SpaceFront is a community blog of, by, and for NewSpace, a web 2.0 revival of the Space Frontier Foundation’s original SpaceFront print newsletter. The views expressed in SpaceFront are not necessarily those of the Foundation or its Directors, but reflect the wide diversity of perspectives within the NewSpace community.

Trying the Tried and True

by Bob Werb February 17, 2010 SpaceFront

I’ve been thinking about Rick’s post here on how “the agency which is supposed to be challenging the edge is taking so much heat for trying something new” and I’m wondering if we aren’t helping our opponents by accepting that there is anything “new” involved in the proposed NASA budget.
Think about it.  The “untried” use [...]

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The Battle for a New Space Age Begins

by Rick Tumlinson February 12, 2010 SpaceFront

Isn’t it ironic that the agency which is supposed to be challenging the edge is taking so much heat for trying something new? I find myself teetering between laughter,  slipping into a Lewis Black moment and fear that this tiny step towards a pro-frontier space policy will be slaughtered the same way so many good [...]

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Dreams and Nightmares

by Bob Werb February 10, 2010 SpaceFront

The proposed budget from the Obama administration is the most exciting and promising thing to happen to NASA in several generations.  If adopted by Congress it will represent the reversal of a policy that has kept humans locked in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since December 19th, 1972.  The plan to enable, rather than compete against, [...]

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They Are Not All Shills

by Bob Werb February 8, 2010 SpaceFront

Over the last week or so a number of people, including me, have pointed out that much of the dissembling about the proposed NASA budget is being done by people with a financial and/or political interest in maintaining the status quo.  It has been particularity disturbing how often those representing vested interests fail to disclose [...]

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The News Today

by Bob Werb February 1, 2010 SpaceFront

Much of the mainstream response to Constellation’s cancellation and replacement by more effective spending reads like everything was going honky dory with Constellation in the first place. The reality is that this porker is already many years behind schedule and well along the path to failure. Rescuing Constellation would require dramatically increasing NASA’s [...]

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Avatar, Seed-Carriers of Gaia & a “Prime Directive” for Space Settlement

by Rick Tumlinson January 30, 2010 Featured

This comes from an email exchange between members of a google discussion group called the Space Renaissance Initiative over the old story of industry and greed vs. native culture and respect for living systems portrayed in “Avatar“.
This sort of discussion highlights exactly the role of groups like the SRI.
I am not [...]

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Ten Reasons Why NASA Must Kill Ares I & Buy Commercial Rides to Space

by Rick Tumlinson January 26, 2010 Enablers

The Space Frontier Foundation has led the fight for a free and open frontier in space for over 20 years. It is our goal that you and your children should have the right to explore and settle space in any way you wish, using your own resources and with the right to harvest the resources [...]

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Intern with Us in DC this Summer – Deadline: January 31

by Berin Szoka January 22, 2010 Featured

Attention all college, graduate and professional students (and recent graduates)! The Space Frontier Foundation is participating for the first time, in the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program, run by the Institute for Humane Studies—which is dedicated to advancing free market ideas. The application deadline is Sunday January 31.
So join us this summer to [...]

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A President Worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize: Eisenhower & the Freedom of Space

by Berin Szoka January 12, 2010 Earth Observation & Remote Sensing

Ike’s warnings about the “military-industrial complex” did more to check the growth of the national security state than all past or future peace marches combined. But only recently has Eisenhower’s greatest achievement become clear: ensuring the right to peaceful uses of outer space.

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Space Energy TEDx Talk by Peter Sage

by Berin Szoka January 10, 2010 Featured

Great TEDx talk by Peter Sage of Space Energy Inc.,  one of the corporate sponsors of the Space Frontier Foundation, about space-based solar power in general and his company’s plans in particular:

Here are two of the key papers Peter mentions:

Michael J. Hornitschek, Lt Col, USAF, War Without Oil: A Catalyst For True Transformation, 2006.
Space-Based [...]

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