Space Forum / Space Policy / February 2004

Here is an exerpt from the book "Welcome To Moonbase" by Ben Bova, 1987, "Base
Layout
Moonbase consists of the main habitation and administrative center at
Alphonsus, research facilities at various locations, and several outlying

It seems to me that it does not make any sense to keep Lockheed
Martin, Boeing, and other firms that depend on the Pentagon and, to a
smaller degree NASA, existing as independent entities. The large
majority of the contracts given to these entities are given away

We have been messing-around in near earth orbit ever since
the end of the Apollo program. While we've been told this
was preparation for greater things, we never seemed to get
around to the greater things - plus I get the feeling that

                 Space Access Update #102  2/9/04
              Copyright 2004 by Space Access Society
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Do not hit "reply" to email us - it'll be buried in tides of spam,

Anybody know why spacecraft (or MERs) don't use electronically-
steerable, phased-array antennas instead of motor-driven "dishes"
which are subject to problems with the mechanics and more delicate
wiring, position sensors, and etc.

I've been looking through the incredible RAW images from the Mars
landers. Opportunity's files now include several images that give a
glimpse over the lip of the depression it landed in. In several of the
images, there is a flat white object resting next to a taller dark

I was just having a laugh with a business colleague about some
ignorant comments made by "Rand Simberg" in relation to space tourism
when he clicked on a link and got a error basically saying the message
wasnt archived.

Although it took the press a few days to get the word, it's been a week
since Spirit was fixed, and almost two weeks since Opportunity landed, and
there have been virtually no news stories from Mars during that whole time.  
Is it because the news media have stopped doting on the ...

Is this the James Webb who was the NASA admin some time ago?  If so, what
did he do for astronomy?

Since Ken Arromdee fairly asked what really killed Hubble, I found an
honest-looking answer in the notes from a meeting between Sean O'Keefe
and Hubble's managers at the Space Telescope Science Institute:
   http://www.stsci.edu/institute/sm4meeting.html

Dear sci.space.policy community,
I wrote an article a couple of days ago for spacedaily.com - hopefully
it will be soon published - where I address the age-old question
whether space exploration is worth pursuing while there are other

Is the ISS another Concorde or Space Shuttle that will never survive
outside captivity (government subsidies)? Or is the ISS like DARPANET
in the early days - a government resource that can be privatized to
start an industry? I have heard the ISS is mostly very old technology

James Cameron's and Mars:
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8
13&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Looks like Opportunity did its 3m traverse OK today. Rear hazcam shot:
 http://tinyurl.com/2qe73
Joe

If you go to http://www.angryflower.com/ and scroll down to the head-
line "Bush on Mars" you get a rather skeptical view on the recent
space initiative--by someone who isn't indifferent to the matter and
who would love Moonbases to happen, if only because they'd be cool...!