Some people were commenting on how there was a lot of blog traffic on Selenian Boondocks lately. I had mentioned my plan last month, in this post, but to recap, the 16th of June is the 10th anniversary for Selenian Boondocks, so in celebration, my goal is to do a blog post per day for this whole month leading up to the 10 year mark. This has been a challenge, and a good reminder of why I don’t blog that often, but has also been a lot of fun. Once the 16th is past, I’ll probably drop back to trying to do 1-2 thoughtful posts per month, but I wanted to thank everyone who’s been following along.
And no, this doesn’t count as today’s post. 🙂
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Jonathan Goff
President/CEO at Altius Space Machines
Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup that he sold to Voyager Space in 2019. Jonathan is currently the Product Strategy Lead for the space station startup Gravitics. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew.
Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.
Latest posts by Jonathan Goff (see all)
- NASA’s Selection of the Blue Moon Lander for Artemis V - May 25, 2023
- Fill ‘er Up: New AIAA Aerospace America Article on Propellant Depots - September 2, 2022
- Independent Perspectives on Cislunar Depotization - August 26, 2022
There is another side to the SLS that I would appreciate seeing you (Jonathan) comment upon. That is “Do we need the SLS simply for the high earth orbit, heavy lift capability to reach space destinations at high gravitational potential?†— moon, asteroids, Mars, manned and unmanned. Taken as given that SLS is not the cheapest way to go, as the Shuttle (vs. mass produced Saturns) was not most economical either, the one thing SLS has going for it in these difficult economic times is that it is politically possible. While voices like yours are welcome in the debate – after all it would be nice to get the most bang for our space program buck – I worry that, at this juncture, retrogression of our U.S. space faring capability is a very key concern. Perhaps SLS is all that can keep that from happening at this point in history.
Warren,
Interesting question. Honestly, I’m skeptical. SLS and Orion are so expensive, they push out the development of any other necessary pieces far enough that they increase the odds of retrogression of US spacefairing capabilities. Complex mission operations was one of the few unique skills NASA had (other companies like SpaceX and ULA have shown they’re more than capable of designing and building launch vehicles and spacecraft), and that’s going to atrophy while these new vehicles come on line, and then wait while payloads are designed that need them. But YMMV,
~Jon