Brian Enke has another good article, this time on how NASA is treating things around the Mars mission. I’ve never been a fan of the plan to go to an asteroid. Yes, it’s technically difficult, but unless they’re going to figure out how to mine it by going there, just go to Mars or the Moon. The latest twist on the Mars mission is to test out things in Lunar orbit. ...
I just spent a few days in Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station (CMAFS). The exercise was a good one, and the mountain is much drier than it was right after all the heavy rains and floods. And, since it seemed like the right thing to do, I brought my copy of Footfall and re-read the bits where the hard science fiction authors went Inside as US threat team in case the space aliens turned out to be bad guys. (Non-spoiler: they invade.) ...