“The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé” by Rick Boozer

June 19, 2013 TopSpacer

Check out astrophysicist Rick Boozer‘s new book, The Plundering of NASA: an Exposé, which I read in draft form. It lays out the mess that NASA human spaceflight policy is in, how it got that way, and how to fix it.

At last, here is a book peering behind the veil of Congressional politics which force NASA to do the bidding of regional interests that cripple the nation’s capabilities in both exploring outer space and exploiting its enormous economic potential. Presenting the opinions of astronauts, prominent “rocket scientists” and space policy analysts while also revealing unpublicized studies conducted by NASA, industry and universities, The Plundering of NASA: An Exposé combines into one book many of the facts the major media have either ignored or not discovered. It relates how honest misconceptions, greed, and an outdated faction within NASA itself cause our nation to get less for its space agency tax dollars than it could and should.

Currently it is available as a Amazon ebook, and in paperback at Lulu.com, where there is a 20% discount until it becomes available in bookstores.

Rick will be on the SpaceVidCast program on July 6 to discuss the book.

Rockets, Solar Sci-Fi, Space books

The Rocket Company: Chapters 9-12

June 19, 2013 TopSpacer

In the continuing serialization of the updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz. This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:

Download these within the next week. Only four chapters will be available at any one time.

See also the electronic version of the updated book is available at The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com.

Space Policy

Space policy – June.19.13

June 19, 2013 TopSpacer

There will be a House committee hearing on the NASA authorization bill this morning at 10:00 am EDT: Subcommittee on Space Hearing – NASA Authorization Act of 2013 | Committee on Science – U.S. House of Representatives

A draft of the bill contains language that would prohibit funding for much of the NASA plan for future asteroid missions. However, its emphasis on redirecting NASA to focus on missions to the Moon does not include funding for the systems to do lunar expeditions.

I’ll note that the reason the Augustine committee recommended asteroid missions for the human spaceflight program was to have something useful to do while landing and surface operations systems were being developed for lunar and Mars missions. There would not be enough money to develop such systems in parallel with development of the launch and in-space transport systems. This authorization draft shows this to be the case. The SLS/Orion project eats up the HSF funding in a NASA budget that is actually getting smaller rather than remaining flat as in the Augustine worst case scenarios.

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Dennis Wingo posts his thoughts on destinations for the : Moon, Mars, or Asteroids, Which is the Best Destination for Solar System Development? – Dennis Wingo