Can we talk about a reality that isn't happening

A recent wired editorial "The Uncomfortable Reality of Sex in Space" leaves us scratching our head.

Naturally the geekerati are fascinated by the possibility of someone, somewhere "getting some". Add in NASA to the picture and you have a dork aphrodisiac. But the article itself is as solicitous as dry bread. The idea that human experimentation could, or should, lead us all to orbital encounters begs questions about "the uncomfortable reality" but a NASA spokesperson talking about psychological health?

Nothing sexy about that.

Space as a state-free zone

In the latest step toward the militarization of space the DoD is putting a router into space for military communication up there.

Before they get theirs up there (they are planning on launch in 2009) we need to Raise the black flag high! For only ~$5000 we could put a micro-satellite in space. If anarchists on each continent commits to a satellite we begin an infrastructure for our earth-and-space bound friends to begin communicating without ties to land, sea, state or ATT.

The Ultimate Open Source Project indeed.

AAA

Introducing the Oakland AAA - column 1

To become an Autonomous Astronaut you don't just need to understand the history of independent space exploration and act accordingly. You must also be something different from the attitudes and values of the society we want to leave behind.
-On Becoming an Autonomous Astronaut

The Association of Autonomous Astronauts was “the world's first independent and community-based space exploration programme.” They had chapters scattered throughout Europe. They implemented a five year plan from 4/23/1995 to 2000, wrote five yearly reports and scattered essays and manifestos and then they entered the realm of myth.

Like many myths, theirs has been perverted. The X Prize (an entrepreneurially minded award for creating the most efficient space taxi) being the spectacular representation of this. The incompetence and caution of NASA is not best confronted by another unreal Space Race with the Chinese or Europeans or the entrance of venture capitalists into suborbital space (unless it is without a vehicle) but should be superceded by a truly decentralized impossible band of dreaming/reality astronauts.



[Read more of this post]