Random Musings from the Warped Minds of Jonathan Goff, Ken Murphy, John Hare, and Kirk Sorensen
Posted in Uncategorized on May 30th, 2010
guest blogger john hare Recent events make it easier to describe one scenario for getting orbital costs down. This specific example almost certainly won’t happen and just stands in for the dozens of possible ways that orbit could become affordable. Masten and XCOR have a joint venture for developing a methane lander. Consider the possibility of future [...]
Posted in Commercial Space, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, MSS, NASA, Space Transportation on May 25th, 2010
I had to keep this under wraps until this morning, but it’s now formal: May 25th, 2010, Mojave, CA, USA: XCOR Aerospace and Masten Space Systems, two of the leaders in the New Space sector, have announced a strategic business and technology relationship to pursue jointly the anticipated NASA sponsored unmanned lander projects. These automated [...]
Posted in Commercial Space on May 24th, 2010
Jeff, who happens to be in a really good position to know, clears up a common misconception about the Futron Space Tourism study that I’ve seen made a lot of places (including in the comments section here): This author, being intimately familiar with the forecast, can shed some light on that forecast. A common misconception [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 24th, 2010
guest blogger john hare A few weeks ago I did a post on possible fantasies related to suborbital spaceflight. Some of the feedback applies to orbital flight. Some feedback I was really looking for though did not show up. One commenter in previous threads really hammered on the human spaceflight being a fantasy detrimental to [...]
Posted in Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development on May 19th, 2010
Over on the Space Business Blog, my good friend Colin Doughan has had a few posts discussing the concept of lunar land grants. While I haven’t had the time to read all of the comments, I do have to admit to having a few issues with the concept proposed: The land grant size proposed is [...]
Posted in NASA, Space Development, Space Policy on May 18th, 2010
I was going to write another article about the administration’s new NASA plan, but while catching up on email and articles from while I was in Oregon, I see that “Rusty” Schweickart already said what I wanted to. And he put it better than I would’ve (emphasis mine): Our current situation is akin to being [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 13th, 2010
guest blogger john hare I have not said much on the commercial take over of NASA orbital deliveries, so I thought I would lay out the timeline that I see happening. Commercial space will start sending up astronauts to ISS in 2016 after $16B-$20B in development costs. Commercial space will get a bit cocky by [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 2nd, 2010
guest blogger john hare Many of the potential spaceflight markets have been labeled fantasies along with any market that involves government money. This labeling is usually in a negative light as in, “Space tourism is a fantasy market”. The implication is that fantasies are always bad and we need to wake up and smell the [...]