One of the problems with our economic system is that it allows the unlimited accumulation of money by individuals. Often fortunes are wasted on the whims of immature selfish individuals on idle pursuits and expensive toys. The arbitrary decisions of the wealthy can affect the lives and incomes of millions of people. Some other wealthy people spend their money interfering with our political process.
NASA has just awarded a eighteen million eight hundred thousand dollar contract to BWXT Nuclear Energy to start on a conceptual design for a nuclear reactor for possible use on a manned Mars mission. BWXT is a subsidiary of BWX Technologies which provides nuclear components, nuclear fuel and nuclear services to the nuclear industry.
When I read that NASA has a job opening for a Planetary Protection Officer, visions of fighting off alien invaders filled my head. On reading more about the position, I found that it was a perfectly legitimate and logical job posting with a salary range from $124,000 to $187,000. The idea of a PPO dates back to the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967.
SpaceX is working on a heavy lifter launch vehicle that they call the Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy will be twice as powerful as the next biggest rocket in the world, the Delta IV Heavy and will on cost one third as much to launch. It will be able to lift about one hundred and twenty thousand pounds into orbit. Only the Saturn V rocket that carried men to the moon in 1973 could lift a larger payload.
Almost fifty years ago, the human race set foot on the Moon. But then interest in manned lunar missions waned and we have not been back. There have been many fly-bys and landings on the Moon since we landed there but only by machines. Now interest is growing in a return to the Moon in force to establish manned lunar stations and to seek new mineral resources.
Every day small asteroids hit the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up before they reach the surface. One of the great existential threats to the human race is the possibility that a big asteroid could hit the Earth and devastate the ecosystem of the entire planet. Thousands of asteroids regularly cross the orbit of the Earth and pose a serious threat.
I have blogged before about NASA’s use of nuclear isotopes for thermal batteries in space probes. Nuclear batteries provide the long term reliable and maintenance free power needed for long space missions. Now NASA is considering the use of nuclear fission reactors fueled with uranium for installations on Mars.
Last week I wrote a post about new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the addition of a Space Corps to the U.S. military. The bill proposing the new Space Corps would have the Air Force host the new branch, much as the Navy hosts the Marine Corps.
U.S. Representative Mike Rodgers (R-AL) and U.S. Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN) are the top representatives on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee which oversees military space operations. They recently introduced legislation to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) to require the U.S.
The human race has been obsessed with Mars for over a century. There has been a lot of talk lately about manned expeditions to Mars. From a private group in Europe to NASA, plans are being made to visit and, perhaps, even colonize Mars. Elon Musk, the entrepreneur who founded SpaceX to provide launch services, has been talking about colonizing Mars for years.
