Category: Aviation and Space (Page 3 of 7)

This year’s conference is on hold pending the search for someone to take the reins from retiring coordinator Henry Vanderbilt. Announcement here.

I’d love to attend someday, so I hope they find a way to keep it going.

Whatever short-term mitigation of circumstances may fall out of the election results (I am not counting on anything, and expect very little), my long-term view of what we should working on hasn’t changed. There remains a strong and determined movement in the culture toward people wanting the State to provide for them and shelter them from freedom’s inherent risks, and I don’t see that shift abating — either in terms of people’s desires, or the state mechanisms they put in place to fulfill them. Progressivism operates like a ratcheting mechanism (credit to Bill Whittle for that apt analogy): It advances persistently, by gradual increments, and is only rarely reversed in small and temporary ways. Those of us who yearn to live the joyful and free-wheeling life that America’s founding generation envisioned, and that their own risks and sacrifices made possible, need to make ready to head to a new frontier, for only by going where others fear to tread will we be able to build and enjoy a thriving freedom-loving Civilization again.

“The Way Out” remains my guiding compass in this endeavor. It’s a series I continue to ponder and will add to — along with the No Fear Pioneer podcast — as new ideas arise.

I’m also looking forward to hearing what Bill has been working on and hinting at on his Stratosphere Lounge podcast, as I’ve often found myself thinking along similar lines.

I’m re-posting the “Interstellar” trailer from “100 Humans on Mars, 8 Years From Now”, as its stirring 2 minutes bear re-watching.

Do not dread the future. We are going to make it.

Apropos our burning need for a way out to a new frontier: This is exactly the kind of thing we need to be working toward.

For the gist of why, the first “Interstellar” trailer articulated the answer in a beautifully profound two minutes:

For the logistical nuts and bolts of how, see Elon Musk’s milestone talk at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress last Tuesday:

According to the plan Musk outlined, SpaceX proposes to deliver an unmanned cargo shipment to Mars in 2018, more to follow in subsequent years, and a first wave of settlers — not a mere handful of astronauts, but a colonizing force of 100 — a mere eight years from now.

Tim Urban, whose detailed profile of Musk and SpaceX is a superbly great read, lays out the details of Musk’s Big F—-ing Rocket in his uniquely engaging, profoundly profane style at Wait But Why. (“G-rated” version now available.)

Some take-homes I jotted down from Musk’s talk:

• Earth-Mars rendezvous is every ~26 months
• With SpaceX’s transport, Musk estimates 3-5 months travel time
• “Raptor” engine that will power the planned transport (to the tune of 42 of them):
  • scaled-up Falcon 9 booster, carbon fiber
  • 382 sec I_sp in vacuum (361 @ sea level)
  • center cluster gimbals for steering capability; most on periphery will be fixed orientation
• 7% of propellant needed for boostback & landing
• up to 450T cargo to Mars
• at least 100 passengers per ship, eventually up to 200 or 300

The key thing to emphasize is that this is not just some back-of-the-envelope daydreaming and a few artist sketches. Musk and SpaceX have concrete plans to build and do all of this, very soon now. Nothing in space endeavors is easy or guaranteed to stay on schedule, but with persistence it can be done, and thanks to Musk’s and SpaceX’s persistence and vision to date, we are now much closer than we have ever been to achieving the long dream of “humans as a multi-planetary species.”

We are still pioneers. We’ve barely begun.

Related content here:

• The No Fear Pioneer, Episode 3: The Next Frontier (10 minute podcast episode)
• The Way Out
• Frontiers
• The Free Frontier: How Private Enterprise Is Winning the Space Race (fun to see how far SpaceX has come since this video from only 5 years ago)

Apropos The Way Out and The No Fear Pioneer Episode 3, “The Next Frontier”: Glenn Reynolds reports from a workshop on interstellar travel:

Just a couple of decades ago, one noted, the only people who firmly believed that there were planets circling other stars were science fiction fans. Now we’re discovering new planets all the time, and some estimates suggest that there may be billions of these exoplanets throughout our galaxy. So that’s one reason to be talking about interstellar travel: Now there’s somewhere to go.

Another reason is that while talk is no substitute for action, it can be a pretty important precursor. Much of our progress in space to date has been achieved because of people (usually science fiction fans) who wanted to explore places where no human had ever gone. As physicist and science fiction writer Greg Benford remarked, ultimately, we can do this, “but you can’t do it if you stop thinking about it.” Science fiction keeps people thinking about it, and that’s good.

As Glenn is fond of saying: “Faster, please!”

Busy as I am, I’ve left the walls in my office pretty bare since we moved into the house over a year and a half ago. It’s been on my mind to put up some pictures that would help set the right mood and motivate and inspire me to strive for great things, and I’m happy that I made the time over Christmas vacation to do exactly that. It’s not The Stratosphere Lounge, but it’s starting to shape up into my own little slice of aviation-lover’s Heaven.

I went with mostly black-and-white — partly for look but largely because of the nature of the subject matter. There are some truly great historic photos available in high resolution at NASA’s “GRIN” archives, and I put four that I’ve treasured for years on my main wall — a Saturn V in the Vehicle Assembly Building, D-558 and X-2 supersonic test craft being dropped from their respective motherships (a B-29 and a B-50), and an absolutely priceless, magnificent shot of Joe Walker climbing into the X-1A that radiates irrepressible, gloom-shattering joy.

From other sources, I added a Falcon 9 night launch photo, and a really neat and captivating picture of the beautifully oddball Convair B-36, with contrails streaming from its six rear-facing prop engines over a dark sky:

Two of my favorites, souvenirs of a Bill Whittle tour of The Lost Future, await me right by the office door — purposefully reminding me, in concert with the others, of what we’re capable of achieving when we put smarts, determination, and backbone into it.

I also made a dedicated corner for my SR-71 pics, which to my eternal delight include signed postcards by legendary Blackbird pilot and photographer Brian Shul, who I greatly enjoyed the privilege of meeting when he spoke at the Hiller Aviation Museum.

I’ve got wall space for more, but I’d say that’s a pretty good and satisfying start. Surrounding myself with this caliber of Awesome, the hope is that at least some of it is bound to rub off.

Those who love aviation as I do are sure to enjoy Tales from the Terminal, which celebrated its One Year Bloggiversary last month. My friend @Jen_Niffer does a fantastic job reminding us all why aviation is super neat, while plane-spotting (complete with lots of pictures!) and explaining the curious details of day-to-day airport operations.

Check out her latest work, at talesfromtheterminal.wordpress.com!