Monthly Archives: September 2015

Anti-radiation Biological Countermeasures: Amifostine

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Chris Stelter

Whenever human spaceflight comes up, inevitably someone mentions radiation. Personally, I think the radiation risk is WAY overblown. “Compound conservatism” is rampant, I believe, and gets worse as time goes on and people keep recycling the same sources, adding some … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Simple SPS ??

Posted on September 14, 2015 by johnhare

Reading about the drawbacks of conventional Solar Power Satellites and the comments in response to Chris eventually triggered an idea, or perhaps a memory of something hinted at in something I read once. I’m somewhat less certain of complete originality … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

2H15 A Good Time for Geeking Out

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

I have to say the last half of this year is a great time to be a space/sci-fi/RPG nerd: July: New Horizons successfully completes Pluto Flyby August: Shadowrun HongKong by HareBrained Schemes comes out September: HareBrained Schemes planning to launch … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia | 7 Comments

Mars surface shielding from radiation

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Chris Stelter

I want a short little aside here to talk about a little pet peeve of mine: People talk as if Mars’ atmosphere does basically nothing to reduce the radiation dose as compared to free space. This is definitely not true, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

Summary of Some ULA Papers from AIAA SPACE 2015

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

ULA has often used the AIAA SPACE conferences as a venue for discussing technical ideas they were working on. In fact, I’ve written several blog posts over the years summarizing or commenting on previous versions of their papers. This year’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Exploration and Development, Orbital Access Methodologies, Propellant Depots, Space Transportation, SpaceX, ULA | 19 Comments

Minimum viable microwave-based space-based solar power system

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Chris Stelter

The Solomon Islands pay almost $1/kWh for electricity. You could provide beamed solar power to them on a demonstration basis for a fraction of that price. Unfortunately, being in the ocean is one of the worst places for beamed power, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Power beaming

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Chris Stelter

Power beaming is clearly central to space-based solar power concepts. Here I will provide a quick overview of my understanding of power beaming, the various equations involved, typical example calculations. If power beaming were efficient and cheap, I believe space-based … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments