Elon Musk is already dreaming of a monster 'next-generation' Starship. If built, the rocket's body would be wider than an NBA basketball court.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Space race incentives: A lunar return prize or pay-on-delivery contracts?
Space race incentives: A lunar return prize or pay-on-delivery contracts? Recently, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich caused considerable excitement when he proposed a concept, which he calls the Moon-Mars Development Prize Competition. This proposed government-funded prize would award $2 billion to the first private company to return humans to the moon and set up a base there. He hastened to add that this plan is not meant to replace NASA’s Project Artemis, but would run in parallel. The prize competition would be an insurance policy for just in case Artemis begins to falter, for technical, budgetary or political reasons.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
SpaceX aborted the final launch of its shiny Starhopper rocket ship less than a second before liftoff. Elon Musk says the company will try again Tuesday.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Newt Gingrich has published We Need A Competition To Get America To The Moon — And Mars, a well written, well reasoned response to my Newt Gingrich’s Plan For A Private Space Race Is A Shaky One My main point that the government is very unlikely to fund such a competition remains. It could work as a privately funded contest, however.
Update: Anne Spudis reminds me that her late husband, Paul, weighed in on space prizes a few years ago. Everybody has won and all must have prizes
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Friday, August 23, 2019
Is this any way for NASA to build a lunar lander?
The German statesman Otto von Bismarck once said that two things should not be examined too closely, sausage making and law making. NASA recently added a third thing, the making of a new lunar lander, at least the first step of selecting a center to oversee the project.
Solving climate change and feeding the world at the same time
Does a way exist to solve climate change and not upend the world economy? As it turns out, such technology exists.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Newt Gingrich’s Plan For A Private Space Race Is A Shaky One
Is a private competition the right way to encourage Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in their race to the moon? Instead of tasking NASA to mount expeditions to the moon, the idea is to offer money to the first private group to land on the lunar surface and establish a base.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
'We want our country to do it first': A NASA executive says a US-China Mars mission is not in the cards
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
Making space exploration cool again
Fast forward 50 years after the first moon landing. How does the new Artemis moon program avoid the fate of Apollo, initial popularity followed by a big fade in the polls? How does space exploration become cool again?
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Monday, August 12, 2019
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Friday, August 09, 2019
In-space refueling vs heavy lift? NASA and SpaceX choose both
The argument over whether to use heavy-lift or in-space refueling has raged across the space community since the George W. Bush-era Constellation project to return to the moon. NASA’s traditional fueling method has been to use a big, heavy-lift rocket such as the Saturn V or the more modern Space Launch System. However, an alternate architecture has been proposed, which uses smaller, commercial rockets with a refueling depot to send people and cargo back to the moon.
