Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Space Solar Power

16 Comments

A good review on the state of the technology.

This doesn’t make much sense, though: “…the hardware itself will have to be deorbited when it reaches end-of-life. ‘ESA has a Clean Space Initiative. Anything that we’re sending to space, we have to think about the whole lifecycle, cradle to grave,’ Caplin said.”

It’s loony tunes to think that we’d deorbit something that size from GEO. It will be repurposed in some way in space, or at least go to a graveyard orbit.

Business, Law, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The Falcon Failure

12 Comments

I can obviously understand the need for an investigation, and if SpaceX wants to do it with the FAA, that’s fine, but the FAA should have no say in when it flies again; that would be them doing mission assurance, which is not part of their charter. NASA, Jared Isaacman, or any of SpaceX’s other customers can decide when and whether they trust the vehicle, but FAA advisement should be just that. There was no public danger from this event (other than potential Starlink debris falling to earth), or reason to think there would be from any future similar failure.