However, developments taking place in Boca Chica, Texas might disrupt NASA’s plans for returning to the moon and provide both an opportunity and a politically difficult decision.
Friday, February 15, 2019
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
From the pages of the Daily Caller: HOW THE GREEN NEW DEAL WOULD END AMERICAN SPACE TRAVEL
The so-called Green New Deal is the sort of thing that might have been dreamed up in a college dorm after the bong pipe has been passed around too often. The plan, which was presented as a serious proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters, appeared and suddenly disappeared from the Internet with accusations and recriminations galore. The Heartland Institute has saved the documents from being memory-holed. It does indeed ban beef, cow’s milk, air travel, and the private automobile. It mandates support for people who are unwilling to work and for every building in the country to be retrofitted or rebuilt. It wants a carbon-neutral economy without recourse to nuclear power.
Unknown to most people, the Green New Deal effectively bans space travel. The reason is that rocket launches create harmful emissions, some of which are greenhouse gasses, some of which are harmful in other ways, such as causing damage to the ozone layer. Scientific American has a good rundown of the potential problems rocket exhaust may cause, especially if Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’ dreams of space travel being as common as air travel come to fruition.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Saturday, February 09, 2019
Friday, February 08, 2019
Moon mission could solidify Israel as Silicon Valley of the Middle East
Recently, an Israeli robotic probe called Beresheet, Hebrew for “In the beginning,” made the first leg of its journey to the moon on a flight from Israel to Florida. Beresheet, if it reaches the moon and fulfills its mission, will be as history changing in its own, small way as the Apollo moon landing.
Just a reminder, I will be on The Space Show podcast today at 12:30 p.m. EST discussing the return to the moon, space policy, recent space politics events, and no doubt a lot of related things. Click here to listen in.
Reading List: My articles in The Hill can be found here and here. Check out my Daily Caller articles here. Also, in the Washington Examiner read NASA wants to go back to the moon the hard way. Also The real reason space aliens haven’t visited Earth
Thursday, February 07, 2019
An award for blatant hypocrisy should go to Rep. Lizzie Fletcher:
Houston's legacy of exploration is best exemplified by the people who have set a course for outer space, to learn more about the universe and our place in it. Today, #NASARemembers, and we honor the sacrifice of those astronauts who lost their lives in this pursuit.
Nice sentiment to be sure, but it contrasts with Out of this World.
Wednesday, February 06, 2019
HOW A KEY HOUSE DEMOCRAT ABANDONED SPACE EXPLORATION IN FAVOR OF CLIMATE CHANGE
When news broke that Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) had received a seat on the House Science Committee, it raised eyebrows in the scientific and aerospace communities, which were still smarting from her attacks on science. Would she use her position to mend fences with supporters of space science, offended by her campaign’s open mocking of her opponent, John Culberson’s support for the Europa Clipper mission?
The real reason space aliens haven’t visited Earth
The problem with socialism, as the late, great Margaret Thatcher pointed out, is that, eventually, one runs out of other people’s money. We already are witnessing end-stage socialism in North Korea, where a mad tyrant lords it over a starving, parasite-ridden population, and in Venezuela, which has become a dystopia resembling that of “The Road Warrior” where the people are currently in open revolt over the lack of food, water, and medicine wrought by the Maduro regime. Imagine then, a disaster as has afflicted those two countries happening on a planetary scale?
It may well be that, if human civilization avoids the siren call of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their ilk and expands into space, future explorers will find the ruins of former civilizations which adopted some form of socialism among the stars, where survivors live lives that are nasty, brutish, and short. These alien societies will not have been destroyed by war or environmental catastrophe, but by bad public policy in pursuit of free stuff, heedless of the cost or consequences.
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