Author: Robert Zimmerman

The consolidation of the Russian aerospace industry continues as the government considers taking over privately owned Sea Launch.

11:42 pm

The consolidation of the Russian aerospace industry continues as the government considers taking over privately owned Sea Launch.

The Russian government will a take closer look at the idea of buying commercial launch services provider Sea Launch, which is owned by a top Russian space contractor but whose key assets are based in California, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Feb. 19. Moscow has asked the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and Russian manufacturer RSC Energia, which holds 95 percent of Swiss-registered Sea Launch, to submit an overview of the financial situation of the maritime launch services company, Rogozin said in remarks posted on the Russian Cabinet website. The Russian government holds 38 percent of Energia, which supplies the upper stage of the Sea Launch rocket.

Should the government go forward with the deal, it likely would move the oceangoing rocket pad and command ship from Long Beach, Calif., to a Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, Rogozin said. “Something tells me that if we go for it, then the base will definitely be outside the United States,” he said.

Without question the Putin government is trying to recreate the top-down centralized system that existed during the Soviet era, with everything controlled and even owned by the government. While this might please their love of power, I doubt it will be an effiicent way to compete in the open commercial market.

Which means this consolidation is a wonderful opportunity for the new private launch companies. Soon, Russia will be out of the market, focused instead on launching Russian only satellites and spacecraft.

Posted from Rome, Italy. I am between flights, awaiting my connection to Tel Aviv.

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“I don’t think we should be tolerating conservative views because that dominant culture embeds these deep inequalities in our society.”

8:27 am

The open-mindedness of a modern ivy league college student: “I don’t think we should be tolerating conservative views because that dominant culture embeds these deep inequalities in our society.”

Nor is this one student alone. She is typical of the bigoted, hateful leftwing mindset in the academic community, where tolerance is defined by how much you can censor and silence any opposing points of view.

Posted from Garden City, New York. I now shutting down and heading to the airport to fly to Israel. I expect that I will be out of touch with the internet until Sunday, at the soonest.

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A renowned astronomer reminds everyone — the public, the astronomy community, and most importantly the press — that the data collected on most exoplanets is far more uncertain than often claimed.

10:26 pm

The uncertainty of science: A renowned astronomer reminds everyone — the public, the astronomy community, and most importantly, the press — that the data collected on most exoplanets so far are far more uncertain than is often claimed.

A planet’s atmosphere is the gateway to its identity, including how it was formed, how it developed and whether it can sustain life, stated Adam Burrows, author of the review and a Princeton University professor of astrophysical sciences. But the dominant methods for studying exoplanet atmospheres are not intended for objects as distant, dim and complex as planets trillions of miles from Earth, Burrows said. They were instead designed to study much closer or brighter objects, such as planets in Earth’s solar system and stars.

Nonetheless, scientific reports and the popular media brim with excited depictions of Earth-like planets ripe for hosting life and other conclusions that are based on vague and incomplete data, Burrows wrote in the first in a planned series of essays that examine the current and future study of exoplanets. Despite many trumpeted results, few “hard facts” about exoplanet atmospheres have been collected since the first planet was detected in 1992, and most of these data are of “marginal utility.”

The good news is that the past 20 years of study have brought a new generation of exoplanet researchers to the fore that is establishing new techniques, technologies and theories. As with any relatively new field of study, fully understanding exoplanets will require a lot of time, resources and patience, Burrows said. “Exoplanet research is in a period of productive fermentation that implies we’re doing something new that will indeed mature,” Burrows said. “Our observations just aren’t yet of a quality that is good enough to draw the conclusions we want to draw. “There’s a lot of hype in this subject, a lot of irrational exuberance. Popular media have characterized our understanding as better than it actually is,” he said. “They’ve been able to generate excitement that creates a positive connection between the astrophysics community and the public at large, but it’s important not to hype conclusions too much at this point.” [emphasis mine]

Burrows’ point is absolutely right. Every single story describing the atmosphere or make-up of any particular exoplanet at this point in time is essentially fantasy. The data are too weak or vague, and hardly robust enough to come to any solid conclusions. In fact, this research repeatedly reminds me of the conclusions many scientists drew from the flimsy spectrographic data that was gathered before the space age about the solar system’s planets. When we finally got spacecraft to those planets, we found those conclusions were routinely wrong.

