Grasping For Sanity in a Nation Gone Mad

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I’ve written a number of articles that haven’t been put out for public consumption. You see, when the world goes mad, it can be like a minefield when you try to shine a light on it. You are never completely sure when you might take a wrong step and have everything blow up in your face. And yet, silence isn’t a viable option. Continue reading 

Government, Spaceflight, Spinoffs, and People

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To the outside observer, it seems like the U.S. Government treats the funding of NASA with the same care and understanding as they do the United States Postal Service. The outside observer would be wrong; it’s not handled nearly as well. And the USPS is going bankrupt…so that sort of gives you an idea of how bad the problem is. Continue reading 

What Is Space Exploration Worth? (The Planetary Society Blog)

“Our space program is one of the things that makes us great, that sets us far apart from other productive countries, that makes us respectable, that makes our advice worth listening to.” I was going to write a blog entry … Continue reading 

Let’s Speed-up Spacecraft Development Without Rushing

June 4, 2010 liftoff Falcon 9 / Photo: Chris Thompson/SpaceX

Following the failure and crash of a Russian Progress M-12M cargo vehicle, there has been a lot of alarmist rhetoric about the future of the ISS as well as American spaceflight capability. Let’s take a step back to look at the situation without a “sky is falling” mentality. Continue reading 

Personal Financing the Federal Budget

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With trillions of dollars of spending, revenue, and debt, it can be tough to have more than a theoretical handle on what all this Federal Budget nonsense is all about. Why don’t we scale it down a bit so we can get a better grasp on what the “fine folk” in Washington are doing. Continue reading