= ASTRONAUTICAL EVOLUTION =
Chronological index of past issues, 2005-2019
All items are by Stephen Ashworth, unless attributed to another named contributor.
List complete to November 2019.
2019:
2018:
2017:
2016:
- Issue 131, 2 October 2016
Elon Musk and Mars: Looking for a Snowball Effect
- Issue 130, 19 September 2016
The Citizens’ Debate on Space for Europe
- Issue 129, 1 August 2016
Creating a Self-Sustaining Desert Civilisation: Aridopolis
- Issue 128, 21 July 2016
Lecture by Professor Wörner: United Space in Europe
- Issue 127, 1 July 2016
Brexit! Thoughts on the UK Referendum Result
- Issue 126, 1 June 2016
The Pillar versus the Pyramid
- Issue 125, 1 May 2016
The Way Forward
- Issue 124, 12 April 2016
Manned Spaceflight Statistics
- Issue 123, 14 March 2016
When Will Jan Wörner Get His Moon Village?
- Issue 122, 16 January 2016
Interstellar Travel and Straw Men
- Issue 121, 1 January 2016
A Strategic Goal for Humanity on Earth and in Space in 2061
2015:
- Issue 120 (cont.), 10 December 2015
Comments to Britain Takes the Wrong Approach to Manned Spaceflight
- Issue 120, 10 December 2015
Britain Takes the Wrong Approach to Manned Spaceflight
- Issue 119, 1 November 2015
“Drowning in Process”
- Issue 118, 14 October 2015
Does Intergalactic SETI Make Any Sense?
- Issue 117, 1 October 2015
SETI and Sanity
- Issue 116, 1 September 2015
SpaceX, SpaceY, SpaceZ
- Issue 115, 1 June 2015
A Letter to Britain’s New Space Minister
- Issue 114, 14 May 2015
Mars: 25 Years After Mars Direct – Discussion
- Issue 113 (cont.), 1 May 2015
The Astronist Mars Strategy
- Issue 113, 1 May 2015
Mars: Still So Distant, 25 Years After Mars Direct
- Issue 112 (cont.), 1 April 2015
The Mariner Anniversary Calendar for Mars
- Issue 112, 1 April 2015
Mars: An Awful – or an Awesome – Place to Live?
- Issue 111, 1 March 2015
Should We Phone ET?
- Issue 110, 14 February 2015
More Pluto Controversy: Centres of Gravity
- Issue 109, 1 January 2015
The Pluto Controversy: When is a Planet not a Planet?
2014:
- Issue 108, 1 December 2014
Future growth in space still not being taken seriously
- Issue 107, 1 November 2014
The SpaceShipTwo Crash
- Issue 106, 1 October 2014
To the Rt Hon Greg Clark
- Issue 105, 1 September 2014
Exponential Growth for Another Thousand Years
- Issue 104, 3 August 2014
Down with the Fermi “Paradox”!
- Issue 103, 1 July 2014
The Great Space Debate: Discussion and Vote
- Issue 102, 1 May 2014
The Great Space Debate: What Should Be the Strategic Goal for Astronautics over the Next 25 Years?
- Issue 101, 1 April 2014
A Four-Point Plan for ESA
- Issue 100, 1 March 2014
Britain’s Major Tim defends the ISS against its critics
- Issue 99, 26 January 2014
Neubrandenburg Thoughts (II): Space for Peace
- Issue 98, 25 January 2014
Creating a Future with Skylon
2013:
- Issue 97, 25 November 2013
Neubrandenburg Thoughts (I): OldSpace versus NewSpace
- Issue 96, 1 November 2013
Highlights from the Starship Century Symposium in London
- Issue 95, 1 October 2013
Alien Civilisations: Two Competing Models
- Issue 94, 1 September 2013
Elysium, Earth; Elysium, Mars
- Issue 93, 1 August 2013
The Futures We Love to Fear (E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops and Evgeny Zamyatin’s We)
- Issue 92, 1 May 2013
Do I Really Exist? (Review of Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World)
Addendum – Quotes from Sophie’s World
- Issue 91, 1 April 2013
When will Voyager 1 leave the Solar System?