This is not to say that our new knowledge of exoplanets is not exciting or significant. It is both. We just shouldn’t put too much faith in it at this time.

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A blogger with brains and a passion for free speech explains to the brainless and partisan mainstream press why the Obama administration thinks it can get away with monitoring the news gathering operations of the press and not face outraged criticism.

9:09 pm

A blogger with brains and a passion for free speech explains to the brainless and partisan mainstream press why the Obama administration thinks it can get away with monitoring the news gathering operations of the press and not face outraged criticism.

Read it all. If you happen to be a journalist with any ethics, it will make you sick.

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The next Falcon 9/Dragon launch to ISS will include the first test of legs on the rocket’s first stage, as well as an attempt to complete a soft touchdown on water of that first stage.

8:47 pm

The competition heats up: The next Falcon 9/Dragon launch to ISS will include the first test of legs on the rocket’s first stage, as well as an attempt to complete a soft touchdown on water of that first stage.

The article is chock full of interesting details about SpaceX’s effort to make the first stage of the Falcon 9 reusable.

Posted from Garden City, New York.

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The Obama administration is moving ahead with a FCC project to send government agents into newsrooms to make sure journalists cover certain topics the Obama administration considers important.

8:58 am

The first amendment is such an inconvenient thing: The Obama administration is moving ahead with a FCC project to send government agents into newsrooms to make sure journalists cover certain topics the Obama administration considers important.

I had read about this proposed project last week but had then seen reports that the FCC was backing down. Now it appears they are not.

What I can’t figure out is this: What news organization is going to agree to this? The FCC has no legal power over print journalism. If those researchers wanted to enter my newsroom or question my reporting, I’d simply tell them to go to hell, after I recorded the conversation. I would then report on that conversation, making it as embarrassing as I could for that researcher and the Obama administration.

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Democrats are whining about the Medicare cuts imposed by Obamacare, by the very law they refused to read and then imposed on us.

8:39 am

Finding out what’s in it: Vulnerable Democrats are now whining about the Medicare cuts imposed by Obamacare, by the very law they refused to read and then imposed on us.

The article notes how these same Democrats were also very blunt about lying that Obamacare would not force any cuts to Medicare, before the law was passed.

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A ruling by “a fatwa committee” in the United Arab Emirates now forbids Muslims from going on a one way mission to Mars.

8:17 am

A ruling by “a fatwa committee” in the United Arab Emirates now forbids Muslims from going on a one way mission to Mars.

“Such a one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in Islam,” the committee said. “There is a possibility that an individual who travels to planet Mars may not be able to remain alive there, and is more vulnerable to death.” Whoever opts for this “hazardous trip”, the committee said, is likely to perish for no “righteous reason”, and thus will be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter”.

Suicide and martyrdom in the name of Islam, however, is perfectly all right.

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Russia on track to test launch its new Angara rocket before June.

8:10 am

The competition heats up: Russia on track to test launch its new Angara rocket before June.

A full-scale mockup of the rocket was rolled out to a launch pad earlier this week to check ground support systems. The Angara is planned to launch from both Plesetsk and the new Vostochny space center in Russia’s Far East that is being built to reduce reliance on the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The modular launcher will have a variety of configurations to cover a wide range of payload weights, from two to 24.5 metric tons. They are currently served by several different rockets, including the Proton, Russia’s largest booster.

That first test launch will be a revealing event, as this is the first completely new Russian rocket in almost a half century. The last time they built a new rocket stage, the Briz-M upper stage for the Proton rocket, they had several significant failures before they worked out all the kinks.

And in a related story, Russia’s deputy prime minister made it clear on Wednesday that his country’s spacecraft manufacturers will face stiffer penalties for any failure to meet production deadlines.

An Audit Chamber report in July last year concluded that the country’s space industry was ineffective and plagued by poor management and misuse of funds. It said Russia had only launched 47 percent of the required number of satellites between 2010 and 2012.

