In our previous episode, we introduced Arthur C. Clarke, the amazing man and science fiction writer. Today we’ll be discussing his legacy and ideas on space exploration. You’ll be amazed to hear how many of the ideas we take for granted were invented or just accurately predicted by Arthur C. Clarke.
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The NASA meteoroide retrieval mission is totally harmless. They plan to fetch a meteoroid which is only 7 meters in diameter, about 1/3 of the diameter of the meteoroid which exploded over Chelyabinsk, that is 4% of the mass at the same density. No one would even notice if that NASA retrieved meteoroid burned up in Earth atmosphere. There’s no security or scientific reason to put it in Lunar orbit instead of in Earth orbit (and for example dock it with the ISS). The only reason for the Lunar orbit is to make up something to use the SLS+Orion for, since they have no manned interplanetary mission planned. NASA:s manned space strategy since Apollo has been to build some disparate stuff without plan, and then make up some mission which uses most of whatever they happen to end up with.
Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov.
How lucky I am to have been born when I was.