- Issue 90, 1 March 2013
Technological Singularity, or Plateau? The case for antisingularitarianism
- Issue 89, 1 February 2013
Space and Sustainability: Ecological Collapse versus Technological Growth
- Issue 88, 1 January 2013
Manned spaceflight on the plateau awaits a new business model
2012:
- Issue 87, 19 December 2012
- Exploring Fermi’s question
- New novel The Moonstormers
- Issue 86, 1 October 2012
- Growing into an Interstellar Civilisation
- News: Launch of the Institute for Interstellar Studies
- Issue 85, 1 September 2012
- Starships and Future Scenarios
- Alan Bond speaks at Farnborough
- Rand Simberg on Neil Armstrong
- Issue 84, 1 July 2012
- On Certainty and the Limits to Scientific Knowledge: The Doomsday argument versus the human future
- Issue 83, 1 June 2012
- SpaceX: what their successful Dragon flight means, and why the critics are wrong!
- Issue 82, 9 May 2012
- Report on lecture by Alan Bond, 8 May 2012
- Issue 81, 1 May 2012
- Let’s colonise Venus!
- Progress at Reaction Engines
- The anti-human ideology: Bob Zubrin fights back
- Issue 80, 1 April 2012
- Reaching for the stars: liftoff for the Shard!
- Issue 79, 1 March 2012
- Manned spaceflight: growth on hold in 2011
- Why we must consolidate LEO before venturing further
- Issue 78, 1 February 2012
- Growth Options (1): The Basics of Getting into Space
- Issue 77, 1 January 2012
- In Search of a Unified Worldview: Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita and Clarke’s Childhood’s End
2011:
- Issue 76, 1 December 2011
- The battle for the future
- Issue 75, 1 November 2011
- The personal satellite has arrived!
- Olaf Stapledon at the BIS
- Europe needs a strategy for astronaut spaceflight!
- Issue 74, 1 October 2011
- 100 Year Starship Symposium Launched in Orlando
- Monthly Odyssey newsletter from the BIS
- Issue 73, 4 September 2011
- A Development Roadmap for the Worldship
- Issue 72, 1 August 2011
- Tumlinson’s challenge for NewSpace
- Space Renaissance International calls for global Apollo holiday, Press Release by Walter Putnam
- Space poem celebrates Apollo 11’s 42nd anniversary
- Issue 71, 1 July 2011
- Dear Mr Dordain…
- “From Imagination to Reality”: news release by Mat Irvine
- Issue 70, 1 June 2011
- Society between cosmic growth and utopian dreams
- UK Space Conference – latest news
- Issue 69, 1 May 2011
- Available in any colour so long as it’s black: the Model T of space
- A date for your diary: the UK Space Conference and the Sir Arthur Clarke awards
- David Baker at the BIS: slaying the Space Age myths
- The BIS: getting involved online and by e-mail
- Cartoon of the month: can Spirit come home now?
- Issue 68, 11 April 2011
- Mankind in space: the next fifty years
- What future for intelligent life in space?
- Issue 67, 1 March 2011
- Does evolution progress? The multi-shell model of life shows how
- Issue 66, 1 February 2011
- Social software for a spacefaring civilisation
- Best of the blogs
- Space cartoon of the month
- Issue 65, 1 January 2011
- 2010: Manned spaceflight at the crossroads
- 2011: Smoke signals from two dragons
2010:
- Issue 64, 1 December 2010
- Towards the Sociology of the Universe?
- Neubrandenburg notes
- Issue 63, 1 November 2010
- Will humans be replaced by machines?
