Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I have a special post for y'all, in the patriotic spirit of this great holiday. Right now, we're at a critical juncture in space history---any month now, we're supposed to see SLS and Starship take flight, after many years of waiting---and it's clear that there's a different energy in the... Continue Reading →
The Southern Frontier: Opportunities and Challenges in Antarctica
The poles aren't as inaccessible as they used to be. Climate change has made Arctic shipping routes more navigable than ever before, while record temperatures are making swaths of Siberia and northern Canada amenable to human settlement. As rising sea levels, desertification, and heat waves force people out of hitherto livable regions, we will witness... Continue Reading →
How to Grow a Treehouse in Space
Post by AJ Rise: Biology’s reputation as a “soft” science is ill-deserved. It’s a field of many wonders still unknown to mankind, and endless possibility. I think it likely that many of the technological advancements in the near future will be rooted in the deep study of living systems. Millions of years of evolution have... Continue Reading →
Ethics and the Conquest of Mars
Post by Nic Quattromani: I was browsing the internet today, as I do entirely too often, and I came across this gem of an article: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2018/aug/28/the-case-against-mars-colonisation By "gem," I mean "whiny dumpster fire." Sheesh. Though perhaps I'm not being charitable enough, because the author, Zahaan Bharmal, is at least hesitantly in favor of space colonization,... Continue Reading →
The Watery Future
Post by Nic Quattromani: This entry's going to differ a bit from the stated mission of this website, focusing on Earth rather than the far-flung worlds of the wider universe. It's still about the future, though, and that future might still be radiant, even if there's going to be a lot more water in it... Continue Reading →