politics | M Thomas Apple Author Page

How Star Trek helped NASA make better shuttle names

August 8, 2025
MThomas

Gorog summarised in the memo:

This group comprises millions of individuals who are deeply interested in our space programme

The name “Enterprise” is tied in with the system on which the Nation’s economic structure is built.

Use of the name would provide a substantial human interest appeal to the rollout ceremonies scheduled for this month in California, where the aeronautical industry is of vital importance.

It is really too bad that the shuttle looked nothing at all like the Enterprise (Constitution class).

And an odd coincidence that the original name chosen by NASA was…

…Constitution…

UPDATED: 80 years and counting

August 6, 2025
MThomas

Nineteen years ago, my wife and I went to Hiroshima by high-speed ferry boat, on our way back from visiting her parents in Kyushu. Her father’s family comes from Hiroshima (although her father was actually born in Dairen/Dalian (大連), China) and her uncle and his family still live about an hour’s drive north of the city.

(Update from 2020: We visited Hiroshima with the kids for the first time last January, for New year’s 2023.)

It was my first time to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We arrived about a week after the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony and Peace Message Lantern Floating Ceremony, but the museum was a very sharp reminder of the horror that my country visited upon Japan.

August 6th, 8:15 a.m. Hiroshima.

August 9th, 11:02 a.m. Nagasaki. Continue Reading

Railway Robot in Japan

July 5, 2024
MThomas

West Japan Railways (West JR), one of six companies that make up Japan Railways Group, has unveiled a giant “humanoid robot” to work on heavy machinery on its lines…

https://www.railway-technology.com/news/japanese-railway-introduces-infrastructure-robot/?cf-view

Interesting that in English the official name is West Japan Railways Company, while in Japanese it’s JR Nishi-Nihon Guruupu (JR西日本グループ), which means Japan Railways West Japan Group. It’s one of six “companies” that comprise what used to be “National Railroad” (Kokutetsu), owned by the government.

JR West is renowned to be badly run and somewhat corrupt. I wonder about this “robot” project. With the increase in “human accidents” (ie people hit by a train), I think it’d be better to hire more workers than to reduce staff and have the top level desk jockeys pocket the…

Oh. 🤖 💴 🏦

China just returned rocks from the Far Side of the Moon

June 26, 2024
MThomas

But China has also offered to share at least some of its new moon samples with American researchers, and NASA is allowing the U.S. scientists to submit proposals.

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/24/nx-s1-5015208/china-return-first-ever-sample-return-moon-far-side

This is a welcome change of heart. International politics need not prevent international space exploration.

On the other hand…

China is not planning a mere short-term, flags-and-footprints presence on the Moon. Their ambition is more like Nasa’s Artemis than it is Apollo. China plans to launch two separate missions to the south pole of the Moon around 2026 and 2028 – including testing using lunar soil to 3D print bricks – as precursors to a lunar base.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240510-change-6-is-just-the-tip-of-chinas-space-ambitions

A little competition might be just what’s needed to get humanity into space.

But a little competition might also go a bit too far…

“May you live in interesting times…”

Boeing Starliner delayed. They should delay again.

May 15, 2024
MThomas

A contractor for Nasa urged the space agency to conduct more safety checks before the highly-anticipated first launch of its Starliner rocket – which is set to take off as soon as next week – “before something catastrophic happens”.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nasa-contractor-boeing-starliner-launch-b2542947.html

It was supposed to launch last week, but someone spotted a valve problem — *minutes* before the countdown procedure was about to start.

They’d better check for door plugs while they’re at it.

Boeing does not give a rat’s ass about whoever uses their products. They‘re only interest in paying dividends to stockholders. And of course paying the CEO’s ridiculously high salary.

NASA is trusting the future of space travel to people like Musk and companies like Boeing. Using taxpayer money to reward greed and incompetence.

We can do better than this.

Nuclear power on the Moon. Gee, no problem…

May 13, 2024
MThomas

The South Pole, where power plants are likely to be constructed (without human help…)

“The truth is that nuclear is the only option to power a moonbase,” says Simon Middleburgh from the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240417-the-nuclear-reactors-that-could-power-moon-bases

So far there are two major consortiums that have plans for moon bases:

The Artemis Accords, with 36 countries (the US, Japan, South Korea, UAE, India, etc.)

The countries that don’t like the US, the UK, and Canada (China, Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Ajerbaijan)

OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, granted.

But there is no doubting the political ramifications of two competing groups of astronauts (cosmonauts, taikonauts) on the Moon.

And just wait until they get to Mars.

Imagine what might happen. (I did!)

“May you live in interesting times…”

IndieReader Approved!

April 16, 2024
MThomas

In BRINGER OF LIGHT, M. Thomas Apple crafts a satisfyingly complex future where mankind has moved off Earth but must fight and struggle against the harsh realities of physics—and each other—in order to survive.
https://indiereader.com/book_review/bringer-of-light/

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Today’s quote

April 3, 2024
MThomas

A bad administrator is more concerned with reports than with decisions. He wants the hard record which he can display as an excuse for his errors.
Lord Leto II

Do not trust those who believe themselves too much

March 16, 2024
MThomas

Who is the most confident person you know?

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”)

Bringer of Light – pre-order now!

March 13, 2024
MThomas

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