Thursday, December 31, 2020

Happy New Year to one and all. May 2021 be much better than 2020.
WHITE HOUSE RELEASES IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION
Careers On The Moon In 2020s, A Possible Reality
The Air Force Is Building a Spacecraft That Will Beam Solar Power to Earth
Put Down That Popcorn and Back Away from the Theatre: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Contains ‘Islamophobia’
NASA-Canadian agreement demonstrates how Artemis is an international moonshot
Elon Musk reveals catch and quick release plans for Super Heavy booster
Is SpaceX versus China the only space race that matters?
Retrofuturistic NASA Space Art
The Last Moonwalker and Other Stories
With the right catalyst, we might make jet fuel from CO₂
Current spacesuits won’t cut it on the moon. So NASA made new ones.
The surface of the moon is a galactic time capsule

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

NASA’s Insurance Policy Against Biden
Starship SN9’s time to shine – test series targets a New Year’s resolution
Viasat asks FCC to perform environmental review of Starlink
NASA-Canadian agreement demonstrates how Artemis is an international moonshot
ELON MUSK SAYS MARS ECONOMY WILL RUN ON CRYPTOCURRENCY
Lessons Learned in 2020 from NASA, International Space Station Science Experiments and Research
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
What would Earth look like to alien astronomers?
The Space News We’ll Be Watching in 2021
Why Roman concrete is stronger than it ever was, while modern concrete decays

Monday, December 28, 2020

Why Joe Biden would have made a better villain for Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman 1984 has proven off-putting to a lot of people for many reasons, not the least of which has been the unfair treatment the movie delivers to Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. However, the movie would have made a lot more sense if the villain had been based on Joe Biden, the president-elect of the United States. Indeed, some might even think that Biden’s election as president of the United States could be the result of a wish-granting idol. It certainly wasn’t the result of any merit or effort on the candidate’s part.

China’s Chang’e-5 mission: flagging the moon for conflict?
Welcome to Texas, Elon Musk

When he lost a race for the United States Congress in Tennessee, Davy Crockett famously declared, “You all can go the hell; I’m going to Texas.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Almost 190 years since Crockett won deathless glory at the Alamo, a lot of people and companies seem to be sharing his sentiment, especially those residing in California. Hewitt Packard and Oracle are scheduled to move their headquarters from high tax, high regulation California to business-friendly Texas. Now Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame, seems to be the latest to shake his fist, metaphorically speaking, at California and move to Texas.

Here's How the Ashes of Star Trek's Original Scotty Got Smuggled Aboard the International Space Station
The 10 biggest spaceflight stories of 2020
Dealing with dust: A back-to-the-moon dilemma
The Coming Global Backlash against China
Preparing for “Earth to Earth” space travel and a competition with supersonic airliners
Arachnauts: NASA Sends Spiders to Space for Experimentation – Here’s What They Found
The Moon, Mars, and Beyond: Two Tales from the Coming Space Age
Floating 'mini-nukes' could power countries by 2025, says startup
Biden Defense Team Inherits Navy Robotic Warship Research Aimed At Deterring And Defeating China
Archaeologists uncover ancient street food shop in Pompeii

Sunday, December 27, 2020

NASA-Canadian agreement demonstrates how Artemis is an international moonshot

Space Policy Online reports that NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have concluded an agreement that, among other things, would include a Canadian astronaut on the Artemis II mission, envisioned to take four astronauts around the moon in 2023. The Artemis II would precede the Artemis III mission to land on the moon the following year, even though most believe that date to be unrealistic.

Why I'm flying to space to do research aboard Virgin Galactic
China’s virus deceptions have been even worse than we thought
China develops a rocket with a reusable first stage, the trend of reusable rockets goes global
The Extraordinary Robotic Sample-Gathering System of NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins harvests radishes grown in space
Children of Apollo
An Essential Man
ARE DEMOCRATS IN TROUBLE IN 2022?
Poland Just Stopped Big Tech Censorship in Its Tracks With Single Shot: We Can Do the Same

Saturday, December 26, 2020

What Wonder Woman 1984 doesn’t get about Trump and Reagan

When Patty Jenkins, the director of both 2017’s Wonder Woman and the newly released Wonder Woman 1984 announced that the film’s big baddy, Maxwell Lord, was based on Donald Trump, one could hear the groans coming from sea to shining sea. Why would Ms. Jenkins insult half of her audience by doing a thing like that?

Replace the Arecibo radio telescope with one on the moon's far side
NASA’S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY ACHIEVES FIRST LONG-DISTANCE QUANTUMTELEPORTATION
NASA's SLS megarocket 'hot fire' test delayed after early shutdown in fueling trial
A Brother on the Moon
Japan going ahead with ‘Godzilla’ fighter jet
How future spacecraft might handle tricky landings on Venus or Europa
NASA’s Artemis Accords Boost Commercial Space Activity

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

The International Space Station can’t stay up there forever. Will privately run, commercial replacements be ready in time?
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ – Woke, Wobbly and the Year’s Most Shocking Dud

Here is the money quote

"Yet when Maxwell grants the Reagan stand-in his own wish, he asks for MORE nuclear weapons to outgun “Russia” (didn’t we call it the Soviet Union at the time?)"

"Three-plus decades later, Hollywood is still slamming Reagan as a war monger."

Really? REALLY? Patty Jenkins is not the first Hollywood lib to not get Reagan. If anything, the Gipper would have asked for a working SDI system. Indeed, one would imagine that he did get his wish: the fall of the Soviet Union.

NASA's aim shouldn't be altered every time we get a new president
Egypt has joined the Moon Village Association
NASA honing plans for its Mars Ice Mapper mission
2020 is when private spaceflight just got started. In 2021 it will shoot for the stars
Gabriella's Holy War
A Martian Roundtrip: NASA's Perseverance Rover Sample Tubes
An updated way to calculate the likelihood of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations
Russia’s space chief is hopping mad over most recent US restrictions

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

America Can Afford to Have a Future! Greg Autry NASA CFO Confirmation He...

NASA receives $23.271 billion in fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill
Made In Space makes ceramic turbine part in orbit in another 3D printing milestone
Replace the Arecibo radio telescope with one on the moon's far side
NASA Completes Design Review of the SLS Exploration Upper Stage
The Year in Space Travel
Gabriella's War (The Vampire Gabriella Book 4)
SLS: Crucial test for Nasa's 'mega-rocket'
A Transient at Proxima Centauri?
Joe Biden’s climate agenda is all about creating a crisis — not actually fixing one

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Replace the Arecibo radio telescope with one on the moon's far side

The iconic Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, which has been making scientific discoveries for 57 years, not to mention serving as the backdrop of such films as Contact and Goldeneye, has collapsed. The radio observatory had already been slated for decommissioning when two cables snapped and it was judged too dangerous to repair. Now the Arecibo is little but rubble.

NASA SLS megarocket for the moon resumes testing after equipment hiccup
NASA moves Mars Sample Return program into next phase of development
The Flight of the Grey Falcon
SpaceX Starship chasers converge in South Texas
SpaceX closes out record-setting year of launches from Florida’s Space Coast
President-Elect Biden Introduces Climate Team, EPA Nominee Promises To Combat ‘Environmental Justice’

Thursday, December 17, 2020

A moon mission to build on a new Middle-East friendship and two big Trump achievement

Recently, SpaceIL, an Israeli private group that crashed a probe on the lunar surface last year, announced that it would undertake a second attempt to land on the moon, the Beresheet 2, to take place in the first half of 2024. Interestingly, SpaceIL is seeking financial support from the United Arab Emirites for its second moon shot, according to the Times of Israel.

