Part of the series on space stuff. It is a good intellectual exercise to create an intuitive diagram to communicate new ideas in a compact, succinct way. Edward Tufte has written the same book seve… | Continue reading
Part of my series on misconceptions in space journalism, which by this point we may as well admit is really just a paper thin cover for me to write a seemingly endless series of blogs on esoteric s… | Continue reading
Cheaper hydrocarbons from CO2 direct air capture and sunlight. terraformindustries.com Executive Summary Terraform Industries is a bet on cheap solar, synthetic hydrocarbon supremacy, and hyperscal… | Continue reading
This blog is a direct follow up of Starship Is Still Not Understood, and is part of the series on popular misconceptions in space journalism. I think it is relatively straightforward to think of co… | Continue reading
This blog is a follow up to So You Want To Start A Carbon Capture Company. In the last five months, the cadence of new entrants in this space, as well as new climate-focused funds, has only increas… | Continue reading
Another entry into my blog series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. It has been exactly two years since my initial posts on Starship and Starlink. While the Starlink post has aged q… | Continue reading
It’s not called a Zeppelin unless it comes from the Zeppelin region of Germany, otherwise it’s just a sparkling airship. I have spent a lot of time writing about building cities on Mars , and I wou… | Continue reading
NASA’s selection of SpaceX’s Starship within the Human Lander System (HLS) program was both surprising and exciting for space nerds all over. Previously I have written about how Starshi… | Continue reading
In previous blogs I’ve talked about how Lunar Starship can save the Artemis program to build a sustainable Lunar base. I’ve discussed how a Lunar Starship can deliver roughly 210 T to t… | Continue reading
“The Martian” by Andy Weir, and its film adaptation directed by Ridley Scott, remain some of my all time favorite science fiction works. Way back in the day I wrote a technical commenta… | Continue reading
Or, basic surface infrastructure for the Moon and Mars. I’ve written a few blogs about space stuff over the last couple of years but I’m not yet out of ideas. The usual disclaimers appl… | Continue reading
I’ve written more than a few blogs about energy before. Why would I write another? I can’t think of a single reason. More seriously, I recently reviewed a personal whitepaper I wrote in… | Continue reading
This post is part of a series on common misconceptions in space journalism. It’s also part of the sub-series on space resources, and why commercial exploitation of space resources is less ine… | Continue reading
Would you like to win one hundred million bucks from Elon Musk? Carbon capture (CC) is all the rage these days, with dozens of companies springing up to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and help stab… | Continue reading
This blog addresses the question of how SpaceX’s Starship could be used to ferry people and cargo to and from the Moon under a variety of different situations. It follows on from previous pos… | Continue reading
“Okay, wise guy, the SLS hasn’t turned out, everyone knows that, what do we do now?” Quoth some person on the internet. This blog is a followup to my previous post on the SLS and … | Continue reading
The SLS axiomatically cannot provide good value to the US taxpayer. In that regard it has already failed, regardless of whether it eventually manages to limp to orbit with a Falcon Heavy payload or… | Continue reading
I’m a bit late to the party but I’ve been enjoying some Collison podcast backlog and realized I had more to say about the “diminishing returns of science” trope that does the rounds from time to ti… | Continue reading
Just a quick note on some probably unoriginal ideas I had about categorizing biological data storage methods. While it’s important to note that these are listed in roughly the order of their … | Continue reading
I frequently read about proposals for new solar power developments where the resulting power is moved great distances to less sunny places, such as northern Europe from the Sahara, the US North Eas… | Continue reading
This post is inspired by the recent press release about the Rolls Royce Accel, an experimental electric aircraft being built to attempt the electric speed record. Close friends know I’ve been… | Continue reading
Part of my series on countering common misconceptions in space journalism. Previously I’ve written about how practical space station size is limited due to non-obvious problems with modularit… | Continue reading
Part of my series countering common misconceptions in space journalism. This blog is a follow on to my original post on Starlink. Starlink is an emerging high performance satellite-based internet r… | Continue reading
As in, Get With The Program, or Where the World Economy is Going. An update on my earlier post on the topic. Muscle power was the only source of mechanical work until the industrial revolution. Ste… | Continue reading
Part of my series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. NASA’s incredible campaign of rovers and landers have taught us amazing things about the Martian environment. Just in my li… | Continue reading
Part of my series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. The SpaceX Starship is a game changer for space exploration. It is intended to be far bigger, cheaper, versatile, and available t… | Continue reading
“[People and robots] wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” Part of my… | Continue reading
Part of the series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. A timely reminder that this blog features only my own lousy opinions, but presented in the spirit of asking useful questions, pr… | Continue reading
Part of my series on common misconceptions in space journalism. It is an unwritten rule of space journalism that any article about Moon or Mars bases needs to have a conceptual drawing of habitatio… | Continue reading
I have been meaning to write a blog about terraforming for many years, but the recent controversy (thanks Elon) about some exciting MAVEN results is the perfect opportunity. MAVEN, or Mars Atmosphe… | Continue reading
Part of my series countering misconceptions in space journalism. Starlink, SpaceX’s plan to serve internet via tens of thousands of satellites, is a staple in the space press, with articles a… | Continue reading
Part of my series on countering misconceptions in space journalism. In my previous blog, Unpopular Opinions In Space, I wrote that while expensive, developing a bigger rocket is often a cheaper and… | Continue reading
Part of my series on common misconceptions in space journalism. SpaceX has been working on some variant of the Big Falcon Rocket for almost a decade, with a publicly announced architecture for thre… | Continue reading
Part of my series on common misconceptions in space journalism. “With no magnetic field, Mars has no defense against harsh solar radiation. If I were exposed to it, I’d get so much cancer, the canc… | Continue reading
Caltech astrophysics and harassment: Lessons learned Casey Handmer 2019 What is this? In the wake of major catastrophes, it is common practice for organizations to publish a “Lessons Learned” repor… | Continue reading
This is Falcon Heavy. It costs $90m. For a mere $1b a year, or about 4% of NASA’s budget, we could launch it to every planet in every launch window. And that’s before the bulk discount. This … | Continue reading