We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
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”
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.”
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”
Lots of fun news in the past week about the wide open frontier of space exploration. Three huge developments are:
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:
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”
As a break from the depressing daily news headlines, consider the incremental steps to figure out how to mine the abundant resources on asteroids.
7/17 – Space.com – Asteroid Mining Company’s 1st Satellite Launches from Space Station – Planetary Resources had a small satellite launched from ISS. It was a three unit cubesat measuring 30 x 10 x 10 cm or 12” x 4” x 4”. This will test a variety of systems and techniques that will be needed to mine asteroids. Pulling water and mineral off asteroids is a huge step in expanded space exploration. After this 90 day experiment is over they will launch another cubesat later this year (12” x 8” x 8”) to test the next set of techniques.
Why water?
Continue reading “Wide open frontier, asteroid mining edition”
Progress and sad news on the frontier of private space exploration:
6/9 – Washington Post – SpaceX founder files with government to provide Internet service in space – Continue reading “More news from the open frontier of space travel”
A few articles on the astoundingly open frontiers of technology and private space exploration.
Technology
5/21 – Popular Mechanics – Brain Implant Lets Teraplegic Man drink Beer with a Robot Arm – Although this is a little bity step, consider what a huge leap it is from what could be done before.
Sensors attached to a man’s head pick up electronic signals corresponding to him wanting to move his arm. Those signals control a robotic arm to move a cup of water up and toward him so that he can take a sip.
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 5/29”
The frontiers of private space travel, technology innovations, and the education revolution are amazing to watch. Here are a few articles that caught my eye that I thought are worth a mention of the frontiers that are wide open today:
Space
4/14 – Popular Mechanics – Elon Musk: Falcon 9 Landed “Too Hard for Survival’ – Getting closer to success… The third attempt to land the first stage of SpaceX’s rocket didn’t quite work. The rocket landed on the barge, but apparently hit too hard for the rocket to be reusable. First reports don’t give much more info. The video feed shows the rocket trying to maneuver to the remain completely vertical right before landing, which is probably an indication of some minor issue in addition to too much speed.
A few more tries and then success and then a radical drop in the cost of space flights.
4/15 – Behind the Black – Why SpaceX’s first stage failure is really a magnificent success – Longer video of landing show the rocket was not maintaining straight vertical position. Thus it was wobbly when touching down, fell to the side, and exploded. That is progress. Continue reading “More good stuff on open frontiers – 4/17”
A few articles on technology, energy, and publishing that are worth a read and a brief comment.
Publishing
2/10 – Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View – You Want Advice? Don’t Ask Journalists – Journalism as a career path is going through savage turmoil. Want to write in-depth about an industry or topic? She suggests going to work in that industry and find some writing do to there. Then you can go back to journalism if a great opportunity surfaces or your new industry collapses.
Education
2/11 – Chronicle of Higher Education – Meet the New, Self-Appointed MOOC Accreditors: Google and Instagram –
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 2/25”
A few articles on technology, energy, and publishing that are worth a read and a brief comment. Efforts for soft landing to recover a first stage came amazingly close to success.
Worlds far away I’ll never visit
1/9 – Wired – Why the Silk Road Trial Matters – Some background on the upcoming trial of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind Silk Road, which is allegedly one of the first dark markets to sell all sorts of illegal stuff.
Since that is a world I’ll never get within a few light years of, following the case is only way I’ll get hints of what is that planet is like.
Space
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontier – 1/17”
More articles on the open frontiers of technology and private space flight. But first, some downsides of tech misuse and letting the world pass you by.
Downside of tech revolution and change
Not everything is getting better. There is abuse of technology along with quantitative and qualitative decay:
1/2 – Schneier on Security – Doxing as an Attack – New terms you didn’t want to know, but really ought to: doxing –
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 1/6”
Bill Whittle comments on the crash of a spaceship.
11/21 – The Firewall – A Crash in the Mojave – Space flight IS rocket science. It is dangerous. So dangerous that people will die learning how to fly in space.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/kzyPLgBqGcw]
He points out a lot of men died in the Mojave Desert paying for the knowledge and information that allows us to fly around 30,000 major domestic commercial flights per day with zero, count ‘em zero, fatalities in thirteen years.
The copilot on the Virgin Galactic flight, Michael Alsbury, had 1,600 hours flight time as a test pilot. Sixteen hundred hours. Test pilot time. You don’t get any better trained than that.
Continue reading “Space flight *is* rocket science. And expensive in lives.”
After a rough week on the frontier of private space travel, some good news: a huge investment by Google and a probe landed on a comet.
11/11 – Space.com – Google Leases NASA’s Moffet Field, Historic Hangar for $1.2 Billion – and 11/11 – CNN – Google leases massive Navy blimp hangar –
Continue reading “Good news from the open frontier of space travel”
Two disasters in one week naturally leads us to wondering if private space exploration is safe.
Well, no.
It is rocket science.
And it isn’t safe.
But it is wonderful and will be safe enough soon enough.
11/1 – Marginal Revolution – Space Tourism Still Not Ready for Flight – Continue reading “Space travel *is* rocket science”