The Department of Mad Scientists: now in Chinese
The Chinese-language version of The Department of Mad Scientists, my book about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, hits the shelves in China next week. It’s been translated and sports a new cover for this edition. It’s amusing for me to think of a crew of stone-faced Chinese intelligence agents descending on a Beijing bookstore on release day. I picture a couple of them...
Read MoreMoonbots in my Scientific American article and on the radio
The April 2012 issue of Scientific American has my article on the Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $30 million contest to land the first private robot on the moon. I got to spend time with leading team Astrobotic to craft the story and was very impressed by their potential for a win. I first met team leader Red Whittaker while I was covering the DARPA Urban Challenge autonomous vehicle race in 2007....
Read MoreEric Anderson, extraterrestrial outfitter: my Air & Space cover story
In case you missed it on the magazine racks, you can read the complete text of my March cover story for Air & Space magazine at airspacemag.com. Eric Anderson pioneered the commercial space flight industry, before anyone knew it could be a real business. His company, Space Adventures, brokered the deal that launched the first citizen to pay his own way into space. Before Dennis Tito headed...
Read MoreAbundance: first a book, next a movement?
X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis teamed with science writer Steven Kotler to write a book that looks to be the start of a movement, not just a treatise on how to make the world a better place, though it is that too. It’s that powerful. Diamandis and Kotler lay out four factors converging toward a future of abundance rather than scarcity. A future in which most of the world’s population...
Read MoreMy story on Stratolaunch: Pop Mech’s April cover
I got the assignment in December, soon after Paul Allen and Burt Rutan announced their intention to create the world’s largest aircraft with the eventual goal of launching up to six astronauts into orbit. I was on an unplugged vacation with the family in the Caribbean (our first-ever there) when the announcement came. I’d gotten wind that something was up between these two mavericks...
Read MoreBoeing CST-100, space minivan
At a Southern California YPO meeting in February, I moderated a discussion between Virgin Galactic’s Will Pomerantz and Boeing’s John Schindler. As Director of Program Integration for Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, Schindler is one of the managers in charge of Boeing’s spaceship-in-development, the CST-100. The ship is one of those competing to replace the retired Space...
Read MoreVideo: moon landers advance at Masten Space
Draper labs has released this video of a test flight by Masten Space Systems earlier this month in Mojave. A Draper guidance, navigation and control package on top of Masten’s XOMBIE vehicle guides it through launch, rocket-powered hover, downrange flight, and touchdown 150 feet from the launch pad. Imagine you’re standing on the moon, watching the daily cargo rocket arrive. It might...
Read MoreXCOR plans Lynx first flight in 2012
On a recent visit to Mojave Air & Spaceport, I stopped in on XCOR Aerospace for an update on the development of their new suborbital spaceship, called the Lynx. The Lynx builds on XCOR’s successful experience with reusable, restartable rocket engines and rocket propelled airplanes. The plan calls for the two-seat Lynx, powered by a quartet of XCOR-developed 2850-pound-thrust liquid...
Read MoreStratolaunch: world’s biggest airplane to launch spaceships
Last month Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist Paul Allen announced that he’s started a new space project called Stratolaunch. It’s a follow-on to his SpaceShipOne project that became the first privately built craft to send people out of the atmosphere in 2004. With him at the press conference was SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan, fueling press coverage that the dream team of...
Read MoreVideo: Rebecca Geier talks marketing for engineers
In this video interview with me (9 minutes and 30 seconds), Rebecca Geier, a principal and co-founder of TREW Marketing explains the basics of marketing for the scientific and engineering fields. As I mentioned in my last post, Geier is firm believer in having a plan before starting to market your products or services. “Having that plan and having it very current to the needs of your...
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