Trepidation

When an article is written by one person I admire about another you fear it won't be pretty. I had nothing to fear. Cruz is popular now because he fought. Someone else has fought longer and harder against more of the enemy... like a girl.

What the headline should be

NOT: 8.8 Billion Earth-size, Just-right Planets

BUT: 1 in 8.8 billion planet in Sol's fourth orbit. Not lightyears away.

Also, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) Phase 2. I'm thinking a craft designed for putting humans in space that has already had humans in it in space (the I.S.S. crew mentioned that Dragon had that new car smell) should be a clear winner here.

Some nice pictures of sea launch.

...and in the not news until it happens dept.

Family history

I just found out tonight that back in the day my mother threw Dinah Shore (and her entourage) out of the Phoenix Skyharbor restaurant one morning. It seems Dinah was complaining that the pastries weren't fresh and was giving the waitresses a very bad time about it. My mother heard about it in the kitchen and went to have a word with Dinah. That word included "...you're no better than anybody else and should treat the people serving you with more respect. Now get out."

Mom never took crap from anyone. It really did not have anything to do with her father being mafia.

She almost got my uncle (her sister's husband) whacked a time before that. This was earlier in a restaurant in NY. She was mad at my uncle about something and chatted about it in earshot of a 'minder' which was someone the family had sitting there all day drinking coffee. He asked her, "d'ya want me to take care of that for you?" Realizing the implications she told him "no, it wasn't anything like that." I liked that uncle. It would have been sad never to have known he existed.

I met my mom's father once on Thanksgiving when I was 16. I never got to know him.

Update: It is funny how some things tie together. John Wayne used to have a ranch around here and came into Springerville to dine quite often. He was known to be very generous. His face is drawn on the outside wall of one of the places here. As a kid, my sister bumped into John Wayne at Skyharbor one day (he died of cancer not long after.) That sister now lives here in Springerville.

Obama goes right back to wrong

In a healthy economy business owners, closest to the facts, make decisions about how to run their company. They are in competition with other companies, so if they do a bad job they lose and other companies rise to take their place.

After the debacle of Affordable Health Care, Obama wants you to move on, nothing to see here, listen to me demagogue a new issue. It isn't even about the issue he's chosen. It's about government taking over more and more of business through more and more regulations. It Obama saying again and again, "you didn't build that."

Business people are just as evil as politicians. The difference is they must compete and get votes every day rather than just on election day. We the people are the only ones that can keep them honest. Midterms are coming.

Update: I beat Ace to the punch, but of course he tells it better.

Proper focus of mars colonists

The Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0 describes the systems and operations that would be used for the first three missions to explore the surface of Mars by humans.

Which is to say, right off the bat, they start with the wrong focus. Let the martian colonists explore mars after they do what they should be focused on... survival and industry both working hand in hand. Building industrial capability from the beginning increases their survival potential. Every mars colonist is going to bring with them their own set of skills. Those skill will need to take the raw elements found on mars and turn them into all the useful things they need, not just to survive but to thrive.

The basics are easy. Water is essential for life. Mars has about a liter per cubic foot of dirt just about everywhere. They need power to extract both water from dirt and oxygen from water. They need spacious habitats with regulated temperature and pressure which also requires power, with radiation mitigation that doesn't. Solar panels and batteries can provide enough power with methane engines providing supplemental high energy needs. A nuclear reactor could easily fit in a lander with terminals for cables outside making the entire thing a sealed battery providing decades of power.

As a small community, initially they will share everything. We can supply them with more food than they need every 26 months. The first step to independence is when they produce food on their own individual farmland plots. This will be the beginning of industry. They will freely trade what they individually produce with each other using the liberty to choose what they produce. Are they going to use 3D printers? We can send some raw materials for these, but martian industry should soon take over extruding ISRU plastic into suitable spools. But they don't need 3D printers to survive. It's a luxury that unfortunately gets the fascination of those that aren't thinking in terms of survival and industry. Martian needs will be much more basic. They need to be able to make things. Which means machinists, chemists and farmers and all the other skills we take for granted. They should take along an encyclopedia like this one from 1881. In less than 800 pages it includes...

1 AGRICULTURE
2 HORTICULTURE
3 RURAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY
4 FARRIERY
5 MEDICINE
6 CULINARY ARTS
7 BREWING
8 DISTILLATION
9 PERFUMERY
10 BLEACHING AND SCOURING
11 DYING
12 PAINTS AND COLORS
13 VARNISHES
14 INKS
15 METALLURGY
16 PYROTECHNY
17 TANNING
18 ENAMELLING
19 POTTERY
20 GLASS
21 PHOTOGRAPHY
22 ENGRAVING
23 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
24 CHEMICAL RECEIPTS
25 WEATHER PROGNOSTICS
26 ANGLING
27 MISCELLANEOUS
28 IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE

Which shows not just how to use these things but how to make them from the elements. Not everything may be practical, but earth knowledge will be one of the easiest things for colonists to get (if we open our minds to pioneer requirements and not frustrate themselves with what they can't do. Can do is just can't do + time.)

If we want to prepare for living on mars we should be growing crops in filtered sunlight here on earth. Mars gets about half the sunlight that we do. Will we need mirrors to focus more light on crops? It should be simple enough to find out before we go.

