Embedded below the fold. This segment I spent a lot of time talking about the state of ground-based astronomy, spurred by the problems at TMT and the beginnings of the construction of E-ELT.
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Embedded below the fold. Spent some time talking about the NASA budget, SLS, and the differences between SpaceX’s plans for Mars and Lockheed Martin’s.
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Embedded below the fold. Topics: Belize, Congress, SpaceX, and Texas cows, among other things.
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I will be doing my Tuesday night podcast on John Batchelor, live Tuesday at 11:00 pm Eastern. We did a test phone call tonight and confirmed that the connection is good. I expect I will talk a bit about what I am doing here in Belize, as well as some of the space stuff going on the last few days and posted on Behind the Black.
I will also post the podcast link once John Batchelor gets it uploaded.
Still alive! We spent Saturday and Sunday surveying in Mountain Cow Cave, located on the Hummingbird Highway in a national park. Quite amazingly beautiful. Gigantic rooms filled with big towers and formations everywhere. The size makes surveying and sketching the rooms challenging, as I am sometimes staning in plsces far from any walls. To sketch a cave passage it helps to be able to see the walls.
No pictures, for the moment, as it is hard to upload large files here.
We go to a different cave tomorrow (Monday) while on Tuesday we will take a day off to go sightseeing at the Tikal ruins in Guatamala.
One more thing: there is a chance I will still do my Tuesday appearance with John Batchelor. If we find the phone connection acceptable, I will go on live at 11 pm eastern. I will know for sure by tomorrow night.
Embedded below the fold.
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On Friday afternoon I spent 90 minutes with Robert Pratt on his radio show, Pratt on Texas. Unlike most radio hosts, Robert wanted to hear my thoughts not just on the state of the aerospace industry, but also on today’s politics. The conversation thus ranged beyond space during the last half hour. If anyone wants to hear this conversation, the podcast be found here.
Note: The podcast now works at this link.
I will be spending an hour today at 5 pm (central) with Robert Pratt to talk space and politics, ranging from SpaceX to the ignorance of Houston officials of U.S. currency. Though broadcast throughout Texas, the show is also available online at the link.
As John Batchelor so accurately labeled, “Blast-off!”. Embedded below the fold.
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Embedded below the fold. The focus tonight was about the uptick in investment capital going to space, fueled by the drop in launch prices.
Note that I was also on Coast to Coast tonight discussing the same thing during the opening news.
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Embedded below the fold. Discussed the SpaceX proposal to send Dragon to Mars, as well as the ramifications of SpaceX’s first Air Force launch contract.
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Embedded below the fold.
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My appearance on the Space Show yesterday is now available as a podcast. I strongly recommend people listen to it, especially the first hour. During that section I compared at length the cost and practicality of the Falcon Heavy with SLS/Orion, and noted how badly Congress and Presidents from both parties have served the American people these past twenty years in mismanaging our aerospace industry.
David Livingston called it a rant, and criticized me for it during the show, but I think the time has come for more Americans to rage in horror at the foolishness and possible corruption of our elected leaders in Washington.
Embedded below the fold. I like John’s title for this podcast: “Bad Money, Big Space. Thrifty Space X Rolls Along”.
By the way, on Monday evening I will be doing another two hour appearance on the Space Show, with the podcast available there.
Embedded below the fold. We talked about SpaceX’s new spaceport in Texas, its upcoming launch schedule, the prepwork on its recovered first stage. We also talked about dinosaurs, and how the theory that they were killed by an asteroid is decidedly uncertain.
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Tonight’s podcast is embedded below the fold. Lots of ULA discussion, as well as Russian court battles.
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Twenty minutes of fun, talking first about the new American space industry, about to burst out to settle the solar system, then followed with a segment on the increasingly sad state of the Russian space program, run by top-down centralized rule from Moscow, with a failing economy that is very strapped for cash. The embed of the podcast is below the fold.
Tonight’s podcast, embedded below the fold, was aptly titled by John Batchelor “Big Space Delays and Delays and Delays the SLS.” Unfortunately I didn’t have time this time to outline the cost differences between SLS/Orion and commercial space. Next time!
The podcast from the John Batchelor Show last night is embedded below the fold.
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The podcast is embedded below the fold. Batchelor labeled this appearance as “Commercial Space Is a Jobs Program for Florida”.
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Even as I am appearing on Coast to Coast, John Batchelor has just posted the podcast for my appearance tonight on his show, embedded below the fold.
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I probably should have noted this earlier, but I am about to begin another two hour stint on Coast to Coast with George Noory. Should, as always, be a lot of fun.
Embedded below the fold. Lots of science today, including a discussion of the status of the Thirty Meter Telescope and the hunt for a new location outside of Hawaii.
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Today’s podcast of my appearance on the John Batchelor Show is embedded below the fold. Russia, North and South Korea, China, and of course American commercial were on the agenda.
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Podcast embedded below the fold. Tonight we talked prime numbers, among other things.
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Tonight’s podcast from the John Batchelor Show is embedded below the fold. Lots of good stuff, including my most recent take on SLS/Orion.
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Embedded below the fold. I would dub this podcast an updated summary of what I in 2005 called the new colonial movement.
We are at the dawn of a new colonial age. The growing space competition between nations is in many ways very reminiscent of the 19th century competition between the European powers to colonize Africa and the South Pacific. In the 1800s, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom aggressively competed to carve up the undeveloped world. The result was foreign-run colonies controlling most of the Third World, for both good and ill, for almost a century.
Today, a new list of nations – India, China, Japan, Russia, Europe and the United States — are throwing their resources at space exploration in much the same way. Their goal, unstated but indisputable, is similar to the colonial powers of the 19th century: to obtain future domination over unclaimed territories in space.
This quest will, like the previous colonial efforts, be a long, complex and difficult historical process. Just as the colonial movement dominated much of 19th century politics and history, the growing desire by nations today to settle and control the solar system is also likely to dominate human history for centuries to come. The significant difference, however, is there are no aborigine peoples in space. The colonization of the solar system offers the hope of oppressing no one while bringing benefits to everyone who does it.
Last night’s podcast is embedded below the fold. This time we spent a good amount of time discussing the smart way Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk publicity their brands.
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Embed below the fold. Entitled “The Wear and Tear of Zero Gravity” by John Batchelor.
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The embed is below the fold. I especially like John’s description for this podcast: “Space X Scrubbing. China Space Thieving. Russian Space Failing.”
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