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.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
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.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
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