Thomas B. Pickens III gave the luncheon speech at the Space Investment Summit yesterday. He thinks that SpaceX and Rocketplane-Kistler are the “Toyota trucks” of the space infrastructure and that Space Hab will make a good business of packing science payloads to send to the Space Station. He is interested in ISS racks but can do free floating experiments and also work with Bigelow. I asked him afterwards if doing his “due diligence” as a board member before taking over as CEO he talked to the customers. He said that every customer said that they were interested if it were cheaper, more reliable and standardized.

I think that this market may not be as big as Bigelow and Space Hab are hoping. It remains to see if a business can be made. The Bull I prefer is Space Tourism. Space Hab did say they could do logistics missions too. Glad to have you as part of the industry, Thomas B. Pickens. Best of luck.

I don’t have any particularly profound thoughts about the hexagon on Saturn (though hexagons are not unknown to nature, even if not on this scale), but Alan Henderson does.

Here’s a cool movie, displaying the variation in lunar distance and angle from the earth. It’s explained here.

The Leonids are this weekend.

Paul Spudis writes that there’s still a good possibility of lunar ice.

Paul Spudis writes that there’s still a good possibility of lunar ice.

Paul Spudis writes that there’s still a good possibility of lunar ice.

Mars Express has delivered a nice animation of the Cydonia region. Needless to say, Richard Hoagland‘s lunatic fans will be disappointed. Or rather, they should be, and would be if they weren’t nuts. As it is, they’ll probably, along with Hoagland, decry the conspiracy to hide the truth, and claim that now ESA has become part of NASA’s cover up.

Jupiter’s spots may be disappearing, as a result of climate change.

The Perseids peaked last night, but you should still be able to see them tonight if you get out of the city. Unfortunately, the moon is still bright.