frontier is open – Page 4

News from the wide open frontier of space exploration

Cygnus capsule, ready to dock with ISS. Courtesy of Orbital ATK.

Recently I’ve seen a number of fun articles on space exploration. Here are a few to share: successful resupply launch to ISS after several failures across the industry, competition between spaceplane and reusable boosters, and China developing a new manned capsule.

12/6 – ABC News – Liftoff: 1st US Shipment in Months Flying to Space Station – Orbital ATK’s cargo ship launched on top of a ULA Atlas 5 rocket. Cygnus is carrying 7,400 pounds of supplies to the ISS.

Orbital lost a supply run in October 2014, Russia lost one earlier in 2015, and SpaceX lost one in June 2015. Keep in mind that launching rockets into space is the difficult task that is behind the putdown of ‘it isn’t rocket science’.

12/8 – NASAspaceflight.com – Berthing Complete: OA-4 Cygnus arrives at the ISS – the Cygnus cargo ship has been docked at the ISS. Article gives good explanation of the complexity of getting a supply ship to exactly match the orbit of the ISS and the very careful process of trying to close and then grab for docking. Continue reading “News from the wide open frontier of space exploration”

Government intervention can stop an industry or make the good times roll

Old joke: You don't want to know how either sausage or legislation is made. Today we see an illustration of the outcome. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Old joke: You don’t want to know how either sausage or legislation is made. Today we see an illustration of the outcome. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

There was lots of news yesterday about the House passing a budget that covers all federal operations for the 2016 fiscal year.

I will leave the heated political observations to others. They seem to all be having fun.

What I’ll focus on is several ways that the sausage-making legislative compromises affected some of the wide open frontiers I’m watching.

Export ban on crude oil

Continue reading “Government intervention can stop an industry or make the good times roll”

Diverging opinions on the U.S. bill to allow asteroid mining.

Image of asteroid courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

I previously mentioned the U.S. House and Senate had passed a bill which would allow private mining of asteroids. Ownership of the asteroids wouldn’t be allowed but a company extracting resources from asteroids would have lawful property rights to the material.

The law was signed – 11/26 – Space Daily – Pres. Obama signs bill recognizing asteroid resource property rights into law – The President signed the bill to allow companies to have ownership interest in resources mined from asteroids. Ownership of asteroids is not allowed, but what you mine you own.

Now for a completely different perspective:

11/27 – Gbenga Oduntan at Space Daily – Who owns space? US asteroid-mining act is dangerous and potentially illegal – Author asserts that activity in space “requires international regulation” which means the US Congress has no authority except to ratify international treaties.

Continue reading “Diverging opinions on the U.S. bill to allow asteroid mining.”

More great news on the open frontier of space exploration

CRS6 launch. Photo by SpaceX. Used with permission.

Blue Origin launch. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission.

Two follow ups on the previous post about the great news last week on space exploration. Competition in bragging rights heats up. Guesses on the cost for the successful launch of a commercial satellite by Japan.

11/24 – Space.com – Billionaire Battle: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk Square Off on Reusable-Rocket Test – The competition and bragging rights is definitely heating up. It looks to me like making the brags very narrow in scope means they can all be true.

Let’s walk through the brags in the article.

Continue reading “More great news on the open frontier of space exploration”

Delightful news on the wide open frontier of private space exploration shows why I am so optimistic about the future

Recovered first stage, which landed a mere 4 1/2 feet from where planned. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission. — Recovered first stage, which landed a mere 4 1/2 feet away from planned impact point. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission.

Lots of fun news in the past week about the wide open frontier of space exploration. Three huge developments are:

SpaceX landed a contract for a manned flight,
Blue Origin successfully recovered a first stage, and
Japan successfully launched a commercial satellite.

What I describe in this post is the reason I am so wildly optimistic about the future. The astounding progress here stands in stark contrast to the foolishness and ridiculousness we see dominate the news every hour of every day.

The absolute best news:

11/24 – New York Post – The new space race is a private-sector affair – Editorial celebrates Blue Origin successfully recovering a first stage, SpaceX has already flown several resupply missions to the International Space Station, and Boeing & Virgin Galactic are also in the game.