- The ISS: ten years of life in space, but a long way to reach sustainability
- Issue 62, 1 October 2010
- Competing visions of space in America reach compromise
- Competing visions of space in Europe gather pace
- Congratulations, Dr Alan Bond!
- Dr David Williams speaks at the Royal Aeronautical Society
- Issue 61, 1 September 2010
- The Sociology of the Universe?
- Announcing the Wayland starship
- Issue 60, 1 August 2010
- A gloomy view of progress
- Letter to Dr Spencer Wells
- Letter to Scientific American
- Issue 59, 2 June 2010
- Dear Mr Willetts…: a letter from Stephen Ashworth
- Issue 58, 31 May 2010
- NewSpace needs NewSpace Law: comment from M. V. “Coyote” Smith
- Call to MiniSpaceWorld Design Contest 2010, by Tibor Pacher
- Issue 57, 1 May 2010
- The battle for the soul of space
- Issue 56, 5 April 2010
- Welcome to the UK Space Agency
- The ISS Symposium in Berlin
- Issue 55, 1 March 2010
- Avatar – why I am disappointed with James Cameron’s space blockbuster
- Can zero-point energy take us to the stars?
- A vote for a Royal British Space Agency, by Robert Law
- Issue 54, 1 February 2010
- Ares to be scrapped, commercial space boosted
- What the new focus on commercial manned space means, quote from Rick Tumlinson
- What the new focus on commercial manned space means for Europe
- Rick Tumlinson’s vision of the frontier movement
- Issue 53, 3 January 2010
- New record year in manned spaceflight
- But how sustainable will it be?
- Two cheers for the British Space Agency!
- Latest on Space.co.uk
2009:
- Issue 52, 1 December 2009
- Solar power: can ground solar beat space solar?
- Comment from M. V. “Coyote” Smith
- Reaction Engines: let Skylon launch space solar!
- Space.co.uk up for auction
- An event for your diary next year: the UK Space Conference
- And finally: this month sees anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon landing…
- Issue 51, 1 November 2009
- Starship Icarus – son of Daedalus
- We need laws that encourage investing in resources beyond Earth, by Greg Anderson
- Time for Obama to make up his mind
- An event for your diary this month: Alan Bond speaks at the RAeS
- Book recommendation: Wyn Wachhorst, The Dream of Spaceflight, by Colin Philp
- Issue 50, 1 October 2009
- ESA chief gives a shocking interview
- An alternative view of prosperity in space, by Andy Nimmo
- Issue 49, 1 September 2009
- It’s official: Constellation is bankrupt!
- But is the heady optimism of the 1960s about to return?
- Issue 48, 1 August 2009
- The trouble with NASA
- New space blog
- The First Men in the Moon
- Issue 47, 1 July 2009
- What future for Constellation, 40 years after Eagle landed at Tranquility Base?
- Issue 46, 1 June 2009
- Second British national astronaut chosen!
- Space campaigning in the UK, by Andrew Lound
- Question: what will be the new direction for NASA?
- Issue 45, 6 May 2009
- Britain and space: Lord Drayson’s view
- What is the most constructive relationship between the space agency and private enterprise?
- Doubts about government role in space, by Dr Marco C. Bernasconi
- Issue 44, 12 April 2009
- The Space Renaissance Initiative, by Adriano Autino
- Summary of the Space Renaissance Initiative press conference, held in London on 31 March 2009, by Michael Martin-Smith
- The Yuri’s Foundation proposal by John J. Leonard, report by Stephen Ashworth
- Pamphleteering “Space: key to the future?”
- Issue 43, 1 March 2009
- US SPACE POLICY – from Shuttle/Station to Constellation
FOR: Griffin defends US space policy and Moon architecture
- AGAINST: Why am I sceptical about US space policy?
