Potpourri CVI

I got this extended note from the Moon Society, which deserves reading. While Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin might be a little overexposed, he's a very smart man, and his thoughts on space exploration deserve some attention.

Group: The Moon Society
Subject: Moon Society Endorses Aldrin's Proposal for a Lunar Infrastructure Development Corporation
Buzz Aldrin published a proposal for a public/private/international plan to open the Moon for exploration and development in the Huffington Post

http://digg.com/d3176tD

Below are key excerpts:

• “I propose instead America call the world to the Moon. In a new global effort to use the Moon to establish a global space consortium with a lunar surface facility as its epicenter, “
• “... competition, in an Apollo-style race back to the Moon, would be a fruitless exercise in national hubris whose rewards, if we “won”again, would prove fleeting”
• “I am proposing a different way back to the Moon: international collaboration. “
• “... the goal of creating a new public-private partnership todevelop the Moon. I call it the Lunar Infrastructure DevelopmentCorporation (LIDC). The purpose of the LIDC would be to enable thenations of the Earth to join together and return to the Moon as an international cooperative venture. The LIDC will pool the financial,technical and human resources of its member nations to build the lunar communication, navigation and transportation systems needed for human exploration of the Moon. It would be a public/private global partnership to make the Moon accessible to all humanity. The LIDC will build the communication and navigation satellites needed by future lunar travelers, develop fuel depots using lunar LOX – perhaps derived from the recently discovered lunar water-and construct habitats that will shelter space travelers while on the surface. It will enable a sustainable human presence on the Moon that will be accessible to all the nations on Earth."
• “Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), which is governed by complex treaties, the LIDC will have the same flexibility as an NGO in working with different nations and private entities to finance build and operate the facilities and equipment needed for lunar exploration. “
• “To do so [i.e., honoring the astronauts of the Apollo Era Missions] doesn’t require rerunning a long-ago Cold War race in which America plays the role of a space-going Colonial power.

Moon Society Officers and Directors, who collectively make up the Management Committee gave the Moon Society's official endorsement. The email vote was unanimous.

As Ben Nault, Director from Tucson, put it: “Probably the main reason the ISS is still "alive" and supported by Congress is that it is part of a number of international agreements. Backing out of these agreement would have financial, political and diplomatic repercussions on the US. Therefore, having an international component helps large complex programs survive the transition to different administrations and different congressional moods. The international angle gives long-term "sustainability" to the Lunar Infrastructure Development Corporation.

“In asking for Committee member support, we pointed out significant similarities with our own proposal, also strongly endorsed byCommittee members, for an International Lunar Research Park. Bothproposals are for public/private/international collaboration. There are, of course, those who would prefer a NASA-stand alone effort, and those who would prefer a purely private enterprise approach. But a reality check shows that the public/private/international approach will be much more robust, and stand a much greater chance of becoming a permanent beachhead on the Moon. It is also much more likely to lead to the first civilian industrial settlement.And that is precisely the Vision of the Moon Society. The Moon Society urges other pro-space organizations, the public, and the media to support Buzz Aldrin's proposal.

For more on the Moon Society International Lunar Research Park proposal, see: http://www.moonsociety.org/reports/beyond_nasa.html

Thank you for your support

http://www.moonsociety.org/

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New from Hu:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average has finally hit 10,000, a number it hasn't reached in a year. That's still not the high it reached during the Bush administration. Still waiting to hear when this becomes "Obama's economy."
• CNN/Money ran a business profile piece on Huntsville, Alabama.
• The Airborne Tactical Laser (ATL) has hit a moving target from the air. Sha-ZAAAAM!!

The Constellation Program has a pretty cool 12-minute video explaining some of the roles flight testing have in making a better space program.

Your useful piece of trivia for today: 62 years ago today, Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager broke the sound barrier--750 miles per hour in level flight over the high desert of California--in the Bell X-1. Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, the book or the movie, is still the best portrayal of the seminal moment in aviation history. Saaaa-lute!

