Wouarnud

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• Commented on NASA-Funded Apologist Blames Media for Kepler's Botched PR

  I am actually with Keith and the media on this one; Misrepresentation of scientific issues in the general media is a given (although of course this doesn't apply on this forum), but that Sasselov guy strikes me as a bit...

• Commented on Kepler Co-I Sasselov Blames Media For Misunderstanding

  I never much liked this TED thing anyway. It might have started as something interesting, but it's quickly turned into a Davos of the geeks, so to speak. And the "diversification" to all sorts of places and topics... How can...

• Commented on Getting Out of the Gravity Well on One Thin Dime

  Well, Frank, that is a bajillion dollar question of course. You set yourself up for another lively debate here... The second one is perhaps relatively the easiest, in that we can limit ourselves to propulsion technology. For myself, the emphasis...

• Commented on Zombie Ops in GEO

  And pray tell what "you" would have done, by which I guess you mean astronauts with capacity to go in GEO? This is a malfunctioning, not a dead satellite. The only way to remove it as a problem is either...

• Commented on Presentations From The Closed Space Organization Meeting (Update)

  Pfff... Exciting slides yes, but how many times have we seen these cool plans supported by nothing but the dream of engineers? The Mars plans in the US in the 90s, the European Aurora, the Chinese animations of massive space...

• Commented on Keeping A Cancelled Rocket Alive

  Hum, CessnaDriver, I think you should really focus on driving your Cessna... NASA as an evolutionary agent? Whilst the pursuit of mastering outer space as a place to live and to use for its resources is of course a common...

• Commented on Dear Mike: Think Before You Gossip

  Is there no law here? In all administrations that I know it is customary to state that basically you will keep mum after your time. Even in companies and commercial deals, you are in general bound to not talk around...

• Commented on View From the 9th Floor

  I agree with Hugh, the prepared statement of Mr Bolden is really good. To me it seems to be doing exactly what space agencies should do: Use space today to address Earth's problems as possible, and research how to use...

• Commented on Two Reviews: "My Dream of Stars" by Anousheh Ansari

  Thanks for the review Keith. I haven't read the book, but I am always a bit miffed when I hear those inspiring tales of rich people who got their ultimate toy, a seat on a spaceship. I cannot understand statements...

• Commented on Video: Moon and Everest Rocks Installed on ISS

  Well, that kind of event has a serious cool factor. I have a growing feeling ISS is getting in its stride now. I believe it will eventually become a success story, even more in the age of Web 2.0....

• Commented on Morning After Reaction To NASA Budget

  To Lowly contractor, I realise this is a USA website talking about NASA. All the same, thanks a bunch for the "ESA-size" derogatory comments from an "ESA-size" engineer. With this 4B€/year (more like 6 B$), ESA has built the one...

• Commented on The Merchant 7

  Nowhere in any of the links does it actually say who's on the pictures... Can you post that please? I know a few of the faces of so-called "New Space" but couldn't recognise anybody except Bolden. Thanks....

• Commented on How Quickly We Forget

  Ken, Keith, Thanks for that. Will go there to fill up my long wintry nights: Europe is ensconced in heavy ice and snow these days, including Copenhagen, which for a summit on global -warming- is kinda ironic. I also agree...

• Commented on How Quickly We Forget

  I've asked this before, I'll ask this again here: Can anybody point to some kind of report or text book to evaluate the zero-g research so far? I know of all the conference about space manufacturing etc..., but I've never...

• Commented on America's Other Space Program Is Very Cool

  Leaving aside the space station that looks more like a transformer than anything else, these ads (and mostly the first one) are fairly reminiscent of the book "The next 100 years" by G. Friedman, and its mystique of battlestars command...

• Commented on Sapporo Space Barley Beer Now For Sale

  Well.... As it happens I am enough of a space cadet to give into all that stuff, and I would in principle buy highly priced marketing tat as long as it was made in space. This one, though, is really...

• Commented on TEDxNASA: Right Message, Wrong Audience?

  I have to say I have doubted the whole TED thing for some time now. It's a bit like mainstream journalism: If you don't know about a particular topic, any given presentation may look good, but if you're familiar with...

• Commented on Back To The Drawing Board Again

  Why does every high-level study has to be finished in time for so and so, so that it only lasts one or two months? I can't understand how anybody can seriously believe it's ok to spend a few weeks of...

• Commented on Forgetting (Or Not Knowing) What NASA Has Done

  @Harry @ , Thanks for that. Don't misunderstand me, I would have loved to see space manufacturing, and I am somewhat aware of history, so I know it was big in the 80s. I am in fact trying to understand...

• Commented on Forgetting (Or Not Knowing) What NASA Has Done

  @Harry, Thanks for that. That certainly looks quite a lot of activity. Reading about it, I realise (and it does make sense of course) that ESA and NASA have put up a large research infrastructure on this topic. It is...

• Commented on Forgetting (Or Not Knowing) What NASA Has Done

  My own opinion, from only a high-level look (I may be wrong), is that the same research or very similar stuff has been duplicated in the space stations over and over since the 70s, with SkyLab, Saliout, Mir, and now...

• Commented on Canadian Space Agency Watch Launches

  Cool, but what we really need now is an ESA & RKA Watch. The first because sometimes ESA operates in a total democratic vacuum (perhaps because of lack of interest of EU citizens), and RKA because for non-Russians (and even...

• Commented on Bigelow to Bolden on Commerical Crew and Cargo

  I'm surprised Bigelow considers this would advance his cause, given the price of the ticket there, this would be even more expensive than buying rides from the Russians, at >200 M$ a pop for 4 people... A....

• Commented on Commercial RLV Technology Roadmap

  Hmmm... Possible reactions here: 1) About bloody time! 2) Uhhh... Du-uh! 3) Oh, good, this will only be the Xth roadmap about lowering the cost of access to space over the past 20-30 years... When has any roadmap made major...

• Commented on Tell Us What You Really Think, Jeff

  It has to be said, I don't know much about the man's technical credentials, but he's hopeless at management and "soft skills": Who can be stupid enough to send that kind of email around in his position and in this...

• Commented on NASA Watch Support

  @ kaidoker:, I think certainly it has slowed down the Constellation arguments (but then for some very strange reason it hasn't been in the news)....

• Commented on Just Send More Money, Please

  Yearmmm... The problem is, despite what was said, space businesses aren't "shovel ready", they just can't spend money on a whim. One has to have preparations of invitations to tenders, bids, evaluations, etc... So it would probably take 3 or...