- FEEDBACK: Letter on biological evolution and on the economic use of space resources, by Andy Nimmo
- Issue 42, 20 February 2009
- Newsflash: Skylon spaceplane project gets ESA funding
- Issue 41, 1 February 2009
- Darwin and progress to the stars
- Mars rovers pull over into the slow lane
- Outer planets exploration stays firmly in the slow lane
- Issue 40, 1 January 2009
- Slow growth in manned spaceflight in 2008
- On the relationship between Astronautical Evolution and Gaia Theory
2008:
- Issue 39, 6 December 2008
- How to build a space station?
- Don’t forget the Arthurs!
- Issue 38, 1 December 2008
- So many ways to Mars!
- Transport for Areopolis
- Issue 37, 1 November 2008
- Will there be a Space Industrial Revolution?
- Issue 36, 5 October 2008
- News: The Space X / Falcon 1 success on 28 September
- Elon Musk at the Royal Aeronautical Society
- Beyond Mars
- Resource wars and Gerard O’Neill’s space colonies – Letter from Jerry Stone
- Issue 35, 1 October 2008
- Can space solar power help to prevent future resource wars? – Letter from M. V. Smith
- More comment on population growth – from Vincent Baritsch, Stephen Ashworth and Ray Wright
- Issue 34, 1 September 2008
- “The real problem is human overpopulation” – Letter from Ray Wright
- “Carrying capacity depends on technological level” – Response from Stephen Ashworth
- Issue 33, 1 August 2008
- The Great Solar Power Debate continues! – (1) Comment from M. V. “Coyote” Smith
- The Great Solar Power Debate continues! – (2) Comment from Jerry Stone
- The Great Solar Power Debate continues! – (3) Comment from Michael Martin-Smith
- Issue 32, 1 July 2008
- The Solar Power Debate (1): Exchanges between Ray Wright and Stephen Ashworth
- The Solar Power Debate (2): Exchanges between Dwayne Day and Stephen Ashworth
- Space.co.uk newsletter
- The Overview Institute
- Breaking news: France plans revolution in space
- Issue 31, 1 June 2008
- Astrium proposes crude spaceship
- Astroelectric power: the breakthrough starts here
- Issue 30, 1 May 2008
- BIS Symposium: “Next Steps for Space Infrastructure”
- Celebrating (?) the Tunguska asteroid strike 100 years ago
- “Europe should give up on sending men and women into space” – Martin Rees
- Issue 29, 12 April 2008
- NASA’s plans for future lunar exploration
- How to make lunar ISRU work
- “Building Selenopolis” at the BIS
- The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards for 2008
- Issue 28, 1 March 2008
- “2008 is the Year of the Spaceship” – Virgin Galactic
- “2008 is the Year of Selenopolis” – Stephen Ashworth
- Thoughts on microgravity science
- And finally … Ministers consider UK astronauts
- Issue 27, 1 February 2008
- UK in space: a bold proposal to join the ISS
- Announcing the UK Space Conference, Charterhouse School, 27-29 March 2008
- A plethora of different ways to reach Mars – Bond, Parkinson and Hempsell in debate
- Issue 26, 1 January 2008
- Manned spaceflight in 2007: The recovery continues, slowly
- The Space Exploration Working Group misses the point
- “A New British Space Age” – report by J. Duncan Law-Green
2007:
- Issue 25, 1 November 2007
- The Space Exploration Working Group takes one giant leap forward for the UK … and then one giant leap back
- NASA to “pull out” of the ISS at the end of 2015
- Meeting at the British Interplanetary Society: “Three Ways to Mars”
- Issue 24, 1 October 2007
- 50 years on, could the UK be waking up to spaceflight? Letter from Alan Bond FBIS
- 50 years of development
- “UK must have human space role” – BBC news
- UK already has human space role – Virgin Galactic news
- Gems from the Select Committee: Colin Pillinger on attitudes to failure
- Gems from New Scientist: Space colonisation “has turned out to be a pipe dream”
- Issue 23, 1 September 2007
- Select Committee Report: 2007: A Space Policy – A resoundingly lukewarm endorsement of the UK in space
- Comment: Joint European Space Policy, by Jacqueline Myrrhe
- Select Committee revisited: the Leaked Draft Report
- Issue 22 extra, 6 July 2007
- Report: The Oxford debate on the UK in space
- Issue 22, 1 July 2007
- Review: European Space Policy – slow ahead, wait for others to lead the way
- Europe In Space Poll: “Should Europe have its own independent manned spaceflight programme?”
