Monday, July 30, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Saturday, July 28, 2018
From the Hill: NASA could be Israel's ticket to space
"Recently NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine embarked on his first international trip as chief of the space agency. Israel was the first stop on the diplomatic journey. Bridenstine met with a variety of players in the Israeli government and private sector. He signed an agreement to forge a partnership with Israel for NASA’s program to return to the moon, a sound move, considering that country’s growing expertise in technology.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
NASA spaceship on display on White House lawn On the other hand, commercial spacecraft were nowhere to be seen.
Houston loses Don Sanders, its musical ‘Mayor of Montrose’ For those who remember, Don had a great song extolling the dangers of drunkeness. I wasn't able to find one with him singing it, but here is a rendition of "Mean Old Alcohol" by that little known musician, George Strait.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Saturday, July 21, 2018
From my latest piece in The Hill: How the flight of Apollo 11 won the Cold War
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped down the ladder of the lunar module and became the first human beings to set foot on the moon. The first moon walk not only constituted an enormous, peacetime feat of science and technology, but unarguably a victory in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
In fact, it can be argued that the flight of Apollo 11 and the subsequent expeditions to the moon set the stage for the final victory in the Cold War 20 years later.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Proof that having a working time machine could be lucrative indeed. Personally I would rather go forward to witness the next moon landing (see below) than to rewatch the first.
Everybody is remembering the first moonwalk today. But what about the next one?
Sometime in
the Future…
The wall-to-wall
big-screen TV has been displaying talking heads on one half of the screen and
an image of the Artemis lunar lander on the other half for the past hour It is the first crewed spacecraft to set down
on the lunar surface in 50 years. The old man watching the TV reflects that
despite the passage of decades and the advance of technology, the need to fill
air time during the high points of the flight of Orion 3 has not changed since
the age of over-the-air broadcasting and analog televisions. The cable news
network on which he has watched most of the mission has had a procession of
celebrity scientists, former astronauts, politicians, and media pundits to
discuss every aspect of the first flight to the Moon in decades.
The media is
vastly different than it was when men first walked on the Moon 53 years before.
Then only three major networks existed. Now, most televisions can access a
broad range of news and science-oriented channels that can cover the return to
the Moon from their own unique perspectives. That does
not include the various ways that the Internet and social media cover the
events.
With that in
mind, the old man picks up his tablet and checks his social media feeds. The
NASA and the Artemis Twitter accounts are abuzz, creating a minute-by-minute
account of what is happening both on Earth and on the Moon. The old man adds
his impressions of the event to his own channels and then adds a picture of his
living room, filled with friends and family members. Three generations, only a
handful of whom had seen men walk on the Moon in the 1960s and 70s, are
munching snacks, playing with their own electronics, or just watching raptly
what is happening on the Moon hundreds of thousands of miles away.
The crewed
lander has been preceded by a cargo ship that containing
a rover, an inflatable habitat, and supplies weeks ago. The camera on the cargo
lander is what shows the Artemis standing on the lunar surface. It tracks the
lunar lander as it descends to the landing site on a tail of fire, on the north
rim of the Shackleton Crater. That is something they never got to see 50-plus
years ago.
Suddenly,
the moderator on the news channel stops the banter with her guests and says,
“We just got word that the EVA is about to begin. The mission commander is
already in her moon suit and has entered the Artemis airlock.”
The old man
notices that some of the younger people are already putting on their VR
googles. They will get a full 3D view of the first person to walk on the Moon
in decades. The old man, however, is just old-fashioned enough to want to watch
it on the flat screen.
The airlock
door slides open, and a pair of space suited legs appears. The old man thinks
it amusing that the commander of the Orion 3 is a female Air Force officer. Fifty
years ago, female astronauts at NASA were nine years in the future, and Sally
Ride’s first flight was 14 years in the future. The commander of Orion 3 is
fully qualified, having spent two tours on the International Space Station. But
the old man thinks that her selection was a conscious decision by NASA to boast
of how diverse the space agency is, these days.
The space
suit she wears is modern as well, a form-fitting costume that uses “active
materials” to keep up the pressure on her body to compensate for the lack
thereof on the lunar surface. She moves as gracefully as a gymnast, clambering
down the ladder of the Artemis in easy steps. The old man smiles, remembering
the bulky moon suits that the Apollo astronauts wore, making their movements
awkward.