There's a web site out there that depicts every space mission ever sent to other worlds of the solar system. Very cool!

NASA is again looking at technology development for reusable launch vehicles. Good! Actually, a meeting I was in today gave every indication that the Obama administration is interested in spending more money on science and technology development research. About bloody time.

From my AIAA news feed:
Some Astronauts Annoyed At SpaceX's Dragon
The Orlando Sentinel (10/14, Block) reports, "Asked what bugs them most about NASA outsourcing the job of flying crew to the International Space Station, some astronauts roll their eyes and say: 'Dragon,'" the manned capsule being built by SpaceX, because of the fear of being "little more than human cargo" since the ship is fully automated. "SpaceX has hired its own former astronaut, Ken Bowersox, to make Dragon more astronaut-friendly," a move the article describes as a "clear example of how serious it is about leading a new commercial era in American space exploration." The article, positively describing SpaceX's efforts, notes the "biggest concern" of "astronauts, NASA officials and some members of Congress" is that "SpaceX ships are rivals to Ares and Orion, a view SpaceX dismisses." Bowersox describes the ships as "enablers" for NASA to conduct exploration.

From the Wall Street Journal:

• God vs. Science isn’t the issue…
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704429304574467320574576460.html
• Sudden Change, Big Effect http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574469473830302630.html

From Lin: Sheriff Arpaio, the tough-guy from Arizona, vows to continue sweeps to capture illegal immigrants while the Obama administration would prefer that he not.

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Some late-breaking news from the Drudge Report: Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams. The sole reason for this is his political views, however tactfully or tackily expressed, and the negative publicity they generated. The campaign run against him and the restraint of trade that this campaign has now created sets a very ugly precedent: the NFL has just announced that Limbaugh's cash is good only at the ticket gate or the bar, it won't be accepted in the front office. I wonder what would happen if another conservative ever decided to invest in a football team. Heck, I wonder what would happen if I ever decided to. It will be interesting to see what the fallout is from all this. Limbaugh won't take it lying down: of that I am reasonably certain.

Potpourri LXXXVI

Just a few items this evening....

This will be a relief to future space travelers: the Chinese have banned bad breath in outer space.

And from the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE), a unique underground village/resort in Australia called Coober Pedy (coo-bur PEE-dee).

A 4,500-year-old skeleton has been found on an Italian beach.

Kid can't read? Try ordering this program, developed by Roberta Pournelle, wife of science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle.

Potpourri L (for 50, not for Large)

Holy cats! WAY too much stuff in the inbox this evening. Well, I'd best get cracking. I've got a couple letters to write tonight, too. The wild, out-of-control life of a space geek blogger.

The Space Frontier Foundation has extended the deadline for its space business plan prize to June 19. Don't have time for it myself, but there might come a day when $5,000 might come in handy. I have ideas, mind you, just haven't got the time to focus at the moment.

The web site for the Human Space Flight Panel is now up. If you're ready to tell the representatives of your elected officials what they should do with the human spaceflight program, now is the time. Go get 'em!

Some more stuff from Lin on the potential for hyperinflation, which I've addressed on this site before.

For those of you who are familiar with the term, my apologies. The point is that we are almost out of wiggle room when we have to send the US Secretary of the Treasury hat-in-hand to grovel to the Chinese to keep buying our worthless paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
http://dailyreckoning.com/us-stuck-in-inflation-causing-positions/print/
http://dailyreckoning.com/the-gold-bull-market-and-the-fed-it-rode-in-on/print/

Tip o' the fedora to Martin for finding this: a diorama of a sort of Mount Rushmore for the Moon. It's pretty cool.