Both stories are revealing by their emphasis on keeping Russia commercially competitive. Note however that Russia recently consolidated its entire space industry into a single entity run by the government. Though I doubt it, we shall find out if this Soviet-style strategy can compete with American-style competition and private enterprise.

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Colorado sheriffs push back against enforcing the gun laws passed by Democratic state legislators

12:10 am

Colorado sheriffs push back against enforcing the gun laws passed by Democratic state legislators.

Fifty-four out of 62 Colorado elected sheriffs together with retired law enforcement, Federal Firearms Licensed dealers, disabled individuals, gun manufacturers and other concerned citizens filed a complaint in federal court against the governor claiming violations of the Second and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

A ban on high-capacity magazines and required background checks for the private sale and transfer of firearms are the two components of the legislation being targeted for dismissal in the courts, said Cooke. “The legislature basically outlawed all magazines not just ones that can hold more than 15 rounds,” he said.  “Any magazine that can be readably converted to hold more than 15 rounds is illegal – which is about every single magazine made.”

There is also this quote:

Last week a coalition of pro-Second Amendment legislators attempted a full repeal of the unlawful magazine capacity limit only to be rejected at the committee levels of a Democrat-controlled legislature, said Cooke.

According to the new law, if a firearm with a magazine attachment was taken into possession after July 1 it would be considered a crime; but if that same firearm was purchased before July 1 it is a “grandfathered” magazine and not considered a crime, he said. The sheriff presented the two differently-dated magazines to the committees and asked them to tell the difference.  “Obviously they could not do it.” When neither the public nor law enforcement can distinguish between two magazines that are identical the law is unconstitutional, he said.

When you pass bad laws, all you will get is contempt for the law. Thus, it is essential that we be reluctant to pass laws unless we are very very very sure they make sense.

Posted from Garden City, New York.

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Orbital images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have confirmed that the mysterious rock that appeared near Opportunity was not ejecta from a nearby meteorite impact.

2:29 pm

Orbital images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have confirmed that the mysterious rock that appeared near Opportunity was not ejecta from a nearby meteorite impact.

The scientists theorized that there was a very remote chance that a nearby impact has thrown the rock into place, but the images show nothing nearby. Moreover, if there had been an impact we probably would have seen more rocks raining down all around. The images are further confirmation that the rock was kicked up by the rover itself as it rolled along.

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The Google Lunar X-Prize has chosen 5 finalists of the 18 teams remaining in the private competition to land a rover on the Moon by 2015.

1:32 pm

The Google Lunar X-Prize has chosen 5 finalists of the 18 teams remaining in the private competition to land a rover on the Moon by 2015.

Astrobotic, Moon Express and Team Indus are finalists for prizes of $1 million per team for achievement in hardware and software systems to enable a soft landing on the Moon. Astrobotic, Moon Express, Hakuto and Part-Time Scientists are finalists for prizes of $500,000 per team related to the mobility systems that allow a team’s lunar craft to travel 500 meters across the lunar surface after landing. Astrobotic, Moon Express, Part-Time Scientists and Team Indus are finalists for prizes of $250,000 per team for technology designed to produce high-quality images and video on the Moon.

The first team to land before the end of 2015 will win $20 million.

Posted from Tucson International Airport.

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Off to Israel

1:00 pm

Posting for the rest of February will be spotty. I am heading to New York to give a lecture the Long Island section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics on Thursday night, then on to Israel for 10 days to visit family.

For an idea of what it was like to visit Israel last February, check out my earlier posts below, listed in chronological order. In each case, I think you will get a more accurate portrayal of the reality on the ground, in contrast to the political antisemitism of today’s modern intellectual culture.

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Europe approves its own more advanced version of Kepler to launch in 2024 and hunt for exoplanets across half the sky.

11:27 am

Europe approves its own more advanced version of Kepler to launch in 2024 and hunt for exoplanets across half the sky.

During its six year long planned mission, PLATO will observe one million stars, leading to the likely discovery and characterisation of thousands of new planets circling other stars. PLATO will scan and observe about half the sky, including the brightest and nearest stars.

