A good example of how loosing perspective makes so-called "novel ways" actually "rubish ways"

what to think about that? spoiling important ressources, smart idea?, and is it really cheap?

Awesome, they managed. (this is a different deal as the micro ones )

when we tried (http://cas.ensmp.fr/~petit/site-oiseau-np/main.htm good old time :) ) the kinematic and mechanics were the big issues.

Recents talks about NEO and human explorations. Some very interesting things.

Paper Discussion Deck

I don't put too many geeky stuffs here, but that may be a game to have a look at :) not that "The Space Game" wasn't "fun".

another hill to climb (in reference to a metaphor of a recent post)

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00555/tyche3_555342a.pdf Icarus' paper: http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1004/1004.4584v1.pdf

well, he kind-of falls into his own trap: confusing/discussing "evidence" with "likelihood", and "there is" with "it may". He should have made more efforts in his writing, what he says is a bit pointless! (just put the Icarus' paper)

... some competition in the commercial space launcher market ? I kind of wonder why EU, or ESA, still doesn't push for anything in this market!

If I could write, this is exactly what I would write about rocket, GO, and so on... :) "we are decadent and tired. But none of the bright young up-and-coming economies seem to be interested in anything besides aping what the United States and the USSR did years ago. We may, in other words, need to look beyond strictly U.S.-centric explanations for such failures of imagination and initiative. ... Those are places we need to go if we are not to end up as the Ottoman Empire of the 21st century, and yet in spite of all of the lip service that is paid to innovation in such areas, it frequently seems as though we are trapped in a collective stasis." "But those who do concern themselves with the formal regulation of "technology" might wish to worry less about possible negative effects of innovation and more about the damage being done to our environment and our prosperity by the mid-20th-century technologies that no sane and responsible person would propose today, but in which we remain trapped by mysterious and ineffable forces."

You know Luis, when I read this quote, I could help thinking about GO, which would be kind of ironic considering the context but not far from what happens in the field :p

Wonder what is the most creative: the system or the name! NAUTILUS-X = Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States X-ploration http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/~fiso/telecon/Holderman-Henderson_1-26-11/Holderman_1-26-11.ppt

"collective wisdom" to define what a "galaxy" is. Is it really a good approach ? It does not seem any sociologist is involved in the process. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.3309v1.pdf

What did work in 2010. The Quirky model might be of interest to ACT...