Monthly Archives: July 2009

Told You So

Posted on July 17, 2009 by johnhare

guest blogger john hare Posting here has been a privilege with the quality of people responding. You all deserve a chance to say I told you so on my minor hardware attempt. Make your best guess at what happens for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

File Under: “Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself”

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

Mr X over at ChairForce Engineer has one of the best Apollo retrospectives I’ve seen this week (which is only helped by linking to one of my other favorites from this week, by Reason’s Ron Bailey).  Their points are well-taken.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, NASA | 7 Comments

Light Blogging

Posted on July 11, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

Fortunately John’s getting back into the swing of things blogging-wise, because it’ll be a while before I can get back to blogging.  In addition to all the stuff I’m doing at work, I’m also trying to get that panel ready, … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia | Leave a comment

NewSpace 2009 Propellant Depot Panel

Posted on July 11, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

I just wanted to mention that I’ll be chairing a propellant depot panel at the NewSpace 2009 conference this next week.  This year, due to time constraints, I’m going to go for a slightly different format than I did last … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia, Propellant Depots | 46 Comments

Fakir or Ribbon Propellant Alternate

Posted on July 11, 2009 by johnhare

guest blogger john hare Thousands of ideas in millions of posts have addressed the issue of boosting ships to altitude with or without some velocity. There are  fans of balloon launch, air launch, mountain launch, ramjets, scamjets, maglev and more. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Random Thoughts: Tuggery and RCS

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

This is just a short one that someone pointed out to me over the weekend.  For spacecraft that have to do their own rendezvous and docking with say a space station or depot, you need an RCS capable of not … Continue reading →

Posted in Space Transportation, Technology, Tuggery | 14 Comments

Turborocket Upgrades

Posted on July 5, 2009 by johnhare

guest blogger john hare John Bossard over at Plasma Wind http://plasmawind.typepad.com/ introduced me to air turborockets after a propulsion conference in 2000. My hard references on the subject were from his recommendations. He has built operating engines on this cycle. Never … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 68 Comments

TAN Turbine

Posted on July 4, 2009 by johnhare

guest blogger john hare Original ideas on my part have slowed down a bit, so I stole borrowed some from other people. Jon, Ben, Paul, Thomas, and Eric all share in this hare-brained one. Shifting the blame, of course. Jon … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments