Monthly Archives: January 2013

Random Thought: “Sufficiently Advanced” Propulsion Technology

In many discussions of rocket technology, a skeptic will often make some comment about how things would be so much better if we had Warp Drive. But the reality is that we don’t really need Warp Drive for things to … Continue reading

Posted in Rocket Design Theory, Technology | 14 Comments

ISS Solar Power

There is a coding contest now for programmers to find the best algorithm for pointing the ISS solar arrays to avoid shadowing the masts during parts of the orbit which causes them to shrink from the cold and possibly buckle. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Random Thoughts: Human-Tended vs. Robotic Suborbital and Orbital Research

This isn’t meant to be a treatise on the topic, but an article yesterday on Citizens In Space about the benefits of Human-Tended experiments got me thinking about a chain of thought I’ve been meaning to write about for many … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Suborbital Science | Leave a comment

Random Thoughts: Columbus Article Link and Lunar Patents?

I don’t think this counts as my monthly blog post, mostly because I’m linking to and commenting on someone else’s blog post, but here goes. Michael Mealling (a fellow Masten Alumni gone entrepreneur) set out this year to do a … Continue reading

Posted in ISRU, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Policy, Space Settlement | 8 Comments

Some Blog Post Topics for 2013 (Updated 1/2/13)

Last month, while in the middle of a technical writing project for work, I tweeted a list of a few blog posts I wanted to write sometime in the near future, and asked some friends to nag me occasionally until … Continue reading

Posted in Administrivia, Altius Space Machines, Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, COTS, Excuses for Light Blogging, ISRU, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Exploration and Development, MHD Aerobraking and TPS, Space Settlement, Space Transportation, SpaceX, Technology, Venus | 9 Comments