Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Monday, June 28, 2021
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Recently, a group of Russian and Chinese space officials revealed plans for what they call an “International Lunar Research Station” during a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. The plan for the facility’s development seemed remarkably similar to one proposed by Paul Spudis, the late lunar geologist and return-to-the-moon advocate, and Tony Lavoie, at the time employed by NASA.
“Bezos has a branding problem,” Mark R. Whittington, author of “Why is America Going Back to the Moon,” told The Post. “A lot of people don’t like him . . . He’s been compared to a Bond villain.”
Saturday, June 26, 2021
Friday, June 25, 2021
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
"When Blue Origin, the space launch company owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, announced that someone had won an auction to ride into space on the company’s New Shepard rocket, a lot of bandwidth was expended on social media about what appeared to be a case of conspicuous consumption. The amount of money, $28 million, paid for a few minutes in space, seemed, to many, to be excessive.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Monday, June 21, 2021
Sunday, June 20, 2021
Recently, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the space agency will send not one but two robotic probes to Venus under the Discovery program. The probes are DAVINCI+ and VERITAS. The two probes, which are due to be launched by the end of the 2020s, will be the first dedicated NASA missions to the second planet from the sun in decades. Why Venus and why now?
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Friday, June 18, 2021
Thursday, June 17, 2021
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Bezos proposes to achieve several things besides fulfilling a childhood dream shared by uncounted people on planet Earth. He will prove the safety of the New Shepard rocket ship by betting his and his brother’s lives on it. The Amazon founder will change his personal brand from that of a monopolist into a private astronaut pushing back the envelope of the final frontier. Finally, Bezos will show up his rival, Elon Musk, whose rockets regularly go into orbit, but who has not yet personally flown into space. However, Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson may steal a march on Bezos.
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Friday, June 11, 2021
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Wednesday, June 09, 2021
Tuesday, June 08, 2021
Monday, June 07, 2021
“We’ve talked about changing life expectancy; we’ve talked about different technological changes and how they would affect society and politics and climate and all kinds of things and at a certain point, you catch up to the present, you start to exceed the present and move into what our future is too and the show becomes more and more strongly a science fiction piece the further out you go.”
Sunday, June 06, 2021
Now, space transportation technology is poised to cause a similar revolution in the military’s ability to defend the United States and its allies and to inflict mayhem and death on any enemy that would propose to make war on America. The great irony is that the Starship will be used by a branch of the military that Musk once compared to Star Fleet, the fictional service depicted in the "Star Trek" television shows and movies. The thought would likely bring a smile to the franchise’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, in whatever afterlife one envisions him inhabiting.