The more competitors, the better.

First stages can be recovered after launch:

Continue reading “Delightful news on the wide open frontier of private space exploration shows why I am so optimistic about the future”

Updates on open frontier of private space exploration

Private space launch of privately developed rocket. Photo courtesy of SpaceX.

I am fascinated by the wide open frontiers in so many areas of life. We’re at the point where private enterprises are taking the lead in space exploration.

Here are several fascinating articles I’ve read recently on legislation to legalize space mining, how to colonize Mars, thumbsats (which are smaller than cubesats), and competition for launching GPS satellites.

Asteriod mining

11/13 – Jurist – Senate approved the bill to legalize space mining – Bill would be huge step in providing a legal framework for mining asteroids. This would not allow for ownership of asteroids, but would give a clear title to anyone who mined resources and removed them from the asteroid.

Continue reading “Updates on open frontier of private space exploration”

Wide open frontier, drone edition – 10/27

A few articles on the wide open frontier of drones: counter-measures and regulation.

9/16 – Sputnick News – Anti-Drone Defense System That Can Fight Micro-UAVs Revealed in London – A company reveals product which they claim can take over control of a drone and force it to land. They claim this is a scalable defensive tool which could be used to protect anything from a small group of people to a large military base.

Very cool.

My guess on the counter-counter measure? Encryption of the signal to the drone.

Nov ’15 – The Atlantic – Playing Defense Against the Drones – Long read on how people as varied as prison wardens, celebrity wedding planners, security firms protecting individuals, and gun clubs are responding to intrusive drones. Great background on where regulation stands in the US (minimal rules on amateurs, stringent rules on business use, and more rules to come).

Continue reading “Wide open frontier, drone edition – 10/27”

To sort through the question of how to share economic and health progress with everyone, check out a book from the winner of this year’s Nobel award in economics

Cover of Prof. Deaton's book, used under fair use, courtesy of Amazon.com — Cover of Prof. Deaton’s book, used under fair use for this review, courtesy of Amazon.com

Why have we seen such dramatic improvement in average wealth and average life expectancy everywhere in the last 100 or 200 years? What has led to a radical reduction in the number of people living in dirt-eating poverty in the last 50 years?

Over the last few years I have focused a lot of my reading on economics and history trying to figure out the answers to those questions. Why?

If we figure out the answer to those questions we can continue in the same direction. If we sort out how we got here, we can share that strategy with those who have not shared in the progress. If you want a different phrasing, we can radically narrow economic inequality within countries and between countries if we can answer those questions. We can help get even more people out of dirt-eating poverty.

(Cross posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.) Continue reading “To sort through the question of how to share economic and health progress with everyone, check out a book from the winner of this year’s Nobel award in economics”

Update on the astoundingly wide open and possibly lucrative frontier of publishing. Want to write a book? Anyone can.

One of the most amazing open frontiers today is the ability of anyone to publish a book and get it on the market. If you have ever wanted to write a book and see in print, you can do so easily and oh so inexpensively. The wide open doors to opportunity are right in front of you.

Lots and lots of people are publishing. No longer are huge New York publishers an insurmountable barrier for unknown writers.

9/15 – The Arts Mechanical – How To Win the Battle and Lose the War – Huge battle last year was between Amazon and Hachette. Amazon wanted to deliver books at prices customers were willing to pay. Hachette wanted to price e-books far higher, near the same level as print.

Continue reading “Update on the astoundingly wide open and possibly lucrative frontier of publishing. Want to write a book? Anyone can.”

Who will break first, Saudi Arabia or the American shale oil industry?

Ras Tanura oil terminal, Saudi Arabia, photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Ras Tanura oil terminal in Saudi Arabia. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

VERSUS

5 oil pads in North Dakota, 1 with drilling rig and one cleared ready to drill. Photo by James Ulvog — 5 oil pads in North Dakota, 1 with drilling rig. Each pad may eventually have 3 or 10 wells. Photo by James Ulvog. October 2014. Yeah, yeah, I’m not much of a photographer.

Three fascinating articles to give some perspective on global oil market. Might want to get a fresh cup of coffee, this will be a long read.