I got this summary on the Air France crash from my daily AIAA news feed:

ABC World News (6/4, story 5, 2:15, Gibson) reported, "Next, to the investigation into Air France Flight 447. ... French investigators reported that automatic messages from the plane indicated it was not maintaining consistent air speed. And that prompted the plane's manufacturer, Airbus, to issue a warning to all airlines flying its planes." ABC (Stark) added, "Late today, Airbus warned airlines that fly all models of Airbus planes to follow correct procedures if pilots are dealing with unreliable speed indications or data. ... In what's called an accident information telex, Airbus reminded airlines that if that occurs, pilots should maintain their power and level off if necessary, and start troubleshooting procedures. Aviation experts say in some cases, such air speed problems can be difficult for cockpit crews to detect."

Jeff Foust found some insightful stuff from the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel on former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.

Ian Murphy asks some tough questions about the "why" of space exploration, a topic that motivates most of why I do what I do for the space business.

Need free internet "radio?" Doc had a couple of suggestions for me the other day:

• Last.fm
• Pandora.com

Bored with "Whack a Mole?" Try "Whack a Kitty." I am not kidding--the couple who put this video together--and it really is pretty harmless--were on one of the cable news shows because some folks on the internet were utterly offended and thought they were encouraging cruelty to animals. And speaking of cats, someone else sent me an internet video on cat yodeling. No doubt someone will raise heck about this as well. This is probably why Robert D. Raiford calls us the United States of the Offended. Sense of humor is apparently out the window.

Congress is cutting the exploration portion of the NASA budget. Oh, joy.

Okay, I don't talk about my day job much, but I thought I'd share this. Dan Kanigan, the NASA Public Affairs Office (PAO) guy I work with on Ares I-X, got a break from I-X to travel along with the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) 747 as it ferried Atlantis back to Kennedy Space Center. He did a couple of cool live reports, which are worth watching:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/3591644145/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/3592450676/in/photostream/

Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, has bought himself a ticket to be a tourist at the International Space Station.

There's a great editorial on CNN.com on why the future ain't what it used to be. It called to mind the Avery Brooks commercials done for AT&T, where he railed, "Where are the flying cars? There were supposed to be flying cars!"

Some good stuff from Tracy:

• A guide to the NASA history program.
• More from the History office: NASA's Decadal Planning Team and the Policy Formulation of the Vision for Space Exploration

From the NASA PAO, a notice of NASA research opportunities.

Some great discussion at work today. I learned, for example, that it's often cheaper to buy Xbox 360 to play Blu-Ray DVDs than to buy a straight DVD player. What else? Oh yeah, Doc also mentioned that Microsoft has an online store for buying music and podcasts via Xbox and the Microsoft Zune marketplace. This is akin to the Amazon store feature available via Kindle. The convergence of new media continues. If I want to make money in the future, I'm going to have to describe myself as a "content developer," not a "writer." Writing implies pens, typewriters, paper, and other archaic technologies. We'll have none of THAT stuff on the Internet, pal...

We also had a discussion about some guy plugging an eyeball-size camera, which transmits images to a server via wireless internet. This might be a next step toward connecting the camera to the human brain--the Singularity moves ever closer.

Doc and I had an extended conversation on the merits of various adults beverages. He's a beer and whiskey snob, I'm a wee bit of a wine snob. We're both occasional fans of bourbon whiskey. He recommended a few brands that I might consider trying "if you have some money to burn." They include:

• Woodford Reserve
• Ridgemont Reserve 1792
• Bulleit
• Booker's
• Rip van Winkle

And here's the quotation of the day, also from Doc (though a bit altered, as I didn't write it down precisely when and as he said it): "You can't help having ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) anymore. It's not an affliction anymore, it's a survival skill." HA! Perfect!

And lastly, there's a new Star Wars video game coming out about the Old Republic. The lead villain looks like a character I created for my own sequels and prequels backindaday. I probably won't play the game, as I don't own a game console (I waste enough time "talking" to people who are reputedly "real" on the internet as it is). The game's "trailer" looked pretty cool, though.