PLATO consists of an array of 34 individual telescopes mounted on an observing platform in the space probe. The satellite will be positioned at one of the so-called Lagrangian Points , where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Earth cancel each other out so the satellite will stay at a fixed position in space. Each of the 34 telescopes has an aperture of 12 centimeters. The individual telescopes can be combined in many different modes and bundled together, leading to unprecedented capabilities to simultaneously observe both bright and dim objects. PLATO will be equipped with the largest camera-system sensor ever flown in space, comprising 136 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that have a combined area of 0.9 square metres.

More here and here.

What I like about this is that this project is essentially putting another optical telescope in space. The more of these we have the more discoveries we will make, as even a tiny optical telescope in the vacuum of space is more productive than a giant ground-based telescope looking through the foggy atmosphere of Earth.

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Our decadent elites.

9:41 am

Our decadent elites.

I don’t understand why members of Congress, the White House and the media become cooperators in videos that sort of show that deep down they all see themselves as . . . actors. And good ones! In a phony drama. Meant I suppose to fool the rubes. It’s all supposed to be amusing, supposed to show you’re an insider who sees right through this town. But I’m not sure it shows that.

We’re at a funny point in our political culture. To have judgment is to be an elitist. To have dignity is to be yesterday. To have standards is to be a hypocrite—you won’t always meet standards even when they’re your own, so why have them?

I have always tried to have judgment, dignity, and standards, which I guess explains why I have had so little success compared to today’s politicians and modern intellectuals.

Meanwhile, take a close look at who participated in the video Noonan describes above. It will tell you who we should not trust in the impending war over American freedom.

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University of South Carolina administrators refuse to teach the Constitution as required by state stature because they find it “inconvenient.”

1:08 pm

The law is such an inconvenient thing: University of South Carolina administrators refuse to teach the Constitution, as required by state stature, because they find it “inconvenient.”

State statutes maintain that all students at a South Carolina public school must spend a certain amount of time studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Failure to abide by the statute is grounds for the removal of the head of the public institution–in this case, President Pastides. “Willful neglect or failure on the part of any public school superintendent, principal or teacher or the president, teacher or other officer of any high school, normal school, university or college to observe and carry out the requirements [of the statute] shall be sufficient cause for the dismissal or removal of such person from his position,” according to South Carolina law.

The USC administrators say the statute is inconvenient to enforce, however, since it would disrupt the university’s current course requirements.

It might inconvenient, and the law itself might be foolish, but it isn’t up the administrators to decide this. They should be fired.

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Communism fails again, and the Western intellectual elite puts blinders on so they don’t have to see it.

11:35 am

Communism fails again, and the Western intellectual elite puts blinders on so they don’t have to see it.

Communism and top-down state control of human activity has always failed in the past, continues to fail in the present, and will always fail in the future — no matter how good or sincere the intentions might be. If you want to make life better for people, give them freedom and then try to persuade them to do the right thing. Applying force simply does not work.

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NOAA’s official prediction for this winter was worse than monkeys working on typewriters.

9:58 am

The uncertainty of science: NOAA’s official prediction for this winter was as bad as monkeys working on typewriters.

“Not one of our better forecasts,” admits Mike Halpert, the Climate Prediction Center’s acting director. The center grades itself on what it calls the Heidke skill score, which ranges from 100 (perfection) to -50 (monkeys throwing darts would have done better). October’s forecast for the three-month period of November through January came in at -22. Truth be told, the September prediction for October-December was slightly worse, at -23. The main cause in both cases was the same: Underestimating the mammoth December cold wave, which brought snow to Dallas and chilled partiers in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

But don’t worry. These guys know exactly what’s going to happen to the climate in a hundred years.

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Three relatively large near Earth asteroids have just been discovered.

10:13 pm

Chicken Little report: In October of last year three relatively large near Earth asteroids were discovered unexpectedly.

Read the report, which is the second notice at the link. I missed it at the time. Each of these new discoveries was interesting and surprising. Key quote: “The delayed discovery of 2013 US10 is a bit harder to explain, since current population models suggest that almost all near-Earth asteroids of this size and orbit should have already been found.” Apparently not.

In related news, a several hundred foot wide asteroid zipped past the Earth this evening.

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