by Stewart Atkinson, with Howard Bloom On an ordinary morning 66 million years ago, the dinosaurs, and all the other life forms on Earth, were spending their morning like they had so many mornings before, eating breakfast, taking care of their kids, and maybe even going out to the water to enjoy a dip. But this morning wouldn’t turn out to be like every other morning for them. You see,.. Read More
Zero-Carbon Energy
Using Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket, we could harvest solar power in space and send it to earth for a startlingly low figure, ten cents per kilowatt hour, a price competitive with ground-based solar, wind, and other alternative power sources. So says John Mankins, the world’s leading expert on space solar power, a 25-year NASA veteran. Solar power harvested in space has stunning benefits. It is totally carbonless. It produces zero greenhouse gases. And in the long run, it can replace fossil fuels. Completely. What’s more, providing electricity to distant,.. Read More
Inspector General Details SLS Delays and Cost Overruns
On October 11, 2018, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut began leaking an ominous plume of smoke and the astronauts were forced to make an emergency landing. This totally shut down humanity’s ability to take people to space. The manufacturers of an overpriced, under-capable, and currently non-existent rocket called the Space Launch System have jumped into the breach, planting articles claiming that the Soyuz.. Read More
What the Falcon Heavy Can Do
Solar energy from space at ten cents per kilowatt hour, a price competitive with coal, oil, terrestrial solar power, and wind power. That’s what one expert on space solar power says is within our grasp thanks to Elon Musk’s vastly underused new rocket, the 140,000-pound-cargo-carrying Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket on earth. Solar energy from space has no carbon emissions, no down times for clouds or night, can be.. Read More
Moonquake at NASA
There has been an unnoticed earthquake at NASA. It’s a change so dramatic that one NASA insider calls it a “paradigm shift” and a “revolution.” What is it? For the last ten years, there has been a struggle within the space community over two different sorts of rockets. NASA has clung to a policy of building expensive rockets, using them once, then tossing them in the ocean. These throwaway rockets.. Read More
A 6-Part Program to Get to the Moon Fast
NASA has just announced a quick-look study of ways to get to the moon fast. The Space Development Steering Committee proposes a six-part COTS program that will get us on the moon to stay at a fraction of traditional costs and far faster than traditional NASA plans. What’s a COTS program? Traditional NASA procurement depends on cost-plus contracts, contracts that encourage aerospace companies to stretch the completion of a project to.. Read More
The SMIC is Muzzling the Space Community
There’s a lot of hesitancy in the space community. Timidity. Absolute unwillingness to go public with deep truths, truths that can be vital to America’s leadership in space. Three programs are killing America’s space leadership. They have amputated America’s ability to launch Americans to orbit on American vehicles for seven years. Ever since 2011, we’ve been forced to send Americans to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz rockets. At a total cost of four.. Read More
The Space Development Steering Committee Launches an Online Petition to Save America’s Space Program
Three NASA programs are killing America’s manned and womanned space program: a rocket called the Space Launch System, a space capsule called The Orion, and a new mini-space station with a macro price, The LOP-G. These programs are bleeding $36 billion from NASA’s budget, money we could use to land on the moon to stay. Funds we need to begin the colonization of Mars. The Space Development Steering Committee is.. Read More
New US Space Force Must Be a Peace Force
On Monday June 18th, Donald Trump ordered the military to establish a sixth branch, a Space Force, the first new military branch to be created in 71 years. The Space Development Steering Committee proposes that this new force be used to encourage the constructive development of space, the development of space as a resource for nature and for all of mankind. In the near future, we will mine water and.. Read More
Will China Own The 21st Century?
China’s New Silk Road Versus America’s Platinum Highway in the Sky The 20th century was the American Century. But the Chinese are grabbing ownership of the 21st century with the most audacious global infrastructure project in history—their New Silk Road, otherwise known as the Belt and Road Initiative. This 20 trillion dollar Chinese transport-project is pulling together 65 nations and 4.4 billion people and is already making America look like.. Read More