Mark Stucky, whom Virgin Galactic demoted as its director of flight test in May and fired two months later, has joined Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company, CNN reports.
(more…)Stucky said he will join Blue Origin’s “Advanced Development Programs” team, where he said in a statement to CNN that he will “do my best to contribute to [CEO Jeff Bezos’] amazing vision of humans not just having a continuous presence in space but truly becoming a space-faring species.”
A Note from Nanoracks CEO Jeffrey Manber
Dear Friends,
This is a short note to let you know that The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill, a new documentary on the life and impact of Gerard O’Neill will be premiering and out for viewing April 17th. The attached information has additional details.
SEATTLE (SSI PR) — The Space Studies Institute (SSI) is pleased to announce the date and location for its 2019 conference. Make your plans now to attend SSI 50: The Space Settlement Enterprise July 15 and 16 at the renowned Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Tickets are on sale now at https://ssi50.eventbrite.
“This year marks the 50th anniversary of Professor Gerard O’Neill’s High Frontier concept and the start of a new era for the Space Studies Institute,” said SSI senior researcher and conference chairman Edward Wright. “We’re about to embark on a multi-year effort to update the High Frontier vision, incorporating new technology, new knowledge of the solar system, and new commercial space ventures.”
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
This past week, the XPrize acknowledged the obvious: after 10 years and multiple deadline extensions, none of the five remaining teams was going to claim the Google Lunar X Prize by landing a privately-built vehicle on the moon that would travel 500 meters across the surface while sending back high-definition video.
The first team to accomplish that goal would have claimed $20 million; the second, $5 million. But, unlike the moon race of the 1960’s, Google’s much hyped moon shot ended not with the deafening roar of a launch but the deadening silence of a dream deferred.
A note from our friends at The Space Studies Institute
We broke the news yesterday for SSI Associates to get their jump start and now it’s open for everyone:
For a limited time The Space Studies Institute is giving away the Kindle editions of Gerard K. O’Neill’s 2081 and The High Frontier for free!
2081, an amazing look at the future rising around us, and The High Frontier, the cornerstone book of the NewSpace generation, are both regularly priced at $6.99 USD but right now they are online around the planet for free download from the Amazon.com websites and Kindle stores.
For details on 2081, just jump down to the previous SSI Blog post and as for The High Frontier, well, if you haven’t heard of it then it’s time you laid the right foundation in your Space education.
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 12, 2014 (Citizens in Space PR) – A new strategy for space development will be presented at the International Space Development Conference, which takes place at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel this week.
Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy and the Space Studies Institute, will present “The Great Enterprise: From Citizen Space Exploration to Space Settlement” in the Redondo California Ballroom at 3:00 on Saturday, May 17.
Gerard K. O’Neill’s classic The High Frontier has now been released as an Amazon Kindle ebook — and you can own it absolutely free!
From Saturday April 20th to Tuesday April 23rd, the Kindle edition of The High Frontier is absolutely free. Just open the Kindle app on your iOS, Android, Windows PC or Mac and type High Frontier in the Kindle store, or get your free Kindle edition directly from the Amazon.com website at https://www.amazon.com/The-High-Frontier-ebook/dp/B00CB3SIAI/ .
The High Frontier was a milestone in the work to make the dream of Space Settlement real for everyone. So many lives were changed by this book. Now a new digital generation can learn the needs, the goals and the potentials that Professor O’Neill made so clearly understandable.
Dear Senior Associates and Friends of SSI,
SSI has a long history and a solid legacy, based on the vision of Professor Gerard K. O’Neill and his colleagues. With over a dozen SSI conferences completed, along with research into a number of technologies important for space settlement, the Institute is well positioned to play an important role as a key primary international entity that will create the ways and means of true space settlement. This is an appropriate goal to honor Professor O’Neill’s vision.
Closed Environment Life Support Systems
Dr. William Jewel, Cornell University, and Dr. Lee Valentine, Space Studies Institute
“The Engineering Trade Space for a Robust Closed Ecological Life Support System: A Suggested Technology Road Map”
Dr. Peter Curreri, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Michael Detweiller, Junction Solutions
“Habitat Size Optimization of the O’Neill-Glaser Economic Model for Space Solar Satellite Production”
Sherwin Gormly, Dynamic Corporation, NASA Ames Research Center, and Michael Flynn, NASA Ames Research Center
“Membrane Based Habitat Wall Architectures for Evolving Structures and Comprehensive Resource Recycle in ‘Homestead’ Stage Space Colony Development”
In The Space Review, Dwayne Day has an interesting of the 1970’s space colony movement, which gained adherents for a brief period before sinking into obscurity. Day does a good job of identifying the economic realities (transportation costs, mainly) and the inherent contradictions (an Utopian vision based largely on fear) that prevented the movement from gaining very much traction.
Also in The Space Review this week:
Nader Elhefnawy has an interesting essay over at The Space Review today about how space advocates who see space as a safety valve for overpopulation may be getting it wrong. It’s an interesting argument that is well worth a read.