NASA SUGGESTS SENDING BOSTON DYNAMICS ROBODOG TO MARS
Space Force plans to nearly triple in size in second year, could accept Army, Navy transfers
Backed by SpaceX’s investor, UK-based startup Magdrive grabs £1.4M to disrupt space travel
NASA Awards Launch Services Contract to Blue Origin for New Glenn Launch Services
NASA selects the next Artemis moonwalkers while SpaceX flies a Starship
NASA Supports America's National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion
NASA, Canadian Space Agency Formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
Hibernating Lemurs May Be the Key to Cryogenic Sleep for Human Space Travel .
Why being kind to others is good for your health
America's Commitment to Human Space Exploration Is Unifying

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Trump will leave a lasting mark on space
Hayabusa2 asteroid sample-return capsule
Beyond Apollo: guiding the next Moon landing
Starship contradictions
NASA selects the next Artemis moonwalkers while SpaceX flies a Starship
NASA assigns astronauts for third SpaceX commercial crew mission
What’s next for Space Force as it celebrates its first anniversary
NASA Administrator Signs Statement of Intent with Brazil on Artemis Cooperation
Do Uranus’s Moons Have Subsurface Oceans?
Congress reaches compromise on clean energy deal to be attached to government funding bill

Wednesday, December 09, 2020

SpaceX Starship SN8 historic launch and landing fail

Shot: Peace between Israel and the UAE could spark joint Israeli-Arab space exploration

Chaser: “Israel is going back to the Moon,” announces SpaceIL co-founder

Similarly to the first attempt, the spacecraft will be designed and built by Israel Aerospace Industries, with local and international funding, including private donors such as businessman and billionaire Leonard Blavatnik. Israel is expected to partner with countries such as the United Arab Emirates, who recently launched a craft of their own, and signed a peace agreement with Israel in September. The project is estimated to cost $100 million.

SpaceX just scrubbed an ambitious Starship rocket launch after the engines automatically aborted
Elon Musk confirms: ‘Yes, I have moved to Texas’
Children of Apollo
Are strange space signals in Antarctica evidence of a parallel universe?
I Think We’re Ready for Aliens
Joe Biden’s Buffoonery Starts Before He Is Even Sworn In

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

China cannot be a space partner with the US

By all accounts, the Chinese Chang’e 5 sample return mission to the moon has been a complete success. The space probe landed on the lunar surface, drilled and scooped up a quantity of soil and rock, and took off again. The success of the mission undertaken by the communist country has elicited some tired but often repeated suggestions that world peace could be created with joint space missions between China and the United States.

Will the Biden administration slow Elon Musk's SpaceX down?
SpaceX to attempt major Starship SN8 prototype test flight Tuesday. Here's how to watch live.
NASA Defines Science Priorities for First Crewed Artemis Landing on Moon
Gabriella's Holy War
What Artemis astronauts could learn about the moon when they land in 2024
SLS Core Stage tanking test is first Green Run moment of truth for NASA
Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

China Chang’e 5 probe has safely landed on the Moon

Next year it will be our turn.

NASA weighing options for future planetary radar capabilities after Arecibo
China pushes ahead with super-heavy-lift Long March 9
With the Chang'e 5 launch, China takes a giant leap forward in the race to the moon
Musk says another SpaceX test flight set for Wed
NASA starts assembling Artemis Space Launch System rocket
Children of Apollo
Bernie Sanders should opt for a government-created vaccine from China or Russia
Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” XII: What is the Waterworlds Hypothesis?
Why Iran Is Getting the Bomb

Sunday, November 29, 2020

With the Chang'e 5 launch, China takes a giant leap forward in the race to the moon

China is the only country that has landed on the moon in decades. Recent attempts by India and a private group in Israel failed with what aerospace observers termed “ballistic landings” (i.e. crashes.) Thus, China is far and away ahead in the modern race to the moon. The winner of the 21st century moon race will have access to the moon’s resources and position as the gateway to the rest of the solar system and will thus own the future.

