Category Archives: Uncategorized

A few years ago I did a post suggesting that Starship skipped a base or two in development. Going for the biggest launcher in history with new engine types, burning a new propellant combination, novel landing techniques, and going for … Continue reading →

Last time I talked about how successful human colonies would likely need to begin with an existing culture. This time I’d like to talk about one of the places that humans might wish to colonize, and it is the first … Continue reading →

News broke recently of rumors of a space company looking to buy up like a couple hundred square miles of land in Louisiana, possibly to set up a launch site. Why Louisiana? Two reasons: 1. Launch site advantagesLouisiana is one … Continue reading →

In February 1967, five Bellcomm engineers completed a 177-page study showing that a manned Venus flyby was feasible with a single Saturn V and Apollo hardware. Nobody flew it. But every engineering conclusion they reached applies, with interest, to the … Continue reading →

Almost 9 years ago, I blogged about orbital data centers for bitcoin mining. https://selenianboondocks.com/2016/12/space-based-bitcoin-mining/I wrote: At 4 year replacement cycles (probably the power and thermal system would last a lot longer, but hardware would need to be updated), that’s about … Continue reading →

DARPA’s DRACO nuclear propulsion project ROARs no more The Quiet Death of DRACO — and What It Tells Us About Nuclear Space Propulsion DARPA has cancelled its DRACO program — the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations — ending the … Continue reading →

Many people think that Mars is the primary target for off Earth settlement and development. I think that is likely to prove wrong as people start the process of moving onward. Skipping the moon to go to Mars strikes me … Continue reading →

Anytime the topic of electric aircraft comes up, the immediate response by the middle-brow (and some high-brow) is that it’s obviously impractical due to the mass-sensitivity of flight and the obvious energy density (or they usually intend “specific energy”) advantage … Continue reading →

Orbital rockets do not *seem* efficient. They take off in what amounts to a mushroom cloud, using extravagant amounts of propellant to rise even the first 100 meters into the air to clear the tower. Yet, their efficiency rivals that … Continue reading →