Sandy Blowing In

One week before a historic presidential election, natural forces are in control in the eastern United States as Hurricane Sandy approaches and interacts with other conditions, potentially creating a "perfect storm". The worst conditions in the Mid-Atlantic region will be from mid-day Monday through mid-day Tuesday. Widespread power outages are likely and damage from wind and rain may cause lingering problems. God bless all and stay safe!

In Remembrance of September 11, 2001

U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Michael W. Pendergrass

Eleven years ago this, I overheard a coworker down the hall from my office telling someone else about planes hitting the World Trade Center. I checked in on the Internet and on news radio for reports on what would develop into the the modern era's day of infamy. We know of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but there was also the attack that did not occur because of the heroic actions of the passengers on United Flight 93.

Eleven years of daily living, along with increasing domestic rancor, may have dimmed the feelings of shock, horror, and outrage and the response of prayer, compassion, and resolve that united the people of America and most of the world. However, terrorist activity around the world should serve to remind us that the threat is still real.

This anniversary stirs abundant remembrance and reflection and many stirring pictorial and video items have appeared on the web and on Facebook. I still find this audio/visual Internet presentation developed by a New Yorker shortly after the attacks as one of the most powerful portrayals of those times. The sequence is ~15 minutes long and some of the images and sounds are quite disturbing, others are inspirational. Use the browser View/Zoom function and adjust the scroll bar to enlarge the slide show.

It is important that we remember, not only to honor those who died and those who acted heroically that day, but to remain constantly aware of the ongoing dangers, of the presence of real evil in the hearts of some men, and to maintain constant vigilance and a determination to defeat this evil. Finally, we must always remember to trust in God and his mercy during trying times. The story of the cross formed by two beams found among the ruins of the twin towers is recounted here.

Conventional Wisdom (Or Not)

The Republican Convention held last week in Tampa, FL and the Democratic Convention underway now in Charlotte, NC convey contrasting worldviews. GOP nominee Gov. Mitt Romney challenged President Obama's record in office while emphasizing a positive vision for the future.

If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.

VP nominee Paul Ryan delivered a stirring call the previous night. The convention highlighted a number of rising stars in the party. Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez, Nikki Haley, Mia Love are among the names that may become more familiar to the nation.

The Dems convention kicked off today in Charlotte. First Lady Michelle Obama just finish a rousing call to rally supporters of her husbands re-election, but the rest of the roster of speakers tonight seemed to be a repetition of traditional Democratic themes claiming to be the party looking out for the poor and middle-class and trying to attack Republicans for undermining those efforts. Their claim to caring for the vulnerable is open to questioning both in terms of the effectiveness of traditional Democratic government-centered solutions and of moral consistency, given the openly proclaimed obsessive support for abortion-on-demand.

An underlying story of this election campaign has less to do with the efforts of the candidates and parties themselves and more with the changing nature of media that convey information to the public. Social media, talk radio and other alternatives are broadening the flow information and allowing things to  be known that are often filtered by the traditional "old media" sources. Conventional media types are frustrated that they are finding it increasingly "impossible ... to change the conversation". Actually, that's a good thing!

Neil Armstrong Passes away

Credit: NASA

Neil Armstrong, who became the first human being to step onto another world, passed away on Saturday, August 25, 2012 at age 82. Armstrong actually remembered the landing, where he skillfully brought the lunar lander to the surface with fuel running low, as the more challenging part of the lunar excursion. Here is the NASA page honoring Neil Armstrong with links, videos, etc.

May the Lord grant Neil eternal rest on the final Sea of Tranquility.

Romney/Ryan

Mitt Romney had a field of strong candidates to chose from for his vice-presidential running mate, but he couldn't have made a better choice than Paul Ryan. Romney's VP pick is already energizing grassroots activists for his campaign and the pair drew huge crowds at rallies over the weekend.

Ryan, as chair of the House Budget Committee has demonstrated his grasp of the fiscal and economic realities facing the nation and his ability to  be "quick on his feet" to explain them to the public. This episode from President Obama's health care summit a couple of years ago is a prime example.



Ryan is a Catholic who holds strong views in support of protecting human life, religious liberty and the definition of marriage while engaging in a thoughtful dialog with Catholic bishops on the prudential application of the Church's social teaching as regards to how to help the poor in ways that avoid imposing crushing debt on future generations.