From immediate appearances, Saudi Arabia is in financial distress because of low oil prices. On a longer-term perspective they are in extremely severe trouble. OPEC as an organization is essentially done. Entertaining to watch one writer tried to blow off all of the above information.

First, the immediate indication that Saudi Arabia is having serious trouble now.

8/5 – Financial Times – Saudi Arabia plans $27bn in bond issues – Saudi Arabia has already borrowed $4B in the bond market. They are floating ideas of borrowing $5.3B a month through the end of the year for an additional $27B debt.

With selling around 10.3M barrels a day at price of around $50 which produces somewhere around $188B a year, why are they tiptoeing back into the debt market?

Continue reading “Who will break first, Saudi Arabia or the American shale oil industry?”

Capitalism undermines feudalism and offers economic freedom to Dalits

Capitalism does a better job providing freedom and equality than any other system. It is a far better option than feudalism.

Capitalism has been allowed to flourish in India since 1991. The results have been to release large numbers of Dalits from bonded labor. Previously those individuals were restricted to the most dirty, dangerous jobs.

Check out the results in this article by Swaminathan S. Ankelsaria Aiyar, writing at Cato Institute: How Capitalism Is Undermining the Indian Caste System

Article is reprinted in full under a Creative Commons license granted by the author: Continue reading “Capitalism undermines feudalism and offers economic freedom to Dalits”

More news from the open frontier of energy – 7/17

Amazing things are happening at the energy open frontier. Vaca Muerta is a huge shale gas field in Argentina that I doubt will be a big player anytime soon. US passes Russia as largest oil & gas producer and OPEC revenue slumps.

6/10 – Yahoo Finance – U.S. Ousts Russia as Top World Oil, Gas Producer in BP Data – Data from BP shows that the U.S. is world’s biggest producer of hydrocarbons, surpassing Russia for the first time.

Hmm …. I wonder if there is some correlation to the following …

Continue reading “More news from the open frontier of energy – 7/17”

News from the open frontier of technology – 7/15

Amazon’s Prime Day sale marks an amazing anniversary. Autonomous robotic ‘cheetah’ can jump over obstacles as it is running. Other fun news from the astounding open frontier of technological innovation.

5/29 – Washington Post – Oh cool, now this robotic cheetah can make running leaps – Extremely cool. A mechanical cheetah that can run is an amazing step. Compound that with been able to clear barriers half its height.

Watch the slow-motion and you can see the complexities of calculations needed to position and push-off for the jump, having to pull in the rear legs to clear, having to absorb the force of the landing, and then resuming the run.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_luhn7TLfWU]

Amazing.

7/15 – The Economist Espresso (via email thus no on-line link) – Amazon at 20: bargains and much, much more –

Continue reading “News from the open frontier of technology – 7/15”

Oil exploration and production moves to manufacturing stage

The shale revolution is transitioning into a manufacturing stage where production can be turned on and off based on minor price fluctuations.

6/1 – Donald Luskin and Michael Warren at Wall Street Journal – The Shale Boom Shifts Into High Gear / Oil production is becoming a modern manufacturing process, with frackers using the ‘just-in-time’ approach

Think of it as Moore’s Law applied to oil production.

Combine two factors, increased efficiencies and rapid depletion. Continue reading “Oil exploration and production moves to manufacturing stage”

The energy future is so bright we may have to trade in our sunglasses for welder’s goggles

Here are two resources I came across on the same day that point to why the future is so incredibly bright that regular sunglasses might not be enough:

Shale 2.0 – Technology and the Coming Big-Data Revolution in America’s Shale Oil Fields, by Mark Mills, of the Manhattan Institute

Economic Impact and Legal Analysis of the Shale Oil and Gas Activities in Mexico, preliminary report – by University of Texas San Antonio and others. Prof Thomas Tunstall is the principal investigator and Javier Oyakawa is the lead investigator at UTSA.

I have just started reading both of the reports. Plan to finish them in the next few days and will have more to say then.

A couple of initial thoughts:

The Manhattan Institute study suggests the shale revolution of the last five or seven years is barely getting started. The technological innovations in the last couple of years are going to accelerate.

Continue reading “The energy future is so bright we may have to trade in our sunglasses for welder’s goggles”