Book Review: The Devil in the White City

The difference between a popular history and a more formal history, so far as I can tell, is that popular histories are written as novels or stories, where the reader gets into the heads of the characters, enjoys dialogue, gets hints of the scenery, and so forth. A formal history tells things from the omniscient voice of the historian; events are described, narrated, and occasionally sprinkled with known quotations from the historical figures in question. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness in the Fair that Changed America is of the popular variety, and darned absorbing at that.

This novelistic history by Erik Larson describes the building of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, also called the Columbian Exposition because it commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America (this was before Columbus fell out of favor with politically correct historians, obviously). This story alternates between the doings of the architects and of one H. H. Holmes--one of the first known serial killers to be captured and tried--who was doing business down the street. The juxtaposition of this great accomplishment in upper-middle-class urban planning (you can find hints of it in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in Orlando) and the insidiousness of this killer give a "top and bottom" view of 19th century American society while also telling a ripping good tale.

What surprised and chagrined me the most is how little I knew about all this, despite growing up in the Chicago area. Okay, sure: I knew that the Museum of Science and Industry was once one of the Fair's buildings, and I was pretty sure I knew about the fair being the site of the first Ferris wheel. However, it never occurred to me that the airport on the South Side might have derived its name from the fair's "midway" or that the Fair featured the first large-scale use of electric lighting using alternating current (AC) rather than direct current (DC). There are lots of little tidbits like that throughout the book--small bit players in the overall narrative who later go on to have greater influence afterward, such as Elias Disney, father of Walt and Roy, who was one of the construction workers at the Fair and told his sons tales of building a dream city by the Lake.

Larson also does a splendid job of conjuring up the social and physical environment of Chicago in the 1890s. Having been brought up nearby, I grew up with Carl Sandburg's poem celebrating the tough city for what it was, especially then:

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders

You also get a sense of the dynamism of the city, which I probably picked up by contact, especially from my raucous Irish family, who lived on the city's West Side for much of the first half of the 20th century. The book gets you up close with the labor movements; the tony suburbs and squalid slums; the dirty politics; the scorching summers, stormy springs, temperate autumns, and bitter winters; the occasional inferiority complex toward, and rivalry with, New York. The book's actual narrative runs 390 pages, but it's a brisk one, and Larson manages to capture a lot of details that bring the city to life.

I really liked this book, though it is not for everyone. Where the wonders of the "White City" are conveyed brilliantly (a few more pictures might still have helped), Larson is just as adept at describing the sinister and horrifying actions of Holmes. A young (25 at the time of the Fair), self-made man, Holmes had an insouciant, social manner and assertive personality that allowed him to acquire the resources to build a complete "Castle," what today we might call a mall, with restaurants, hotel rooms, stores, and secret soundproof chambers that allowed him to abduct, kill, and dismember several young women without anyone being the wiser. He eventually confessed to 27 murders, though Larson could only confirm a minimum of nine--bad enough.

Holmes might have gone on his merry way for quite a bit longer, had he not gotten into financial trouble (he was also a shameless liar who rarely paid his debts). Holmes was also protected, in part, by the morals and culture of the times. There was simultaneously an acceptance that Chicago was a dangerous place and that hundreds of people disappeared there every year, and yet a naiveity about the evil one man could do, especially if he was polite, well-dressed, and possessed of good looks and a pleasant manner.

The reason Larson's book cannot be taken as simply a story is that it did, in fact, occur. Because real life doesn't have the nice, tidy, catharsis that fiction does, Larson does not necessarily treat us to any great lessons or unambiguous resolutions. However, there is enough "closure" (to use an ugly 21st century word) to give this book the feeling of a truly well written novel. However you approach The Devil in the White City, you will come away with an appreciation of Larson's literary talent.

One thing I must close with, in jest since that's how Larson put it in his acknowledgments. He adds a truly terrible thought at the end of this book (okay, it was terrible to me, anyway): "I must confess a shameful secret: I love Chicago best in the cold." Brrrrr! He's welcome to it.