News about NASA’s Space Launch Initiative aimed at producing the next generation Space Shuttle, and some really funky looking pictures of the contenders.
Buran
MGS
Getting a stereo view of Mars – the boys at NASA are pretty damn clever; they’re planning to obtain 3D images of areas the Mars Global Surveyor has already covered by pointing the spacecraft off-nadir (so it doesn’t point directly down).
Maglev to orbit
A maglev railroad to orbit – ‘I’ll say this for your plan, it is not lacking in ambition. The last time I heard of something on this scale of imagination, it was called a Dyson Sphere – bravo!’
NASA tax funding
1% tax on all space and SF related goods to fund NASA, proposes Republican candidate. Unless total sales of those products add up to $1.5 trillion, which I sorely doubt, that guy has to check his figures.
Mars shooting
Shooting down a spacecraft from Mars – ‘Now, I don’t think that anyone, US included, has the capability to shoot down a spacecraft. But let’s imagine they do, they go and try to shoot down a human spacecraft returning from Mars…’
mssv 
