Clik here to view.
Shawyer Space Drive…Arriving.
A science fiction writer acquaintance of mine, John Ringo, is already going nuts about this “Shawyer Drive” on his Facebook page, because he is friends with one of the scientists involved. See power...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Rockets and People, by Boris E Chertok
(Today marks the 58th anniversary of the Sputnik launch, making it an appropriate time to rerun this review, which I originally posted in February of this year) Rockets and People, by Boris E Chertok...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Viewed from a Soviet Launch Facility
(rerun) This month marks the 53rd anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world dangerously close to thermonuclear war. Several years ago, I read Rockets and People, the totally...
View ArticleReusable Rockets
“If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Fermi Paradox and SETI
The Atacama Compact Array In 1950, amidst the UFO hoopla that was sweeping the world, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi posed a simple question, Where are they? By that he meant with lots of people making...
View ArticleCRS-8 Dragon: Hosted Webcast
It’s steps like this that move the space program forward. Notice this wasn’t done by NASA or ULA or the ESA. It was done by a private company that didn’t exist 15 years ago. 37 minutes, including the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mars Chronicles
Little noticed by many, but SpaceX has moved another step towards a Mars landing (from Nasa Spaceflight). SpaceX has entered into an agreement with NASA for a Dragon mission to Mars, set to take place...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sun
From NASA TV, here’s an image of Mercury transiting the sun today: Mercury Transit That image gives a good feel for the scale of the planets versus the sun. Earth would appear a little more than twice...
View ArticleTV Series Review: “American Genius”
Over at The Lexicans, Bill Brandt posted an item about an 8-part TV series titled ‘American Genius’…it is about a selection of inventors and entrepreneurs who have had a major impact on technology,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Viewed from a Soviet Launch Facility (rerun)
This month marks the 54th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world dangerously close to thermonuclear war. Several years ago, I read Rockets and People, the totally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sputnik Anniversary Rerun – Book Review: Rockets and People
Today being the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik launch, here’s a rerun of a post about a very interesting book. Rockets and People, by Boris E Chertok Boris Chertok’s career in the Russian aerospace...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Viewed from a Soviet Launch Facility (rerun)
This month marks the 55th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world dangerously close to thermonuclear war. Several years ago, I read Rockets and People, the totally...
View Article2017 Reading
Some books I’ve read during the year and consider very worthwhile… Tom Jones and other works, by Henry Fielding. Somehow I had never previously read Fielding (who wrote between 1728 and 1755)…now that...
View ArticlePo nan Jwèt la: Asymétri Kache nan Lavi Chak Jou
Taleb, Nassim N., Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life. New York City: Random House, 2018. NB: precisely because I regard Taleb as a national treasure and have considerable respect for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sputnik Anniversary Rerun – Book Review: Rockets and People
Today being the 61st anniversary of the Sputnik launch, here’s a rerun of a post about a very interesting book. Rockets and People, by Boris E Chertok Boris Chertok’s career in the Russian aerospace...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Viewed From a Soviet Launch Facility (rerun)
This month marks the 56th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world dangerously close to thermonuclear war. Several years ago, I read Rockets and People, the totally...
View ArticleThe First Trip to the Moon, as Envisaged by Robert Heinlein
… in his 1950 story, The Man Who Sold the Moon. Given the upcoming anniversary of the actual first moon landing, I thought it would be fun to go back and take a look at this fictional version of the...
View ArticleWorthwhile Reading
Haven’t posted one of these for while, so here are a few links I found interesting… Tom Wolfe on the space race as a combat of individual champions in the ancient style. Zoning rules as an enemy of...
View ArticleMore Heinlein Stories
I recently posted a brief review of The Man Who Sold the Moon, a 1950 story about the first lunar trip, and thought some reviews of other early Heinlein stories might be of interest as well. (For...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sputnik Anniversary Rerun–Book Review: Rockets and People
Today being the 62nd anniversary of the Sputnik launch, here’s a rerun of a post about a very interesting book. Rockets and People, by Boris E Chertok Boris Chertok’s career in the Soviet aerospace...
View Article
