It appears that SpaceX has completed another test firing of its new Merlin engine.
The competition heats up: It appears that SpaceX has completed another test firing of its new Merlin engine.
A Russian news story reports that the spectacular Proton rocket failure several weeks ago occurred because a sensor was installed “upside down.”
A Russian news story reports that the spectacular Proton rocket failure two weeks ago occurred because a sensor was installed “upside down.”
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
At the rim 2
We have returned from inside the Grand Canyon. We hiked out on Tuesday, doing the climb up in what is for us record time, arriving at the rim at 12:30 pm after 7 hours of hiking. We were down at Phantom Ranch for two full days and three nights, doing some really spectacular day hikes each day. I will post some further details, with pictures, once I get home.
We are still touring about here in northern Arizona and will be until Sunday. Right now I am sitting in the patio of the motel at Grand Canyon Caverns, about two hours west of the national park. This morning we drove down to the Colorado on the Hualapai Reservation, using the only road on the south rim that reaches the river. This weekend I will be participating in a long term cave dig project here at this somewhat famous commercial cave. The dig has been going on for years in cooperation with the cave’s owners. This will be the first time that I will contribute to the project.
Engineers will attempt one more try this month to revive one of Kepler’s reaction wheels so that the telescope can resume observations.
Engineers will attempt one more try this month to revive one of Kepler’s reaction wheels so that the telescope can resume observations.
They admit that the odds are not good that the attempt will work, but they are going to give it chance anyway.
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 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 the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
At the rim
After a 5.5 hour drive we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and checked into our hotel. You can see the view from the window on the right. Not very spectacular, but then, you don’t spend much time in a hotel room on trips like this.
Tomorrow we take the shuttle bus to the North Rim, where will spend another night in the lodge there. On Saturday, we hike down on North Bright Angel trail, and will stay in a cabin at Phantom Ranch for the next three nights, doing day hikes from the bottom of the canyon on Sunday and Monday. We will hike then up on Tuesday, coming up Bright Angel trail to the south rim, completing our first rim to rim hike. Once we check out of our hotel tomorrow, we will be out of contact with the internet until we return to the south rim. I hope the world doesn’t fall apart in the interim.
This will be Diane’s third trip to the bottom, and my fifth. I can’t express how happy I am to be back. This is truly one of the grandest spots on Earth.
Emma Lazarus – The New Colossus
An evening pause: There are many intellectual fools these days who love to denigrate the United States and its history. These words, however, tell its true story, honestly and simply. Woe to us if we forget it.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Off to the Grand Canyon
We are off to the Grand Canyon. Though I will probably have a chance to post tonight and tomorrow, expect posting to be light, especially the first half of next week when we are at Phantom Ranch.
Nevada police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors.
Violating the third amendment: Nevada police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors.
The Mitchell family’s claim includes Third Amendment violations, a rare claim in the United States. The Third Amendment prohibits quartering soldiers in citizens’ homes in times of peace without the consent of the owner.
The Russian investigation into the crash of their Proton rocket on Tuesday now includes a criminal prosecutor.
The Russian investigation into the crash of their Proton rocket on Tuesday now includes a criminal prosecutor.
“The investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee at the Baikonur complex has opened a criminal case on this incident over evidence of a crime, put forward in the Russian Criminal Code Article 216 Part 1. The Baikonur prosecutor’s office is overseeing the investigation,” the statement said.
There is also another story from this news service claiming that the crash occurred because the rocket launched a half second early, confusing its computer systems.
Legitimacy.
For July 4th: Legitimacy.
Want to land on an asteroid? Watch out, a gentle touchdown might cause avalanches everywhere!
Want to land on an asteroid? Watch out, a gentle touchdown might cause avalanches everywhere!
Among many other valid points, the Wall Street Journal notes the “lawless” nature of the Obama administration’s announcement yesterday that it will not enforce one legal requirement of Obamacare in 2013.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: Among many other valid points about the disaster that is Obamacare, the Wall Street Journal notes the “lawless” nature of the Obama administration’s announcement yesterday that it will not enforce one legal requirement of Obamacare in 2013.
This selective enforcement of laws has become an Administration habit. From immigration (the Dream Act by fiat) to easing welfare reform’s work requirements to selective waivers for No Child Left Behind, the Obama Administration routinely suspends enforcement of or unilaterally rewrites via regulation the laws it dislikes. Now it is doing it again on health care, without any consultation from, much less the approval of, Congress.
Sadly, this contempt for the law is becoming rampant. Worse, though the Democrats have generally been the worst offenders, this contempt has not been a partisan affair. Republican politicians have participated as well.
And who will suffer? Not the politicians. It will be the ordinary innocent citizens, who merely want to live their lives freely without hindrance, who will pay the cost.
Hugh Laurie’s song for America
An evening pause: The British take on America and many American pop songs about our fair country.
I say, they still haven’t gotten over their defeat at Yorktown.
After more than eleven years, the sea-level tracking satellite Jason-1 has finally shut down.
After more than eleven years, the sea-level tracking satellite Jason-1 has finally shut down.
This week’s launch failure of the Proton rocket leaves two satellite communications firms in a quandary.
The competition heats up: This week’s launch failure of the Proton rocket leaves two satellite communications firms in a quandary.
Luxembourg-based SES joins London-based Inmarsat among the commercial customers awaiting Proton launches later this year, a prospect that almost certainly disappeared in the fireball that engulfed Proton shortly after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Inmarsat’s entire next-generation high-speed mobile communications product offer is booked on three Proton launches.
It appears that their only other launch options are Arianespace, which is booked up, and SpaceX, which is not yet ready to take on this much new business.
In other words, the launch industry has a need for more launchers from companies willing to compete for that business.
Update: Arianespace has said that if they get the orders quickly, they might be able to fit the launch’s into their 2014 launch manifest. That has the sound of a company that wants to make money, and is willing to do whatever it takes to capture the business.
A white dwarf star that has morphed into a massive pulsing crystal.
A white dwarf star that has morphed into a massive pulsing crystal.
“I hope you’re raped.”
Leftwing civility: “I hope you’re raped.”
A doctor with 5,000 patients is closing his practice because of Obamacare.
We’ve only just begun: A doctor with 5,000 patients is closing his practice because of Obamacare.
Watch the video. It begins with a mention of the expensive requirement, imposed by Obamacare, that all medical records be converted to digital, noting that this cost is one of the reasons doctors are giving up.
Mercury, world of fire.
Mercury, world of fire.
The FBI has still not contacted any conservative group that was harassed by the IRS.
The FBI has still not contacted any conservative group that was harassed by the IRS.
And we still don’t know who the lead investigator of the FBI investigation is.
This “FBI investigation” is a fraud. Obama might have expressed public outrage over the IRS scandal, but in private it appears he instead ordered that nothing be done and that FBI act as a shield for the guilty parties.