get there. They’re not going to be able to fly it more than once a year, if that, because they don’t have the budget to do it.”
  • Russian rockets achieve high reliability and cost-effectiveness with a high flight rate. “And that’s something the SLS will never have. Never. Because you can’t afford to launch it that many times.”
  • There’s nothing magic about the SLS payload capability. You will eventually need to put far more than that into space anyway so learn to use multiple launches now. NASA needs “an assembly capability, a fuel depot capability and the capability to have people operating there sort of as a Cape Canaveral in the sky.”

These are all common sense remarks that many critics of the SLS/Orion program have been saying since it was hatched in 2010 by a cabal of Congresspersons with NASA centers and/or major NASA contractors in their states (i.e. the only people in Congress who pay attention to space policy). Unfortunately, the program remains a gigantic money-burning fiasco hidden in plain sight because the MSM can’t judge a technical issue like space launch and so few high profile space luminaries point out what a bare-naked boondoggle it is.

More space policy related items:

Update: Scott Pace of GWU talked about space policy on the Space Show yesterday: Dr. Scott Pace, Sunday, 9-1-13 – Thespaceshow’s Blog

Everyone can participate in space