What James Van Allen got wrong about NASA's International Space Station

Update: Got the following correction from NASA JPL:

Hi Mark,

I’m Calla Cofield, a media relations rep at NASA JPL. We saw your op ed in The Hill about Cold Atom Lab! Thank you so much for your interest in our mission.

I wanted to make you aware of a few errors in the article. I leave it up to you what to do with the information, but I just wanted to share. Bose-Einstein Condensates have been created on Earth before. In fact there are probably tens of labs around the world making them right now. Bringing a BEC lab to space promises some advantages that we can’t get on the ground; it’s still early stages but just getting CAL up there was a major accomplishment. Also, the atom clouds actually expand MORE in microgravity because they exist for longer, and that’s one way to make them colder. And the astronauts have helped with installation and upgrades, but they do not look at the data. The facility is operated entirely from the ground!

Sunday, June 28, 2020

What James Van Allen got wrong about NASA's International Space Station

Dr. James Van Allen was famous for two things. The first thing was the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belts that surround the Earth, thanks to the missions of Explorer 1 and Explorer 3 at the dawn of the space age. The second was a lifelong war Van Allen conducted against the very idea of space exploration conducted by humans.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Charles Bolden, Obama's NASA Administrator and Biden space advisor, on what a Biden space policy would be like.

"Suggest you take a look at the Obama space policy WRT mix of Earth/Planetary Science, Aeronautics and HSF (I.e. Moon & Mars)."

Bolden is being disingenuous as Obama specifically ruled out going back to the moon. As for Obamaspace 2.0, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Kathy Lueders now has the job of making NASA's 2024 moon landing happen

NASA’s selection of Kathy Lueders to become the new associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate has been met with universal praise. Even former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who is on record as wanting to cancel the Artemis return to the moon program, was quite effusive.

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Why the Trump 'Make Space Great Again' campaign ad went sideways

One result of the SpaceX Crew Dragon’s successful flight to NASA’s International Space Station is that the Trump for President Campaign has taken on space exploration as an issue. The decision has manifested itself in the production of a campaign ad called “Make Space Great Again.” However, the ad went sideways when it was discovered that it violated NASA regulations against its employees, including astronauts, appearing in commercials. The ad caused several other problems. It was eventually taken down.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

The flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon means the future is not what it used to be

One lesson to draw from the flight of the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station is that the future is not what it used to be. Indeed, our future in space has taken a turn since the days of Apollo and moonwalk.

Sunday, June 07, 2020

Russia should rethink its rejection of lunar commercialization

The Russian News Agency TASS recently quoted Dmitry Rogozin, the CEO of Russia's Roscosmos State Space Agency, as rejecting the idea of commercial operations on the moon. He stated on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station, "We will not, in any case, accept any attempts to privatize the Moon. It is illegal, it runs counter to international law.”

Monday, June 01, 2020

NASA, SpaceX and the private-public partnership that caused the flight of the Crew Dragon

The flight of the Crew Dragon was the result of a shotgun wedding between NASA, with its bureaucratic culture that prizes safety and process above all, and SpaceX, a free-wheeling private company that values outside-the-box thinking and rapid decision making. Two organizations more different from one another could not exist, yet by working together they have achieved something wonderful.