Further to my post yesterday, an important aspect of man’s quest for space (compare with BC’s Quest for Tires) is making it accessible to a wider range of people - not just NASA astronauts and boy band members. To that end, the people behind the X Prize are offering a big bounty to whichever team can launch a vehicle carrying 3 passengers to 100 km altitude, and return them safely, then do it again two weeks later with the same vehicle.

It’s something worth watching - there are several teams working hard on the project, some of which have a good chance of doing it. Once China starts getting involved in the space race - landing a man on the moon is apparently one of their goals - the US will start pouring more money into it, and we could legimately see a base on the moon. Significant things have to be solved before that - including how to deal with loss of bone density.

Either way, it’s an interesting time to be a citizen of Earth

Simpson’s quote of the day: “And over here is our crowning achievement in amusement technology- an electronic version of what you call table tennis.” - Kang