Greenspan’s term is almost up. Based on precedent, I’m guessing that Bush will either appoint his personal banker, or the head of the search committee…
“The Scientific Method Can Transcend Politics”
Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.
“The Scientific Method Can Transcend Politics”
Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.
“The Scientific Method Can Transcend Politics”
Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.
Hard Work Pays Off
Speaking of a new space age, this is a real coup for XCOR. It’s been a long slog since the EZ-Rocket first flew, four years ago, but they may now be able to raise the money they need to build a vehicle, and not just engines. In fact, in rereading that old post, it’s remarkable how prescient it was:
While EZ-Rocket doesn’t fly high, or fast–unlike NASA’s reusable rocket programs–it actually flies. And in fact, though it doesn’t fly particularly high, or fast, it is a testament to the neglect of this field that, had XCOR bothered to call the appropriate French certification agency to have them witness today’s flight, they would have simultaneously awarded it the new world’s records for height, speed, and time to climb for a rocket plane.
It not only flies, but it can, given small amounts of money (equivalent to just a fraction of the overruns on programs like X-34 and X-33), fly every day, or twice a day, for mere hundreds of dollars per flight. And the experience developed from it can lead to bigger, faster rocket planes, that can also fly every day, or twice or thrice a day, and teach us how to fly rocket planes, and by selling experiment time, or even (heaven forfend!) rides to wealthy people who want a thrill, make a little money while doing it. We may have rocket racing competitions, sponsored by ESPN, or the Xtreme Sports Channel, or Pratt & Whitney.
Now, let’s hope this prediction works out as well:
And the records will get faster, and higher, and the revenues will grow, until we are offering rides to orbit, and people (with fortunes less than Bill Gates and Larry Ellison) are buying. And then some crazy fool will develop a space suit, and haul up enough parts to build a space hotel, and we’ll offer week-long stays, instead of barn-storming joy rides. And someone else will actually rent space in the hotel and perhaps do some research, or figure out how to build something bigger, like a Mars mission vehicle, that can be afforded by the Planetary Society, or the Mars Society, or even the (renamed?) National Geographic Society.
Jon Goff has similar thoughts, and congratulations to XCOR.
[Update at 10 AM EDT]
Michael Belfiore has more:
Initially XCOR will build 10 rocket racers. My editor tells me that these babies will cost $1 million each, so that will be a nice boost to XCOR’s finances.
It will indeed, assuming that they can build them for less than that (and I think that’s a pretty good assumption).
Belfiore also has a story in Wired about John Carmack and Armadillo.
Beep, Beep, Beep…
Two years from today, it will have been half a century since the launch of Sputnik and the beginning of the old space age. Sadly, rather than initiate a new one, NASA seems determined to prolong the old one.
Holy Month Of Murder
Apparently, many of the Islamokazis think that murdering your fellow Muslims during Ramadan gets you even more virgins. Or raisins. Or something:
Egyptian police planned increased watchfulness throughout the month, while insisting no specific threats had been received. But Israel warned its citizens to stay away from Egypt
Looks Like Salmon, Smells Like Pork
Alaska Air has a nifty new paint job on one of their airplanes. At federal taxpayer expense.
Alaska. Isn’t that the state where residents get a negative income tax as a result of their oil revenues? But hey, if your Senator is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, why pay for things out of your own pocket?
Their Way Or The Highway
Mark Steyn writes about the “religion of peace“:
I found myself behind a car in Vermont, in the US, the other day; it had a one-word bumper sticker with the injunction “COEXIST”. It’s one of those sentiments beloved of Western progressives, one designed principally to flatter their sense of moral superiority. The C was the Islamic crescent, the O was the hippie peace sign, the X was the Star of David and the T was the Christian cross. Very nice, hard to argue with. But the reality is, it’s the first of those symbols that has a problem with coexistence. Take the crescent out of the equation and you wouldn’t need a bumper sticker at all. Indeed, coexistence is what the Islamists are at war with; or, if you prefer, pluralism, the idea that different groups can rub along together within the same general neighbourhood. There are many trouble spots across the world but, as a general rule, even if one gives no more than a cursory glance at the foreign pages, it’s easy to guess at least one of the sides: Muslims v Jews in Palestine, Muslims v Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims v Christians in Nigeria, Muslims v Buddhists in southern Thailand, Muslims v (your team here). Whatever one’s views of the merits on a case by case basis, the ubiquitousness of one team is a fact.
Perspective
Clark Lindsey points out that, while there may be many good arguments against NASA’s human spaceflight program, the notion that we can’t afford it is ludicrous.
It’s really tragic that the debate is so simple minded. There seems little point in debating whether or not NASA should continue to spend money on manned spaceflight–that seems to be inevitable, for reasons of inertia, perceived prestige, and (most importantly) pork. So, as Clark points out, if we could accept that as a given, it would be nice to have an intelligent discussion about how NASA spends the money that they seem inevitably to be given. Unfortunately, that debate is driven largely by pork as well.
[Update at 8:50 AM EDT]
Jeff Foust has an article about media reaction over at The Space Review this morning.
[Late afternoon update]
There’s an interesting discussion in comments at this post by Jeff Foust at Space Politics, including comments on the existence of lunar water by Paul Spudis.