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More talk in the blogosphere about Daschle and a presidential run. Possumblog: A Prophet Amongst Us Oval Office 2008: Tom Daschle...

Going Up?...all the way to Geosychronous Orbit

A couple of articles on a concept found in science fiction from Arthur C. Clarke and others: a tethered orbital elevator system! At first glance if one is unfamiliar with the concept it sounds like something from a hallucination - but the physics works, and with recent new developments in materials technology, the means are also now available.

The big advantage: CHEAP cost to orbit, especially compared to rocketry. Check these articles out: one from this weeks Sunday (London) Telegraph, and the other from none other than the big gorilla of the blogosphere hisself: Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds writing on Tech Central Station.

Click on image to enlarge. (Image from liftport.com)

Stairway to heaven

The race is on to build the first "space elevator' - long dismissed as science fiction - to carry people and materials into orbit along a cable thousands of miles long.

In a significant step, American aviation regulators have just given permission for the opening trials of a prototype, while a competition to be launched next month follows in the wake of the $10 million (£5.6 million) "X Prize'', which led to the first privately developed craft leaving the Earth's atmosphere, briefly, last year.

Folks, this isn't pie in the sky conceptualizing - it's going into the engineering phase - that's about as concrete as it gets!

Space Program: Looking Up

I've written here in the past about NASA's work on space elevators, and on the new leaner, meaner, prize-oriented approach favored by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. Now there are some signs of real progress on a number of fronts. As I noted earlier, NASA was offering prizes for space elevator research. That's still going on, but there are some new studies suggesting that space elevators may be closer to practicality than previously thought.

Indeed!

Sweet Jesus: Rita Swirls Into 150-Mph Monster in Gulf. Don't put away your wallet yet, and if you're helping out with some other ongoing relief efforts, keep up the good work. Last night I helped a service organization I belong...

Remember this: anyone who tells you that free speech is alive and well on college campuses is a flat out liar. The First Amendment? Hell, they won't even let anyone tell the truth....

From today's The Hotline:NORTH DAKOTA: Karl's Roeven, Lookin' For A Candidate? ND GOP leaders say WH Dep. CoS Karl Rove's visit to ND provided a boost, no matter what happens after his scheduled meeting with Gov. John Hoeven (R). Rove...

Don Adams is dead at 82. Many will remember him as Maxwell Smart. To me, he will always be Tennessee Tuxedo. Now he's at the big zoo in the sky....

In an earlier post that attracted some attention, I quoted Christopher Hitchen's piece on the organizers of the anti-war rally in Washington. Hitchens points to David Corn's LA Weekly expose on International Answer, one of the two major sponsors of...

By a vote of 13 to 5. From the Washington Post: Voting No were:Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), Joseph Biden (Del.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) , Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.)Democrats voting Yes:Sens. Patrick Leahy (Vt.) , Herb Kohl...

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