HEGRA, AN ANCIENT CITY IN SAUDI ARABIA UNTOUCHED FOR MILLENNIA, MAKES ITS PUBLIC DEBUT
Planetary Scientists Say It's Time To Explore Venus
UAE mission to Mars on course to arrive in February 2021
Gabriella's Holy War
New Space Race Shoots for Moon and Mars on a Budget
China's Chang'e 5 enters lunar orbit for historic attempt to return moon samples
STARSHIP SN8 | 15-KILOMETER HOP

Saturday, November 28, 2020

California voters save the rideshare industry in their state

"The political culture in California is a curious one. California voters keep electing lawmakers and a governor who treat them like medieval peasants by passing outrageous laws. Then the voters pass propositions that repeal the most onerous of those laws. In most states, voters just get rid of the offending politicians and elect more sensible ones in their place."

How space exploration will help to address climate change
Late to the space race, China is making strides with Chang’e 5 moon landing
SpaceX's giant Starship rocket will have its first big high-altitude test next week, says Elon Musk
New Hubble Data Explains Missing Dark Matter
Gabriella's War (The Vampire Gabriella Book 4)
MOXIE – A Device Aboard NASA’s Perseverance Rover – Could Help Future Rockets Launch off Mars
Galaxy Survives Black Hole’s Feast – For Now
Could Dinosaurs Evolve Back Into Existence?

Sunday, November 22, 2020

How space exploration will help to address climate change

"An article in Astronomy Magazine suggests that the ultimate solution to climate change will be to move resource extraction and heavy industry off the planet. The notion seems like science fiction, but some very serious people are looking at the idea of a space-based industrial revolution. Jeff Bezos, who made his billions from Amazon.com and now runs a space launch company called Blue Origin, suggests “zoning” Earth for residential areas and “light industries.” Mining and manufacturing, two of the biggest sources of environmental pollution, would move off the planet."

SCIENTISTS WANT TO BUILD A TELESCOPE ON THE MOON TO LOOK AT SOMETHING EVEN OLDER
China is launching a space mission to collect the first rocks from the moon in 40 years
Gabriella's Holy War
Lunar Gateway Instruments to Improve Weather Forecasting for Artemis Astronauts
NASA to test its SLS megarocket in the coming weeks
SpaceX launches advanced ocean-mapping satellite for NASA and Europe, nails rocket landing

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Will Biden Kill the Space Program?
Our long, national, Covid-19 nightmare is drawing to an end
Israeli fighter pilot joins SpaceX’s first private flight for Axiom next year
China rolls out Long March 5 rocket to launch Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission
Biden should choose Kathy Lueders as his NASA administrator
What should Biden do with NASA and the Artemis Program?
Why NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon
If Graphene Batteries Do Everything Scientists Say, They Could Be a Gamechanger
The Last Moonwalker and Other Stories
Graphene-based memristor is ideal for artificial neural networks, say researchers
A Book for Our Times: Peter Wood’s 1620 Skewers 1619 Project
Another Trump Victory on COVID-19: Moderna Vaccine Is 94.5 Percent Effective

Sunday, November 15, 2020

What should Biden do with NASA and the Artemis Program?

Little is known of what Biden believes about NASA and its role in promoting space exploration. Because the United States is in for a period of divided government, Biden will not be able to make huge changes at NASA because such will have to pass muster in the Republican Senate. He will not be able to cancel the Artemis program, even if he wants to. Artemis enjoys healthy support on both sides of the aisle. Biden should remember the firestorm kindled when President Obama summarily killed the Constellation program. Continuity should be the order of the day.

NASA Updates TV Coverage for First Crew Rotation Flight on US Commercial Spacecraft
SpaceX Crew-1 launch: How to watch NASA mission to the ISS live Sunday
Children of Apollo
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Takes Selfie With “Mary Anning” on the Red Planet
Egypt finds treasure trove of over 100 sarcophagi
How six scientists survived ‘living on Mars’ for a year

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Biden should choose Kathy Lueders as his NASA administrator

Fortunately, Team Biden has an exceptional candidate for NASA Administrator in the person of Kathy Lueders, currently NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. Before she was named in charge of HEO, Lueders managed the Commercial Crew Program and saw it to success. Artemis and the International Space Station are part of portfolio.

NASA gets go-ahead to bring Mars rocks back to Earth
NASA chief warns of gap after retirement of International Space Station
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
Is space mining the eco-friendly choice?