April 25, 2017 Zimmerman Space Show podcast
My two hour appearance with David Livingston on the Space Show last night is now available and can be downloaded as a podcast here.
From the press release: From the moment he is handed a possibility of making the first alien contact, Saunders Maxwell decides he will do it, even if doing so takes him through hell and back.
Unfortunately, that is exactly where that journey takes him.
The vision that Zimmerman paints of vibrant human colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, indomitably fighting the harsh lifeless environment of space to build new societies, captures perfectly the emerging space race we see today.
He also captures in Pioneer the heart of the human spirit, willing to push forward no matter the odds, no matter the cost. It is that spirit that will make the exploration of the heavens possible, forever, into the never-ending future.
Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit.
And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
My two hour appearance with David Livingston on the Space Show last night is now available and can be downloaded as a podcast here.
From the press release: From the moment he is handed a possibility of making the first alien contact, Saunders Maxwell decides he will do it, even if doing so takes him through hell and back.
Unfortunately, that is exactly where that journey takes him.
The vision that Zimmerman paints of vibrant human colonies on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, indomitably fighting the harsh lifeless environment of space to build new societies, captures perfectly the emerging space race we see today.
He also captures in Pioneer the heart of the human spirit, willing to push forward no matter the odds, no matter the cost. It is that spirit that will make the exploration of the heavens possible, forever, into the never-ending future.
Available everywhere for $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit. And if you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
I think your approach to space re-regulation would be very helpful for space exploration, but also that it is quite realistic. The president (any president) understands law, and at least this one understands economics. Instead of making decisions about destination and vehicle, a new legal framework for space exploration is something a president can understand very well. (The drawback with a knowledgeable president is that he can have his own opinion about it :-)
Concerning how early a reusable vertically landed rocket could’ve been developed, I think it would be no harder than the space shuttle. Its boosters were indeed reused much as if they had been independent first stages. If GPS really is required for guiding the rocket during its landing leg, and for precision landing on dry land, then it might not have been done until about 1990. I think the shuttle was von Braun’s “fault”. He liked to put wings on spaceships. Glide landings seems to have been popular in German aerospace, maybe because of its successes in landing troops early in the war, and because it was used for the remarkable rocket aircraft Me 163 Comet in the end.
Some say SLS/Orion has cost “only” $23 billion. I suppose that’s if one doesn’t include the Constellation years. It still doesn’t help! It is orders of magnitudes more expensive than the private alternatives.