Air locks are going to be essential. What's the easiest way to manufacture them on mars with their starting resources?

Another example of the wrong focus:

A strong motivating factor for the exploration of Mars is the search for extraterrestrial life.

No. That search should be made after survival and industry are established. Then they have the time to make the search. We've lived thousands of years without this knowledge. We can wait a few years while the colony gets past the dangerous years. More...

...the plan is to return the astronauts to Earth at the end of the mission.

Bad plan. There are plenty of people wanting to settle mars. Why should their seat be given to someone that doesn't? With the SpaceX Raptor engine they should be able to build their own ships when they're ready and fuel them as well.

...it must be assumed that some microbial contamination of the surrounding martian environment would be inevitable...

Yes.

...so human missions should be sent only to sites on Mars where this consequence is acceptable.

Give me a break. Mars has 144 million sq. km. of real estate. We aren't going to contaminate that for hundreds of years or longer. The researchers will always have pristine areas to explore.

Then yada, yada, yada about the goals of scientific exploration all of which is not even secondary to survival and building the community. Then it's heavy lift and nuclear engines both of which are not required but will delay going. Gotta use Orion? Nope.

Habitats? The first one they land in. The second one holds the entire group. Then they build their own on their own properties because ownership works.

Stopped reading after page 56.

Update: Before you can colonize, you must land. Yep, that is true. As CJ points out, SpaceX has tested some of the propulsive technology that may lead to safe landing of high mass to the surface of mars. You get around 'rocket fire into the direction of travel at hypersonic velocity' by not doing it. The superdracos are angled away from the direction of travel and are behind the heat shield. That angle has to be shallow to not lose too much thrust, but enough to avoid the problem.

Shockwaves can be shaped and may even assist in decelerating the vehicle. A configuration can be stable or unstable mainly dependent on shape. I'm confident SpaceX can put this issue behind them resulting in reliable high payload mass landers. They have certainly shown the ability to learn from experience and the ability to go at a pace set by funding (much lower funding that others seam to require.) Landing humans on mars is the key hurdle remaining for colonization. I wish others besides SpaceX were working on it, but if not I think SpaceX will git'er done.

He lied to you because you're stupid

Hey lefties. ...and because he thinks you're stupid enough to keep voting his way.

Standard issue in space?

Sounds useful.

Why didn't I get a chance to bid?

USS Forrestal sold for one penny.

Fraud!

The Phalanx of Lies.

Is this true?

The United States is ranked 3rd, from the Top, in Murders - throughout the World.

But, if you remove just 4 cities from the statistics:

• Chicago
• Detroit
• Washington, DC
• New Orleans

The United States is then ranked 4th, from the bottom, in the entire world - for Murders.
 
These 4 cities also have the toughest Gun Control Laws in the United States and are run by Democrats.

Via MRWD.

Acting like the Left

The National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Guacamole

My folks make it with cottage cheese and lemon juice.

My sister sent her baby father to the store, "Get a gallon of milk and if they have avocados get six." So my not quite bro-in-law comes back with six gallons of milk.

Then I hear on the news that an illegal immigrant is hiding in a nice neighborhood in Phoenix. Police go in and arrest over a dozen. I'm assuming they found avocados?

I've got fever chills today and hardly any energy to move but I'm covered by the fact that this room with the computer is freezing. Springerville cracked the block on my last car when I went out to get some OJ one frozen night. I'm in fear that something like that will happen to my current Jimmy.

I checked out apartments in Prescott. I can't afford them except perhaps one about 30 minutes out of town. But even that one will take so much of my monthly income that I will have little left. I'm too poor to go now, but next payday I'm going to Prescott anyway. I've got to get out of this little town and the madhouse. I just hope I don't crack a block before that happens.

China to beat Bigelow?

One way to get to mars is to turn a profit in LEO first. I expected Bigelow to be first leasing space on their Alpha Station. I still do since I don't believe it will take ten years as the Chinese propose.

Why 39A matters

It's all about holding SpaceX back because they can't compete otherwise.

In the almost as bad as SLS department...

...the MPCV, which has already absorbed an incredible $7 billion through 2012, while foregoing the rather important necessity of developing a service module,  is set to receive a steady allotment of roughly $1 billion per year, virtually for the foreseeable future.

What did it take to make a Dragon?

Fighting the fight

Fascist vs. the people.

The "because I said so" plan

“Nothing in this Act ... shall be construed to require that an individual terminate coverage..."

Like saying, "I will never, ever do [destructive behavior] again... I mean it this time." Only worse, because ACA was written in the bizarro world of unreality and can't work in the real world. It has consequences and no amount of words change those consequences.

For mentally ill lefties: words speak louder than actions.

GOP quislings

RINO is too good a term for them. Either we fight them or find a new place to form a more perfect union.

But they don't hang

They jump from no accountability to another like monkeys.

Isn't it time we ended the government protection racket?

The slavery issue of the 21st century is effectively Big Government

An absolute must read. It's important to get the definition of smaller government correct.

I am a potted plant

Musk’s 12-15 year prediction for crewed flights to Mars is closer to reality than anyone thought.

I'm not anyone? Once the Mars One lander was ready which could be done in perhaps 3 years, we could go to mars then as everything else already exists. We don't even need the Falcon Heavy. The F9 is good enough to put a ship based on the Sundancer in orbit.