Is there a conflict between science and sustainability?
Meanwhile, there is a symposium on space settlement in DC today. You can follow the livestream.
[Late-afternoon update]
I know this is what you’ve all been waiting for: The Slate article about this crap.
Though most of the symposium was actually useful and interesting, ignoring the nonsense about colonialism in North America.
Clark Lindsey has a news roundup.
There are a bunch of new ones out as part of the fiftieth anniversary. Here’s a list (including some old classics as well).
The IG has released its report. Bob Zimmerman is (as usual) unimpressed with our betters in Washington.
Culberson losing his seat may have been the death knell for this mission, at least as it has been planned so far. I think Enceladus is more interesting, anyway, at least from the standpoint of looking for life. I hope that Yuri Milner follows through on that.
My op-ed on one-way trips to the Moon is up at Space News.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: Can Trump put people on the moon by 2024? It seems unlikely under current political circumstances.
Are we heading for a Grand Minimum?
If so, it will put to the test the CO2 climate thesis.
Just as when you’re pulling nickel out of the ground in Sudbury, when you use ocean water you’re mining asteroids. As I noted in my latest essay, the more we learn about the solar system, the more we discover that, as opposed to being what we long thought was “the water planet,” earth is a comparative desert. The water is mostly extraterrestrial.
To expand on Krafft Ehricke’s famous statement, if God had wanted us to become space faring, he’d have given us a moon. With water on it.
Bezos is hinting that at next month’s satellite conference, he may announce an expedition to the lunar south pole.
There is a bipartisan bill from two Colorado congressmen to establish one.
I heard about this from George Sowers when I stopped by to visit him in Golden a couple weeks ago. Presumably, their goal is to put it in the Front Range, and probably affiliate it with the School of Mines, which currently has the only graduate program in this discipline.