Commercialization of space

[burntheships]

In related news - DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1 of
its XS-1 Spaceplane.


The Boeing Company (working with Blue Origin, LLC)
Masten Space Systems (working with XCOR Aerospace)
Northrop Grumman Corporation (working with Virgin Galactic)

"We chose performers who could prudently integrate existing and up-and-coming technologies and operations, while making XS-1 as reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective as possible," Jess Sponable, DARPA program manager. "We're eager to see how their initial designs envision making spaceflight commonplace—with all the potential military, civilian and commercial benefits that capability would provide.
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/07/15/boeing-northrop-masten-funding-darpas-xs1-space-plane/

"

There we go! 

[Back]

Thanks for the update.

Very interesting times we live in.

Bless
Back

[The Seeker]

Hmm, doesn't the air force already have their little un-manned mini shuttle that is re-usable? Stays in orbit for a year at a time?

more dog and pony show, me thinks...


seeker

[Amaterasu]

Methinks You're right.

[Ellirium113]

Asteroid Mining Bill Introduced In Congress To Protect Private Property Rights

"Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) announced on Thursday that he was introducing a bill along with Rep, Derek Kilmer (D-WA) called the American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act of 2014 (PDF). The act is designed to protect the private property rights for entities mining asteroids and to otherwise encourage asteroid mining. The bill is in apparent reaction to efforts by companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries to locate and mine Earth approaching asteroids for their resources.

The crucial part of the short piece of legislation states that the resources mined from an asteroid would be the property of the entity undertaking the operation. This language gets around the provision of the Outer Space Treaty that says states are forbidden to establish national sovereignty over celestial bodies, which would be a prerequisite to the United States allowing a private entity to own an asteroid. It rather grants mineral rights to the asteroid, something the treaty does not mention. There is no enforcement mechanism in the event of a dispute with another country, however."

http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/07/11/1237251/asteroid-mining-bill-introduced-in-congress-to-protect-private-property-rights

[robomont]

i just read what you posted but would say this law could be used later to drag us into a space war over mineral resources.as its not a un law.all this law would do is keep entities in the usa from fighting.but as im almost sure  the majority of safely mined stuff is probably gone.i bet usgs has already determined where it was and already got it.the good stuff was probably on venus.and the asteroids are mostly nickel and iron.with traces of other stuff.if its not gold ,platinum or paladium,i cant see justifying the resources.maybe they did find something the corporations are willing to fight over and spurred this action.

[Ellirium113]

i just read what you posted but would say this law could be used later to drag us into a space war over mineral resources.

You read the fine print.

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

This from a good source. "it will never fly...they'll never get enough votes as it could present problematic with United Nations Treaty.  The Congressmen were paid a shit load of money to sponsor the legislation by the Florida-Gang.  The legislation is a violation of the Space Treaty...other Congressmen will not support it.  the Bill will 'die in Committee'.."

[Ellirium113]

Alien Artifacts On The Moon?

As nutty as it may seem to the uninitiated, the notion of looking for alien artifacts on our own Moon may finally be gaining mainstream scientific traction.

There are good reasons to seriously consider the possibility that at some point in the Earth-Moon system's storied 4.5 billion year-old history, an alien intelligence may have passed through our solar system; leaving physical artifacts of their visits.

These artifacts would likely entail more than just alien space trash, and would arguably include evidence of alien scientific or industrial activity, such as extremely advanced lunar mining, energy generation; even technology related to lunar nearside Earth reconnaissance.

Davies thinks the ideal lunar survey would not only include a search for optical anomalies but would go beyond the breadth of LRO's own mission to include searches for evidence of alien lunar industrial activity.

"[Evidence of past] mining or quarrying could show up in gravimetry or magnetic surveys, even if an ancient mine was buried under the lunar regolith," said Davies. "We could detect [alien] nuclear waste perhaps from a lunar satellite by looking for localized gamma ray sources from the lunar surface."

A crowdsource lunar image analysis initiative might use Tomnod-type search software in the same way that volunteers were recruited to search satellite imaging for the missing Malaysian 777.

Davies says at some stage any search needs to be automated and use state-of-the-art software.

"In searching for artifacts, one is looking for 'something fishy'," said Davies. "But 'fishiness' requires a human decision in advance about a signature of artificiality. There are some simple examples, like right angle edges. But we have little idea what million year-old technology might look like."

Davies says a search for lunar artifacts should be combined with a search for unusual geological features. However improbable, Davies says planetary scientists need to keep their eyes open for non-random anomalies; even ones on the moon and scrutinize their respective databases to "keep an eye out" for putative signatures of alien technology.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2014/07/23/crowdsourcing-the-search-for-alien-artifacts/

Hmm..crowdsourced close inspection of the moon without the NASA editing. Would be great if they can pull it off without it being meddled with.