She stands
at the bottom of the ladder and talks to Mission Control about the state of the
Artemis on the lunar surface.
Then comes
the great moment.!
“I’m going
to step down now.”
She steps
off lightly and plants both boots on the lunar surface.
“We have
returned to the Moon in the spirit of peace and scientific exploration,” the
commander of the Artemis says, “and that was a heck of a leap for a girl.”
As likely
happens at hundreds of thousands of venues, from living rooms like this to a
crowded Times Square, everyone present breaks out in spontaneous applause.
The old man
has a tear on his cheek. One of the kids notices this. “Was it like this the
first time, Grandpa?”
The old man
smiles down at her. “This time’s better. Because this time, we’re going to stay.”
Apollo 11 TV Broadcast - Neil Armstrong First Step on Moon
As we saw the first moonwalk 49 years ago.
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Sacha Baron Cohen bombs on Showtime Naturally Sarah Palin is to blame. The Mama Grizzly's claws are still sharp.
From the Hill: Putin cannot match America’s space weapons so he's changing the rules of the game
When President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from their summit talks, both men exuded an all-is-sweetness and light mien. Putin spoke first at the joint press conference and suggested, among other things, a proposed ban on weapons in orbit, “the agenda of non-placement of weapons in space.”
The diplomatic gambit is an obvious response to Trump’s proposed Space Force. One would hope that if the proposal came up during the talks, Trump gave his Russian counterpart a one-word answer: “No.”
Monday, July 16, 2018
It looks like Anthony Bourdain took some shots at Bill and Hillary Clinton and Harvey Weinstein from beyond the grave
Everyone who was of age on July 20, 1969, remembers
where they were when men landed on the Moon. I was on a family vacation in
Panama City Beach, Florida on that day. My family, along with another family
with whom we had been friendly for years, crowded into a single beach-side motel
room with one of the only working TVs to watch the first moonwalk.
The TV was ancient even for that era, a tiny black and
white that could only get one channel. The quality of television transmission
would have been considered laughable by modern standards. But, as anyone who
has seen that wonderful Australian movie The
Dish knows, the technological achievement of getting television pictures
from the surface of the Moon to TV screens on Earth was as impressive, in its
own way, as getting men there and back.
The images that traveled from the Moon to millions of
television sets on Earth were in black and white and fuzzy to boot. But the
reason they were more beautiful than any special effects-laden science fiction
movie was that they were real. This was not some cinematographer’s conception
of what a voyage to the Moon would be like. It was a voyage to the Moon.
Neil Armstrong was a blindingly white figure on the
television screen as he descended down the ladder from the lunar module hatch
to the ground. He lingered on the bottom of the ladder for tantalizing minutes
as he observed the condition of the LM’s landing pads. Then, the moment arrived
when he said, “I’m going to step off the LM now.”
A billion people on a planet that contained only a
little more than three billion people held their collective breaths.
“That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for
mankind.”
History is often bifurcated by singular events that
change everything. So it was with the first Apollo moon landing. Before, the
moon was terra incognita, a bright disk in the sky filled with mystery and
wonder. After, it was a place where men had walked and explored, bringing back
rocks and soil for generations of scientists to study, as valuable in their own
way as the gold which the
Spanish conquistadors had sought.
The rest of the two-hour excursion passed as if were a
dream. Buzz Aldrin soon joined Armstrong on the lunar surface. They unveiled a
plaque that commemorated the event. “Here men from the planet Earth first set
foot upon the Moon. July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” Later,
they erected the American flag to note the fact that those men were Americans,
their mission supported and paid for by the United States. In the middle of
their collecting rocks and setting up experiments, Armstrong and Aldrin took a
call from President Richard Nixon.
Then, in the fullness of time, the two men took their
geology treasure back into the lunar module and blasted off for a rendezvous
and docking with the Apollo command module then in lunar orbit.
The Apollo Moon landing was so successful and, dare I
say, so cool, that we did it five more times with missions of increasing scope
and sophistication. As a bonus, the world looked on with anxiousness as the
crew of Apollo 13 fought to come home after an explosion in the service module.
The epic voyage became one of the greatest movies about space travel in
history, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks.
Then, after the last Apollo moon mission departed the
lunar surface in December 1972, we stopped.
Why the United States stopped going to the Moon, even
with the spacecraft already built for three more missions, is something of a
mystery for those who came of age after the end of the First Age of Lunar
Exploration. Logically, the United States should have built on the knowledge
and experience it had won during the Apollo missions to the Moon to continue to
conduct lunar expeditions, building up to a permanent lunar base.
