Monday Link Salad

[chris_gerrib]

Like the label on the tin says:

1) In a shocking and surprising bit of news, Kochs' Family Empire Founded on Government Handouts. Of course, it's not really shocking at all.

2) A very interesting article on SpaceX, Elon Musk's private NASA.

3) Much has been written of how the failure of Borders means that bookstores are dead. This article begs to differ.

4) From Tobias Buckell, Wind turbines without the blades.

5) An interesting article about a long-time FBI informant on white-supremacist groups.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

A very interesting article on SpaceX, Elon Musk's private NASA.

It shows both how MUCH is possible, in terms of bringing down the cost of access to space, even with off-the-shelf technology, if cutting costs is the object. It also shows that it's possible to have cheapness and reliability if one is willing to sacrifice full theoretical engineering efficiency -- which is a worthwhile sacrifice if one intends to make a practical commercial launch vehicle as opposed to an engineer's dream.

I also found it interesting that the first TWO Falcons blew up in testing. And inspiring that Musk continued trying. I think that it's awesome just how tough SpaceX finally managed to make their Merlin engines. I see SpaceX playing a major role in the human expansion into space from the mid-2010's on, perhaps even to the point where our current estimates of the time it will take to return to the Moon and begin the manned exploration of Mars and the Asteroid Belt will be overtaken by the increased availability of inexpensive SpaceX launchers. It is quite possible that national space agencies might find themselves following, rather than leading, corporate expansion beyond the Earth's atmosphere.