Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
A space-based missile defense system would put future Putins in their place
Isn’t it too bad that a way doesn’t exist to stop a nuclear exchange with “the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete?” The question was first posed 40 years ago by President Ronald Reagan, when he proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, as a way to break the balance of terror and lift the prospect of a global thermonuclear holocaust. Reagan and his advisers envisioned a multi-layered defense system, much of it space based, that would stop a nuclear attack by shooting down missiles before they reached their targets.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Monday, March 28, 2022
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Russia's exit from European Space Agency Mars mission gives NASA an opportunity
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently suspended work with Russia on its upcoming ExoMars mission, according to Space News. Not only has politics provided yet another delay for the mission to put a European rover on Mars but the decision is another step in the destruction of Russia’s space program in the wake of that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Biden to unveil new minimum tax on billionaires in budget or Biden says that if you are depending on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to get us into space, forget it. The government is taking it all.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Friday, March 25, 2022
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Monday, March 21, 2022
Sunday, March 20, 2022
How SpaceX's Starlink is changing how the world communicates
Starlink, the satellite communications system being deployed by SpaceX, has been very much in the news recently, from disaster relief in Tonga to keeping war-torn Ukraine connected to the world. Starlink is the most recent expression of a vision by Arthur C. Clarke, the writer and space visionary, who first proposed communications satellites in an article in Wireless World in 1945, just two months after the end of World War II.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Friday, March 18, 2022
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Monday, March 14, 2022
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Time for NASA to go all in on commercial space
Recent developments suggest that the business-as-usual approach to civil space policy has become increasingly untenable. At the same time, commercial partnerships continue to pay dividends, saving NASA money and expanding its reach and capabilities.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Friday, March 11, 2022
Carbon capture is key to striking back at Putin
"However, the Biden administration is reluctant to resume domestic production because this would anger the Green New Deal crowd, to which Biden is beholden. There is another way, however. The U.S. can reduce greenhouse gases, revive its energy industry, and cut the flow of money to Vladimir Putin’s war machine using a technology called carbon capture."
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Wednesday, March 09, 2022
Tuesday, March 08, 2022
Monday, March 07, 2022
Sunday, March 06, 2022
Can SpaceX save NASA's International Space Station?
"Exactly how SpaceX would ride to the rescue of ISS is unclear. A thread has been posted on Twitter that shows a truncated ISS, without the Russian modules, with two Cargo Dragons and a Cygnus cargo spacecraft attached to provide both reboost and altitude control capabilities. The idea is that NASA and the other partners can maintain the ISS without Russian help."