Why the United States turned away from the Moon, just
when it had achieved it, is part of the subject of this small book. I will also
try to explain why two attempts to revive a lunar program crashed on the rocks
of politics. I will also try to lay out a political strategy for making a third
attempt to return to the Moon, this time successfully.
Most people can recite from memory the first words
spoken on the moon. But few people remember the last words, at least
officially, said by Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan.
"I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last
step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too
long into the future - I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will
record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow.
And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God
willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the
crew of Apollo 17."
The second-to-last sentence contains a promise that
has yet to be fulfilled. That fact is a blot on our civilization that will only
be wiped out when the next moonboots hit the ground on the other side of the
airless sea.
.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
How Israel, in Dark of Night, Torched Its Way to Iran’s Nuclear Secrets I see that they are already comparing this real life caper to "Oceans 11." I can see the Hollywood movie version involving the Mossad hiring Danny Ocean and his sister Debbie as consultants. Call it "Oceans Ultimate."
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Donald Trump sparks further OUTRAGE after posing in Winston Churchill’s famous armchair Wow, of all the things to get irate about,
Friday, July 13, 2018
In the Hill 2018 is the year India, China and Israel go to the moon
Interest in exploring Earth’s nearest neighbor has not been so intense since the days of the Apollo program almost 50 years ago. The 21st-century race back to the moon is no longer limited to the U.S. and Russia, as three other contenders will launch expeditions to the lunar surface later this year.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Official Trailer (2018) Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan...
It looks like this movie is going to suggest that Elizabeth and Mary might have been good friends if had not been for those testosterone addled male courtiers urging them on to war. And there is the one wrong thing that Mary calls Elizabeth. The historically educated reader will know what that is.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
NASA ASSESSING OPTIONS TO SPEED UP MID-TO-LARGE LUNAR LANDERS And, incidentally, the day we return to the moon.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Sarah Palin reveals she was TRICKED by Sasha Baron Cohen when he pretended to be a wounded veteran to interview her for his new Showtime series Who Is America?
"We have a launch and landing dates! December 2018- Launch, February 13 2019- First Israeli spacecraft lands on the moon! SpaceIL's moon mission is officially underway #SpaceIL" Good luck, guys.
More: First Israeli Spacecraft to Head to Moon on Back of Elon Musk's SpaceX Rocket
Russian editor: Our space program is entering the “Dark Ages” Soon SpaceX and Blue Origin will be bigger space powers than Russia.
NASA’s chief wants former astronaut Janet Kavandi to help run things. Trump is looking at the senate’s admin guy A big mistake on the part of POTUS in my opinion.
NASA needs Janet Kavandi if we’re going to make it back to the moon — then Mars
Monday, July 09, 2018
Will Trump Be Meeting With His Counterpart — Or His Handler? And I thought that the Obama was born in Kenya was mind numbing stupid.
On bended knee, Britons praise their underperforming healthcare system The idea of socialized medicine as a religion is a macabre one, especially since it comes with child sacrifice, as the parents of Charlie Gard found out.
INSTEAD OF BUILDING SINGLE MONSTER SCOPES LIKE JAMES WEBB, WHAT ABOUT SWARMS OF SPACE TELESCOPES WORKING TOGETHER?
Sunday, July 08, 2018
Saturday, July 07, 2018
Friday, July 06, 2018
Podcast: Over the Moon for the Mission to Mars with Jim Bridenstine, who is turning out to be one of the best administrators in NASA history.
Thursday, July 05, 2018
From the Hill Newspaper: Deterring World War III with Trump’s Space Force<
When President Trump proposed the creation of a United States Space Force, the idea was ridiculed on social media. However, some critics have also accused the president of trying to “militarize space,” a silly idea, since the United States military has been launching and operating satellites for decades.
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Bridenstine accepts climate change, NASA could study planet, develop new energy sources
Recently NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine [VIDEO]held a televised town hall in which he fielded questions from employees of the space agency. Inevitably, the question of climate change came up. Bridenstine, when he was a member of Congress, expressed skepticism of human-caused climate change, based on the belief that measures that were being proposed to combat it would harm his constituents in Oklahoma. The statement that was made on the House floor came back to haunt the congressman during his confirmation hearings for NASA administrator when Democratic senators attacked him as a “science denier.”