I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but below is an interesting article from the October 2003 issue of Scientific...

Beagle 2: A Fortunate Failure by Jeffrey F. Bell Honolulu - January 13, 2004 http://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-04a.html -- Alex R. Blackwell University...

Doug Ellison asked me to announce his new web forum devoted primarily to the ongoing Mars Exploration Rovers mission. See http://mer.rlproject.com/ -- Alex...

Quite a few people have criticized the NASA architecture for developing new launch vehicles whilst lower cost alternatives exist, or will exist. Suppose in...

Tim Bruening wrote: neo wrote: Suppose mankind discovered new ways of propulsion to reach stars in few hours. I can imagine a spaceship...

On the web site, Musk quotes: "On the business front, SpaceX now has ten launches on manifest and is on track to be cash flow positive in 2006, our fourth...

The only advantage of the Ares V launcher is the ability to carry bulky payloads. What can EELVs (in the 20-30 ton LEO range) achieve? The Falcon 9 has a...

On 23 May, 16:58, gaetanomarano wrote: On 23 Mag, 17:32, Orval Fairbairn wrote: No -- the kooks...

On 23 May, 16:58, gaetanomarano wrote: On 23 Mag, 17:32, Orval Fairbairn wrote: No -- the kooks...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6749873.stm I wonder if they'll be able to compete with Virgin. Will this prompt Boeing into the market? Could this be...

NASA's new architecture is probably OK if the mission is to get 4 men to the moon for a week, and bring them back. However, to make these missions effective,...

To get a good base going on the moon, and enable some crew deliveries, would need about 25 times 14 tons on the lunar surface. This equates to about 2,500 tons...

A clear majority on sci.space.policy seem to thing NASA's constellation architecture is seriously flawed. I certainly do. But NASA must have had a team of...

The Stick (Kebab / White Elephant etc) seems to have a got a lot of, er Stick in this news group. No one seems to have much good to say about it. Will someone...

(Apologies about asking in policy rather than tech). Reading some the new technologies around thin-film (10 micron) solar panels, such...

One of the other posts got me thinking. Imagine (in 2100-2200) SSP providing 100 TW of power to Earth. Let's say this is made up of 1,000 satellites, each of...

The thread on having to leaving Earth within 25 years got me thinking. What would be achievable? This is a useful policy question, as sometimes it helps to see...

There have been a few discussions here over the merits of using a Heavy Lift Vehicle to support the moon program. To summarise the debate (in round numbers),...

Any one know .... How many W/m2 can solar panels produce, assuming concentrated or laser light? The application I was thinking of was for a Solar Power...

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6943451.stm The mission is scheduled to last for 11 days but can be extended to 14 thanks to a new piece of...