Friday, December 28, 2018

What is SpaceX doing in South Texas?

Something is happening at the SpaceX space port in Boca Chica in far South Texas that could change the world. Space News reports that a test article of the Big Falcon Rocket’s upper stage, dubbed “Starship,” is under construction at the SpaceX launch facility. The test rocket will be as wide as the operational Starship rocket but not as tall.

Student Found to Have Violated Title IX by Asking Another Student on a Date or why I'm glad I went to college in the seventies
China is infiltrating US space industry with investments
Looking for Solar Panels on Distant Planets
35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked by the Star to predict the world of 2019. Here is what he wrote
Dark Sanction (The Vampire Gabriella Book 1)
Astronauts on Mars? MSU professor helps NASA plan to keep them healthy
NASA will reach its most distant target yet on New Year's Day
How to watch live online as China attempts to land on the Moon

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

BILL NYE IS A MARS SETTLEMENT DENIER

Bill Nye, the former “science guy” and president of the Planetary Society, recently declared in an interview that settling Mars and terraforming it into a reasonable analogue of Earth is “science fiction.” Robert Zubrin, the president of the Mars Society who dreams of a Mars frontier as a second branch of humanity and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, who wants to build a city on the Red Planet, are apparently living and working in vain.

The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper
Salk scientists find genetic signatures of biological aging
The Last Moonwalker and Other Stories
Is the Gateway the right way to the moon?
NASA Astronauts Will Still Ride Russian Rockets After US Craft Arrive
How the Oumuamua mystery shook up the search for space aliens

Monday, December 24, 2018

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all, especially my family. For us, the season is a bitter sweet one since the loss of my dad occurred so close to Christmas. (By the way, Dad, I hope that the holiday revels in the afterlife are epic!)
SpaceX is building a 'test hopper' Mars spaceship in Texas — and Elon Musk says it could launch by March
Inside Bernie-world's war on Beto O'Rourke

My advice is to pass the popcorn. This left wing civil war is going to be epic.

Billionaire aims to jump-start search for alien life and rewrite rules of space exploration
Christmas in space: How Apollo 8 mission saved 1968
Dark Hunt (The Vampire Gabriella Book 2)
The space race is on the brink of becoming a violent land grab
Can Intelligence Buy You Happiness?
Mission To Mars Is "Stupid, Ridiculous," Says Ex-Astronaut, Blasts NASA

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

HOW NASA TURNED STEPH CURRY’S MOON LANDING DENIAL INTO PR GOLD

When Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry denied that the moon landing ever took place, NASA could have been forgiven if it had ignored him. Much of what comes out of the mouths of celebrities, be they athletes, actors, or musicians, tends to be drivel. However, someone in the new media-savvy NASA correctly determined that the space agency had been handed an opportunity. NASA duly invited Curry to visit the Johnson Spaceflight Center to see some moon rocks and talk to astronauts and scientists about the moon landing and see that it had indeed taken place.

Will SpaceX Really Be Flying People To Mars In 10 Years?
A Nuclear Tunneling Worm Could Help Us Find Out What's Beneath Europa's Ice
NASA Research Reveals Saturn is Losing Its Rings at "Worst-Case-Scenario" Rate
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announces 'self-care' break before congressional session even starts
Warrior's Heart
Rona Ramon, widow of astronaut killed in Columbia shuttle disaster, dies at 54
Big Bourgeois Theory
Israeli moon-bound craft to carry Holocaust survivor story, and best of humanity

Friday, December 14, 2018

The Weekly Standard RIP
China shoots for the far side of the moon

China’s moon program is part of that country’s drive for super-power status. Just as the United States reaped hefty soft-power dividends by beating the Soviets to the moon, China hopes to profit by showing that it too is capable of conducting deep space operations. The fact that Beijing will gain access to the abundant resources of the moon would not be a bad thing either, from China’s point of view.

However, recent developments in China’s economic posture may have long-term effects that would derail that country’s plans to use the exploration and later economic exploitation of the moon for its benefit.

NASA Won’t Be Going ‘Back’ to the Moon—It Wants to Go Beyond It
Dark Crusade: A Vampire Gabriella Story (The Vampire Gabriella Book 5)
NASA Doesn't Have Enough Nuclear Fuel For Its Deep Space Missions
Czar Vladimir? Putin Acolytes Want to Bring Back the Monarchy
Virgin Galactic's supersonic plane reaches space

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

BILL NELSON, WITH AN UNIMPRESSIVE RECORD ON SPACE, BIDS FAREWELL

Bill Nelson, the soon-to-be former senator from Florida, gave his farewell speech to the Senate on his favorite subject: how he saved the U.S. space program from ruin. The speech was partly maudlin platitudes, partly name dropping, and partly a good pat on Nelson’s own back. He failed to mention a couple of things, including the fact that NASA is headed back to the moon and that the Obama-era journey to Mars is defunct.

While the senator did touch on his experience as a space junketer, he omitted some crucial details.

Here’s why China’s launch to the far side of the Moon is a big deal
The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper
NASA Spacecraft Spots Signal of Water on Asteroid Bennu
7 easy ways you can tell for yourself that the moon landing really happened
We have the technology to build a colony on the moon. Let’s do it.

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Want to honor George H.W. Bush? Send astronauts to Mars
China’s New Space Race: U.S. Space Official Concerned China Is Skewing Commercial Space Competition
The old guard may be turning against the Russian space program
Beto O’Rourke, who’s pondering a 2020 presidential bid, met with Barack Obama
Rules in space
Blood test to detect cancer within just 10 minutes developed by scientists
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
China Is About To Launch A Daring Mission To Land On The Moon. So Why Do You Know Nothing About It?
NASA is going back to the moon, through Silicon Valley
The Space Exploration Initiative was George H. W. Bush's most magnificent failure

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Follow these students' example: If someone complains about your American flag, get a bigger one
Of flags on the Moon

The recent flap over the omission of the raising of the American flag on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in the new film First Man illustrates not only the importance of symbols in our understanding of history but how different people regard the same symbols differently. Some Americans were incensed at the omission of the flag raising at Tranquility Base. The makers of the film insist that their decision not to include that event was an artistic decision and one not meant to denigrate the unique role that the United States played in landing a man on the Moon.

With a number of nations aiming toward the exploration of the Moon, one is reminded that love of symbols such as national flags is not unique to Americans.

Three ways to the Moon
Dark Hunt (The Vampire Gabriella Book 2)
Revisiting the Dyson Sphere
NASA astronaut Anne McClain arrives safely at International Space Station via Russian Soyuz
Curiosity rover spots 'shiny' object on Mars and NASA isn't sure what it is