Tag Archives: SpaceX
Enfeebling the Indian space programme
There’s no denying that there currently prevails a public culture in India that equates criticism, even well-reasoned, with pooh-poohing. It’s especially pronounced in certain geographies where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys majority support as well as vis-à-vis institutions that … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Axiom Space, Axiom-4, Bharatiya Janata Party, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Chandrayaan 2, Covaxin, Department of Space, Election Commission of India, Falcon 9, HUNOR, Indian Space Research Organisation, K Sivan, NASA, political capture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, S Somanath, Shubhanshu Shukla, SpaceX, V Narayanan, VG Somani, Vikram lander
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Four years
Engineering as a methodology … contains a fundamentally materialist kernel, even if its present incarnation as a bourgeois science drives engineers to think and behave otherwise. — Nick Chavez, Engineers, Materialism, and the Communist Method After school, I studied mechanical … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Life notes, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Air India, Axiom Space, Axiom-4, bourgeois science, CP Snow, engineering, engineering education, flight crash, Indian Space Research Organisation, International Atomic Energy Agency, Israel-Iran conflict, materialism, MV Ramana, Nick Chavez, nuclear weapons, science journalism, SpaceX, temporary expertise, two cultures
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On the US FAA’s response to Falcon 9 debris
On February 1, SpaceX launched its Starlink 11-4 mission onboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket’s reusable first stage returned safely to the ground and the second stage remained in orbit after deploying the Starlink satellites. It was to deorbit … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Commercial Spaceflight Federation, deorbiting, Donald Trump, end of launch, exercise of control, expendable launch vehicle, Falcon 9, NASA, orbital launch, space debris, SpaceX, Starlink 11-4 mission, uncontrolled reentry, US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015, US Federal Aviation Administration
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Solve all our problems
This is xkcd #1232. When it came out I remember it was to rebut a particular line of argument against NASA’s lunar and interplanetary missions — that the agency was spending large sums of money that would be better spent … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Elon Musk, Gaganyaan, game theory, human spaceflight, Indian Space Research Organisation, interplanetary spaceflight, NASA, SpaceX, sustainability, xkcd
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Disappointing persons of the year 2021
I’m starting to think that in this day and age, you will but err when you pick individuals for traditionally ‘prestigious’ awards, prizes, recognitions, etc., probably because the sort of people who can stand out by themselves have to have … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science, Tech
Tagged Balram Bhargava, Elon Musk, Indian Council of Medical Research, persons of the year, SpaceX, Tesla, The Week, TIME Magazine
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Why we need *some* borders between us
Borders are often a bad thing because they create separation that is unconducive for what are generally considered to be socially desirable outcomes. And they’re often instituted to maximise political outcomes, especially of the electoral variety. However, as electoral politics … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds
Tagged #MeToo, affirmative action, borders, deliberative democracy, democratic society, higher education, human spaceflight, leaky pipeline, privilege, quota system, reservations, SpaceX, status quo
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Starlink and astronomy
SpaceX’s Starlink constellation is currently a network of 120+ satellites and which, in the next decade, will expand to 10,000+ to provide low-cost internet from space around the world. Astronomers everywhere have been pissed off with these instruments because they … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm
Tagged Blue Origin, Cerro Tololo, Elon Musk, Facebook Athena, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, geosynchronous orbit, International Astronomical Union, International Telecommunications Union, Iridium constellation, Jeff Bezos, low-cost internet, low-Earth orbit, OneWeb, satellite constellation, SpaceX, Starlink, Starlink mega-constellation, VLEO
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Playing the devil’s advocate on Starlink
After SpaceX began to launch its Starlink satellite constellation to facilitate global internet coverage, astronomers began complaining that the satellites are likely to interfere with stargazing schemes, especially those of large, sensitive telescopes. Spaceflight stakeholders also began to worry, especially … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Challakere science city, Elon Musk, environmentalism, India-based Neutrino Observatory, ISRO, Kulasekarapattinam, low-cost internet, Mauna Kea, mega-constellation, non-rivalry, Outer Space Treaty, satellite constellation, space-based internet, SpaceX, Starlink, Sterlite, Thirty Meter Telescope, Thoothukudi
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Finding trash in the dumpster
Just as there’s no merit in writing a piece that is confused and incomplete, there’s no merit in digging through a dumpster and complaining that there’s trash. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt when The Quint publishes something … Continue reading