Page Created: 02/11/14. Last Updated: 02/11/14.
KEEPING UP WITH SPACE
The following commentary is reprinted with permission of the author and editors from:
THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/28/12 -- Vol. 31, No. 26, Whole Number 1734
Keeping Up With Space Copyright 2012 Dale L. Skran, Jr.
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Keeping Up With Space (comments by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
As a long time "space fan" and space activist who has recently become more active in the field after a hiatus, I would like to share with you, as a sort of Christmas present, how I have been keeping up with what is going on in the world of space. One of the saddest things about the recent years is the fashion in which the mainstream press has gradually covered activities in space less and less, with the result that it was common for people to comment after the cancellation of the space shuttle that "the space program was ending." For a few, this statement was political, but for most it was simple ignorance. In fact, our space program is in a state of rapid progress--it's just that a lot of that progress is taking place outside of NASA, in the so-called "Newspace" or commercial space sector.
A decent general place to get the top news headlines is <http://news.yahoo.com/astronomy/>. I like Yahoo news because some effort is made to present only one story on each major topic, unlike Google where you get twenty or thirty similar stories on the same thing. If you want to know the major "public headlines" in space on any give day, this is a good place to start.
However, I am more interested in looking behind the scenes, and the first place I go is <http://www.parabolicarc.com/>, which theoretically covers space tourism, but really covers anything that the blog master, Doug Messier, finds interesting. If you had to read a single news source on space, this is the one I would go to. Doug's opinions are pretty much behind the scenes, although clearly he is a big space supporter who apparently spends full time writing for his blog. One thing that makes this blog great is that it is full of up-to-the minute videos of engine and spacecraft tests of
all kinds. For example, the December 23rd post shows a recent test of the SpaceX reusable rocket, the Grasshopper. This video is **awesome**--bet you didn't even know that someone was actively testing a reusable rocket booster? In fact, multiple companies, including Jeff Bezos' secretive Blue Origin, are racing to build the first fully reusable rocket and lower launch costs by a large factor. However, you'll never see this stuff covered in the mainstream press, and you'll never see the videos on the cable news unless a rocket crashes into Santa's sleigh.
Another great place to go is <http://nasawatch.com/>. Here you'll find a lot of detail about what is happening at NASA, brought to you by blog master Keith Cowing. Keith is a bit more opinionated than Doug, and often adds his own comments to stories. He frequently takes NASA to task for poor publicity or a disorganized public face, but on the whole I find Keith to be a reasonable fellow. There is some coverage of commercial space, but the main emphasis is NASA, including a lot of gossipy dirt that *never* hits the mainstream press, such as letters from disgruntled employees
and so on. Nasawatch is always entertaining and always worth checking out.
The third of my top three sites is <http://www.thespacereview.com/>. The Space Review, subtitled "essays and commentary about the final frontier," is more a magazine than a blog. Each week editor Jeff Foust brings out three or four long essays from different authors, including sometimes himself. This site is a great source for thoughtful, non-polemical writing about space that covers a variety of viewpoints. I usually read most of the articles every week.
There is a fourth site that I check frequently, <http://www.spacepolitics.com>, which is also edited by Jeff Foust, but which may be too specialized for most people. This blog follows the politics of space in Washington DC, and is packed with insider information that never makes it even to top papers like the NEW YORK TIMES or the WALL STREET JOURNAL. As a political junkie, I find it very interesting, but your mileage may vary.
My other main source of space news, is, well, SPACE NEWS, which I get in paper form weekly but which is also available on-line. This is pretty much the premier source for the space business, but at $209/year, it is not for the faint of heart. If you are a space insider of some sort, the rates are lower, as is typical for business publications. You might wonder why I don't read AVIATION WEEK AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY--I did subscribe years ago, but I found that it was (a) expensive and (b) much more about aviation than space. Also, while AvTech (or Aviation Leak, as it is affectionately known) covers military and NASA space pretty well, historically it has not done a good job covering commercial space ventures, and it ignores a lot of space activity that is interesting to the space activist.
There are two other news sources I strongly recommend. One is AD ASTRA, the membership magazine of the National Space Society (<http://www.nss.org>). You won't find timely news in this monthly magazine, but it has a lot of interesting background and feature stories. Also, the NSS web site has a wealth of information on space development and colonization, although it can be a bit hard to find. The other is the PLANETARY REPORT which is published monthly by the Planetary Society, and provides good coverage of planetary exploration and the activities of the Planetary Society. I fully endorse both organizations and urge you to join them.
One of the unfortunate aspects of the space information flow is that <http://www.space.com>, which you would think might be the go-to site for space news, is so picture heavy that it is almost impossible to navigate. Also, space.com often fails to cover important political and commercial stories in a timely fashion, or at all. It's not that there is no useful information at space.com, but for a site that tries to be one-size-fits-all space site, it is surprisingly weak. I mention this site mainly to warn you away from it, not to recommend it. If you do go there, look for articles by Leonard David, whom I find to be one of their more interesting writers.
This just about rounds up my Christmas letter (actually written on Christmas Day 2012!) on how I keep up with the space scene. Here's wishing you all a great New Year! Ad Astra. [-dls]