May 19, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Australian company gets deal to develop technique with American company for using space junk for fuel
The press release [pdf] provides more details.
- Australian company gets approval to develop site for producing solid fuel and launching rockets
The company, Black Sky, appears a long way from actual launches.
- Video showing how equipment is moved from inside China’s Tiangong-3 station to outside without an astronaut EVA
Essentially they put the gear in the airlock, and then the robot arm, operated by an astronaut, pulls it out. From there however a spacewalk is usually required to install the gear, depending on what it is.
- Video taken by nearby bystanders of Long March 3B launch
“Nearby” is an understatement, especially considering this is a rocket using toxic hypergolic fuel. The videographer couldn’t have been more than a half mile away, and maybe as close as a quarter of a mile.
- FCC rules against Dish Network’s 5G plan, claiming it would interfere with Starlink
This decision illustrates the critical importance of acting fast in a competitive market. SpaceX moves fast, gets launched first, and thus automatically gets priority when conflicts occur with other systems that are only proposed.
- Space Perspective will offer high altitude balloon weddings in late 2024
Ticket prices will start at $125K per person.
- Russia and Uganda sign deal not to deploy weapons in space
This agreement, like the Biden administration’s call for a similar ban, is worthless. When it comes time that someone wants to use force in space, force will be used, whether morally right or not. And the victim will have no choice but to respond in kind. That simply is the way of all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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P.O.Box 1262
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Australian company gets deal to develop technique with American company for using space junk for fuel
The press release [pdf] provides more details.
- Australian company gets approval to develop site for producing solid fuel and launching rockets
The company, Black Sky, appears a long way from actual launches.
- Video showing how equipment is moved from inside China’s Tiangong-3 station to outside without an astronaut EVA
Essentially they put the gear in the airlock, and then the robot arm, operated by an astronaut, pulls it out. From there however a spacewalk is usually required to install the gear, depending on what it is.
- Video taken by nearby bystanders of Long March 3B launch
“Nearby” is an understatement, especially considering this is a rocket using toxic hypergolic fuel. The videographer couldn’t have been more than a half mile away, and maybe as close as a quarter of a mile.
- FCC rules against Dish Network’s 5G plan, claiming it would interfere with Starlink
This decision illustrates the critical importance of acting fast in a competitive market. SpaceX moves fast, gets launched first, and thus automatically gets priority when conflicts occur with other systems that are only proposed.
- Space Perspective will offer high altitude balloon weddings in late 2024
Ticket prices will start at $125K per person.
- Russia and Uganda sign deal not to deploy weapons in space
This agreement, like the Biden administration’s call for a similar ban, is worthless. When it comes time that someone wants to use force in space, force will be used, whether morally right or not. And the victim will have no choice but to respond in kind. That simply is the way of all things.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Only $125k a person?
I am glad my daughter is already married.
I feel I am dodging a bullet there.
Well at least Black Sky will have a launchpad and fuel to rent/sell to RocketLab when/if they get it built. Cape Canaveral is running out of that space.
Very happy to learn that Uganda has agreed not to put weapons in space.
I’d like to see how Uganda will enforce that treaty.
The other day Jordan Peterson recorded a 2 hour video with engineer / scientist Brian Roemmele discussing Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT specifically. The discussion was more from the psychological side.
ChatGPT and the Dawn of Computerized Hyper-Intelligence | Brian Roemmele | EP 357
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_E4t7tWHUY
Some of my take aways:
• Jordan Peterson has been using ChatGTP for a month to do advanced research on obscure topics. He asked it to write a graduate level paper crossing one of the schools of psychology with the writings of a famous writer like Solzhenitsyn and he said it did a good job.
• AI will be a better teacher to children than humans. It can do things like watch a child’s facial expression and eye movement and study their learning style and strengths and weaknesses and constantly monitor and improve their teaching style. The child will learn in one hour what they currently do in one day.
• We will have a personal AI on our device that we communicate with that then that communicates with the global AI in order to protect our privacy and from the bad guys using AI to harm us.
• They talk a little about the downside of AI already covered in science fiction movies.
The China launch…smelled like Wal-Mart
Hope it’s debris lands on this dufus
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Walton