Friday, February 22, 2019

First the moon, now China plans to launch space-based solar power satellite

For anyone who wonders why the Chinese are so anxious to explore the moon, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that China intends to start developing space-based solar power satellites. The Chinese are building the first prototypes now. They plan to deploy small and medium models in the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025. A megawatt-level satellite would be launched in 2030.

A Houston company is building a moon lander for NASA
A lunar lander launches from Florida for the first time since Apollo 17
NASA Sets Launch Date for Orion Spacecraft Abort System Test
NASA is Aboard First Private Moon Landing Attempt
Three Hearts and Three Lions
Warrior's Heart
How Our Universe Could Emerge as a Hologram
Touchdown: Japan probe Hayabusa2 lands on distant asteroid
Israel's Beresheet Moon mission gets under way

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

HOW TED CRUZ, NASA AND SPACEX COULD GET AMERICA BACK TO THE MOON "Senate Space and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz has promised to write and pass a new NASA authorization bill as well as new commercial space legislation. The NASA bill would allow Cruz to fix a huge problem facing NASA’s efforts to take Americans back to the moon as well as to take advantage of SpaceX’s latest project in South Texas."
Israel to the Moon
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch: What you need to know about Israel's lunar lander
The Boat of a Million Years
Dark Hunt (The Vampire Gabriella Book 2)
NASA citizen scientist discovers first ancient dead star with peculiar rings
Gateway Foundation Shows off Their Plans for an Enormous Rotating Space Station
Gene therapy first to 'halt' most common cause of blindness

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

SpaceX could disrupt NASA plan to return humans to the moon
Moon mission could solidify Israel as Silicon Valley of the Middle East
SpaceX first Florida rocket launch of 2019: 'Launch drought' is hopefully over
Here’s a Clever idea. Build Moon Bases in Craters and then Fill them in with Lunar Regolith
The Robots of Dawn (The Robot Series)
Gabriella's War (The Vampire Gabriella Book 4)
Bacteria keep us healthy – but could they keep us young?
Goodnight, Mars
Perovskites: not just a PV face
New NASA team dedicated to finding aliens
NASA Is Studying Whether a Mars Crew Would Need a Class Clown

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.

New space race? Scientist cautions lawmakers about China's moon missions
Nasa announcement to reveal the latest – and probably last – news on Mars Opportunity rover
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)
The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper
NEW STUDY SUGGESTS POSSIBILITY OF RECENT UNDERGROUND VOLCANISM ON MARS
Water Could Have Drowned the Earth If Not for Ancient Supernova
Are the Democrats Bent on Suicide?

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

TOLKIEN | Official Trailer | FOX Searchlight





Tolkien the movie.
Cory Booker: ‘This Planet Simply Can’t Sustain’ People Eating Meat
Moon mission could solidify Israel as Silicon Valley of the Middle East
Jeff Bezos Lays Out Blue Origin's Rocket Reusability Vision for Space Travel
Elon Musk says he is 'confident' people could afford to 'sell their home on Earth' and move to Mars on a SpaceX rocket
The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
Lava Tubes on Earth Could Prepare Us for Life on the Moon and Mars
NASA minimizes threat of JWST delay from shutdown
A space-focused alternative to a Green New Deal

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

During NASA ceremony, Pence promises missions to the moon and Mars
Green New Deal: "Air Travel Stops Becoming Necessary"
The High Crusade
Warrior's Heart
Colorado congressmen want to help NASA take longer missions to faraway spots
Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune
Private Moon Landers Could Help NASA's Next Giant Leap in Lunar Exploration

Thursday, February 07, 2019

NASA Day of Remembrance





Lest we forget...

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.

Mean Girl Democrats
Astronaut Alan Shepard's Out-Of-This-World Round Of Golf On The Moon
NASA Probe Spots China's Chang'e 4 Lander on Far Side of the Moon
Orion Shall Rise
The Moon, Mars, and Beyond
New Exhibition Highlights Story of the Richest Man Who Ever Lived
Cancer treatment at home is safe, effective, and closer to happening than you think
After making history, NASA’s tiny deep-space satellites go silent

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.

European Space Agency has sights set on mining the moon
SOTU: Trump Salutes Buzz Aldrin for Planting Flag on the Moon
Trump: "America Will Never Be A Socialist Country"; "We Were Born Free And We Will Stay Free"
Friday
Children of Apollo (3 Book Series)
BEAUTIFUL MOON BASE CONCEPT PUTS INFLATABLE MODULES IN CRATERS
Chinese satellite captures stunning backside image of the Moon with Earth
Apollo 11 Mentioned In State Of The Union Speech