Ryan replied in a brief statement that he shared their “commitment to a preferential option for the poor” — a key element of Catholic social teaching — but added that the option “does not mean a preferential option for bigger government.”

Speaking at Georgetown, Ryan said that some Catholics “for a long time have thought they had a monopoly of sorts … not exactly on heaven, but on the social teaching of our Church. Of course there can be differences among faithful Catholics on this.”

Curiosity on Mars!

One of the first images from Curiosity after landing on Mars overnight. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) (left); Image of curiosity descending to the Martian surface under its parachute taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona) (right)


NASA's Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) rover landed on the Martian surface early this morning (EDT), successfully completing a daring arrival sequence that had flight controllers and the world waiting in suspense. Curiosity contains state of the art sophisticated instruments that will add to our knowledge of Mars, including possibly clues on whether life could have existed there or could exist currently on the Red Planet.

Moving Toward Commercial Orbital Travel

NASA today officially announced that SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. have won funding awards in the final development round of its commercial crew program, now called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap). This is a major step toward commercial transportation of people to orbit later this decade.

A Desperate Mandate and a Quiet Revolution

Two significant events occurred yesterday. The Obama Administration's HHS mandate went into effect imposing requirements on individuals and institutions to provide contraception (including abortion inducing drugs) and sterilization in health care coverage regardless of conscientious objection. It's just the latest example of how certain powerful elements in society are so convinced that their opinions are so "enlightened" and "forward thinking" that they have the right to impose them on society. (Meanwhile, while contraception coverage is guaranteed, will Obamacare be there for people facing life threatening conditions, or will their care be rationed because the whole program is unsustainable?)

But yesterday may be remembered in history for the start of a peaceful revolution against the insanity being imposed by the cultural establishment. Who would have thought that something as ordinary as going out for a casual chicken meal could have such social and political significance? The attempt to marginalize Chick-fil-A over the owner's views and activities regarding same-sex marriage resulted in a massive hunger for the company's chicken by Americans rejecting the notion that a disagreement over that issue constituted 'hate' toward individuals or certain groups. (The trouble is that words like 'hate' are being cast so widely, would we recognize real hate when confronted with it? Think Syria, Iran, etc.) It's always difficult to predict how these things will play out politically, but just maybe that was the early rumbling of a seismic social shift being heard yesterday at lunch time.

NewSpace 2012

The Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2012 conference is underway (starting yesterday going through tomorrow). I'm not there but I'm following much of it via live streaming of most of the sessions at this link. (Kudos to Spacevidcast!).

In another NewSpace development, Clark Lindsey (who is attending the conference) has signed off his Space Transportation News blog and will now monitor and report on developments in the commercial spaceflight industry at the NewSpace Watch site, which I've added to my side bar directly under the HobbySpace link where Clark will continue to post general space related items.

Anniversaries: One Great, One More Modest

NASA

Today is the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 pioneering expedition to the lunar surface, the day human beings first made landfall on another world. Check out Rand Simberg's ceremonial commemoration of that epic voyage. Here is a brief video capturing highlights of the first two explorers on the Moon.



Here is a poetic video piece by Rick Tumlinson (produced last year).



Today is also the ninth anniversary ('blogiversary') of the launch of this humble blog. Here is the inaugural post (Note that I was too inexperienced to think of giving it a title.) on Life at the Frontier.

Will This Be The Defining Moment Of The Campaign?

President Obama's remarks in Roanoke, VA last week may be remembered as a pivotal moment in the 2012 campaign. It is this line that has touched a nerve: "If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."

As this Christian Science Monitor article points out, taking the president's words in context as referring to public infrastructure still reveals a lack of understanding of how the economy works.

"It’s not the government’s money!" (Rep. Raul) Labrador said. "It was business people who gave the government money so we could have roads and buildings and infrastructure. That is what is fundamentally deficient in this administration.... He completely and fundamentally misunderstands what creates business, what creates a thriving economy."

Pat Sajak has a pithy commentary on this whole situation, concluding that

These defining moments take hold most devastatingly when they confirm what a large portion of the electorate already believes. Taken alone, it seems unfair that a single moment, an unguarded remark or a slip of the tongue can carry such weight. They're often dismissed as "gotcha" moments, but when voters are able to nod and say, "I knew it," these moments stick and do terrible damage. We have witnessed such a moment.

The statement has been the subject of numerous photo cartoons on Facebook this week, but this Romney ad seems to have really hit home.

Happy July 4th!

As we join in the festivities of the Fourth, let's strive to keep to the values proclaimed in the Declaration that make it worth celebrating.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This is a time to be mindful and protective of the full range of personal, religious and economic liberties. Some additional thoughts from around the web remind us of the significance of some words from the second stanza of America the Beautiful and thoughts on the Stars and Stripes from a famous Catholic English writer.

Wow. Think about that line: "by whose stars we are illumined, and by whose stripes we are healed." Have you ever thought about your flag that way - so Christ-like? G. K. Chesterton did. It’s a stirring interpretation of America and its mission.

It's Up to We the People

Thursday's Supreme Court decision allowing the legislative health care monstrosity known as Obamacare to stand has drawn a range of reactions. Predictably, many liberal supporters of the bill waxed misty-eyed about how this law would ensure that no-one would have to worry anymore that healthcare for themselves or their children would be totally covered and would ensure that ice cream cones would grow on trees - well, the two results would be about as equally likely.

Conservative reaction was more mixed with some praising Chief Justice Roberts' brilliance for painting Pres. Obama into a corner for violating his promise not to tax those with incomes below $250,000 and for setting up precedent for limiting federal powers in future cases. Others labeled Roberts a turncoat who has probably doomed our society to expansive statist policies.

Actually, whatever one's assessment of the Chief justice's decisive role in this case or what his own motivations were is beside the point. One thing that Roberts made clear is that the Court's role is to rule on the constitutionality of a law, not its wisdom. As Kathryn Jean Lopez clearly points out, that's up to We the People. It would have been nice to have the Supreme Court make it easy for us by ditching Obamacare. But we'll have to do it the way the Constitution lays out, to bust our butts and our personal schedules to elect the right people to office in order to defend life and liberty.

Succesful Dragon Flight Heralds New Way of Doing Business in Space

SpaceX Dragon cargo craft is grappled by the International Space Station on Fri., May 25, 2012. Image Credit: NASA

Yesterday's successful splashdown and recovery of the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft concluded a groundbreaking mission that marks a change in the way business is done in space. Instead of being designed to a top-down list of requirements from NASA, the vehicle was designed internally by SpaceX for carrying cargo and eventually crew into space. (NASA, as the original primary customer through the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program does have input for some incremental changes to satisfy safety requirements.) SpaceX will soon be joined by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). OSC will start launching their Cygnus/Antares vehicles from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops Island, VA later this year.

Beyond cargo delivery, the Dragon flight also advances the prospect of commercial crew services to the ISS in a few years. Other markets, such as Bigelow Aerospace commercial space stations will foster an exciting expansion of commercial space activity in the near future.

Dragon Takes Flight and Spreads Its Wings!

Photo credit: NASA/Rick Wetherington, Tim Powers and Tim Terry

After a three day delay resulting from a last-second shutdown of Saturday morning's launch attempt, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday morning at 3:44 AM EDT on its historic demonstration flight for commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS). If several preliminary demonstration maneuvers are successfully completed, the Dragon spacecraft will rendezvous with and be grappled and docked to the ISS on Friday morning.

The events will be watched intently around the world and in Washington, DC where a many space-minded people are gathering for the Global Space Exploration Conference and this year's International Space Development Conference.

Launch Anticipation

Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft stand at Launch Complex 40 during a wet dress rehearsal ahead of the tomorrow's launch to the ISS. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

There is an excitement in the area reminiscent of some early NASA launches as SpaceX prepares for its historic Dragon/Falcon 9 launch to the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:55 a.m. EDT Saturday morning. In this case, NASA is moving into more of a service customer role as this flight is a demonstration for future supply runs to the ISS. Here is Space.com's coverage page which includes related articles.

SpaceX rolled the vehicle out to the pad overnight and a prelaunch press conference was just concluded this afternoon. Some major news networks may provide TV coverage, but webcast coverage is definitely planned at the NASA TV web site and the SpaceX website.

Circus on the Severn Back for a Brief but Taxing Session.

The Maryland General Assembly came back to Annapolis for a special session this week with the specific purpose of raising taxes to sustain the state's big spending ways.

Beyond the Limits to Growth: Social Implications of a Bold Business Venture

NASA, Artist concept by Denise Watt.

The Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” scenario that has had a profound impact on economic and social policies around the world is based on an model, generated on a mainframe computer forty years ago, assuming that the Earth and its resources are a closed system. In other words, material inputs to production originate only from the Earth itself and residual material from that production remain on the Earth. The “Limits” scenario has, to varying degrees, affected the environmental and industrial policies of various nations over the past few decades. The impact of complex environmental regulation on business is, at least in part, based on this world view.

But the “Limits to Growth” scenario, the modern incarnation of the older Malthusian world view, has had even more profound social consequences through its emphasis on the impact of supposed “overpopulation” on the planet and its resources. Overt population control measures, particularly the brutal one-child policy in China, are a direct threat to human life and liberty. However, a population control influence can be seen on more subtle issues around the world. The demographic trends seen in the “graying” of developed and developing nations indicate a population control effect already underway. Many would even see the recent controversial health care mandates in the US that impact religious, personal and economic liberties as having a population control agenda among the motivations. Thus, any development that either validates or calls into question the “Limits to Growth” scenario can have a profound effect on life in our society and the future of our civilization.

But what if the fundamental assumption of Earth as a closed system is called into question? What if humans have access to resources beyond Earth and are able to relocate some of our heavy industrial activity away from our home planet?

Today’s announcement of the Planetary Resources venture inaugurates an incremental plan that starts with affordable prospecting of Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) but that could lead to actual mining of materials for use in space and on Earth at a time far sooner than many had previously imagined practical. Use of resources from the Moon or asteroids is a prospect that has been discussed by some for many decades. But the difference between dreams and a serious venture is the commitment of serious money to a project. This is a bold venture and there is a great possibility it will not succeed. In that case, though, others will learn from it and some will eventually succeed. History may regard that today’s announcement as the turning point toward a growing extraterrestrial economy.

The proponents of Limits to Growth are not likely to just fold up their tent and go away. In fact, this year’s fortieth anniversary of “Limits to Growth” will probably see its advocates double down on the pessimistic scenario.

It should be said that the opening up of vast new resources does not diminish the case for responsible stewardship of resources on Earth or in space. Also, these social issues may continue to be struggled over on other grounds (“prolife” v. “prochoice”, etc.) However, they should not be decided based on unwarranted fears based on a faulty model using a flawed premise.

The availability of vast new quantities of resources can change social views on the future of civilization, in particular on our ability to welcome future generations by providing them with more abundant resources. In the 21st Century, we are beginning to realize the moral imperative behind human expansion into space: providing resources and opportunities for future generations.

Spece Resource Business Venture Announced

NASA, Artist concept by Denise Watt.

After several days of increasingly detailed media reports, Planetary Resources today announced its asteroid prospecting and mining business plan. The consortium was formed by a number of well known billionaire investors assisted by distinguished technical experts including a former astronaut and a famous filmmaker.

The venture, which was hinted at last week and formally unveiled Tuesday at Seattle's Museum of Flight, is sufficiently down to Earth to attract funding from such A-list investors as Google CEO Larry Page, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Texas billionaire Ross Perot Jr. and spacefaring software executive Charles Simonyi. Filmmaker James Cameron has signed on as a senior adviser.

The plan is taking an incremental approach, starting with low cost telescopes in Earth Orbit that will survey for promising Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and later will advance to more sophisticated up close prospecting of prime asteroid candidates. Eventually, resource rich asteroids will be selected for extraction of materials ranging from water, which yields hydrogen and oxygen, enabling more affordable deep space travel, to premium minerals, including platinum grade metals, that have numerous applications on Earth and in space.

Use of resources from the Moon or asteroids is a prospect that has been discussed by some for many decades. But the difference between dreams and a serious venture is the commitment of serious money to a project. This is a bold venture and there is a great possibility it will not succeed. In that case, though, others will learn from it and some will eventually succeed. History may regard that today’s announcement as the turning point toward a growing extraterrestrial economy. Humanity will have access to resources beyond Earth and we will be able to relocate some of our heavy industrial activity away from our home planet.

In the 21st Century, we are beginning to realize the moral imperative behind human expansion into space: providing resources and opportunities for future generations.

UPDATE: Here is a compendium of Space.com features on the Planetary Resources Venture and here are some Spacetoday.net media links.

Blogroll Catch Up

Been overdue on keeping my blog roll up with the times, so I've just added a few links. Two new effective prolife efforts have emerged in the past few years so I've added 40 Days for Life and Live Action to the blog roll. Also, catching up with Jeff Foust's prolific space new media journalism presence, I've added The Space Review and, in the blogs section, NewSpace Journal.