Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Musk's Starship: If it sounds too good to be true...
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/12/2025
» Elon Musk promised to build a spaceship that would put people and cargo into Earth orbit at one-hundredth of the current cost per kilo and even enable human beings to create a colony on Mars. A great many people were seduced by the idea, including me.
Mining on the Moon a boon of prestige rivalry
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/01/2024
» What could be so rare and valuable that it would be worth going all the way to the Moon to get some?
Never mind the climate, just watch the wars
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/11/2023
» With practically all the media bandwidth for non-local news taken up by two tribal territorial struggles that would not have seemed out of place in the 15th century AD -- or indeed the 15th century BC -- you may have missed the latest release from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
New space race to the Moon's South Pole
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/08/2023
» Don't say "Moon Race". Perish the thought! But there is a race to land on the Moon, and the Russians are cheating. Well, sort of cheating.
Starship: The Iterative Design Methodology
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/04/2023
» 'Obviously, this is not a nominal situation," said John Insprucker, a senior engineer at Space-X, who was doing a webcast on Thursday's launch attempt of Elon Musk's gigantic Starship rocket. So why did Mr Musk's employees, hundreds of whom were watching live, cheer when it blew up only four minutes into flight?
The benign sociopath that is Elon Musk
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/11/2022
» Elon Musk is that rarest of things, a benign sociopath, and therefore a person of considerable value to the world. He has just made a mistake that could ruin his long-term plan, for his purchase of Twitter is almost bound to end in tears. The sharks are always circling the very rich and highly geared, and I find myself worrying about him.
The industrialisation of space
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/01/2022
» It will be a bumper year for big space launches to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids, including many manned flights, but the real shocker is the number of satellites and spaceships being launched by private companies.
Do we need more rockets in the stratosphere?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/08/2021
» If you're worried about your "carbon footprint" -- a concept foisted on the world in 2004 by British Petroleum to persuade people that their own behaviour, and not giant oil companies like BP, is causing the climate problem -- then you definitely should not sign up for a sub-orbital space flight. Besides, you probably can't afford it (US$250,000 -- about 8 million baht -- per person).
How did they think the Afghan war would end?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/08/2021
» 'I will never kneel before such a destructive force [as the Taliban'," declared Ashraf Ghani, the soon-to-be ex-president of Afghanistan. "We will either sit knee-to-knee for real negotiations at the table, or break their knees on the battlefield."
Space 2018: Better to go back out late rather than never
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/01/2018
» It's going to be a good year in space, and the new players are aiming high. The Indian Space Research Organisation intends to send Chandrayaan-2, an uncrewed orbiter, lander and rover, to the moon in March.