- Letter to New Scientist: A scientific account of consciousness is emerging
- Issue 21, 1 June 2007
- News: New European space forum
- Comment: Farewell, Tony Blair – almost Britain’s greatest space supporter
- Review: UK prime ministerial online petition system
- Review: Michael Griffin’s next 50 years in space
- Issue 20, 1 May 2007
- Essay: Space: the incorruptible realm
- Notice: Michael Griffin’s view of the next 50 years
- Essay: Astronautics and consciousness
- Issue 19, 1 April 2007
- Book now! – BROHP 2007: “Space Really Matters”
- Book, new! – Professor Dawkins versus God
- Issue 18, 1 March 2007
- Open letter to Professor Timothy Garton Ash
- RocketMania! for kids, by Jon London
- Astronauts at the Edinburgh ESA exploration workshop
- Issue 17, 1 February 2007
- Report: The ESA Exploration Workshop at Edinburgh
- Analysis: Suborbital to orbital needs a giant leap after all
- Forthcoming public lectures by Jerry Stone FBIS
- Issue 16, 1 January 2007
- Spaceflight in 2006: A modest recovery
- Analysis: Stepping up from suborbital to orbital commercial spaceflight
- Report: The 2006 BIS-BNSC space tourism conference
2006:
- Issue 15, 4 December 2006
- Breaking news: Britain looks at a flight to the Moon
- Reminder: Don’t forget to vote for the Arthurs
- Issue 14, 1 December 2006
- News: Writing letters to the editor pays off!
- UK in space: Forthcoming polemic in Spaceflight magazine
- UK in space: To the editor of The Telegraph, by Malcolm Smith FBIS
- The UFO debate: What you see depends on where you stand, not where you look, by Malcolm Smith FBIS
- The UFO debate: What IS it with the UFO phenomenon?
- Issue 13, 1 November 2006
- Question: Has a new Moon race begun?
- Comment: Doloj Kliper! (Down with Clipper!)
- News: Editor of Prospect magazine denies any alternative to religion
- News: David Williams speaks at the Royal Aeronautical Society
- Issue 12, 4 October 2006
- Letter: The Space Elevator option, by Andy Nimmo
- Quotes from: Anousheh Ansari’s Space Blog
- Issue 11, 1 September 2006
- Debate: What direction for UK space policy?
- Debate: UK space policy – Let’s inspire the younger generation!, by Simon Evetts
- Debate: UK space policy – Analysis of the options, by Stephen Ashworth
- Art exhibition: “The Starry Messenger” – Space art at Compton Verney
- Issue 10, 1 August 2006
- Controversy: What shall we do with the Space Development Council?
- News: UK science funding to be reorganised
- Clarification: “HSE” a well established acronym
- Issue 9, 1 July 2006
- News: Lembit Öpik MP speaks at the BIS
- Celebration: International Space Day proposed for Apollo anniversary
- Issue 8, 1 June 2006
- Essay: Religion and the astronautical viewpoint
- Letter: from Jim Trounson
- Essay: Are we alone in the Galaxy?, by Mike Combs (Extract)
- News: Debate on the UK in space at the BIS
- Issue 7, 1 May 2006
- News: Presentation at the Oxford Union
- Talk: Are we alone in the universe? (Extract)
- Invitation: Space and religion / space versus religion
- Issue 6, 1 April 2006
- Debate: The Scientific American cosmic ray debate
- Analysis: Europe’s Martian Dream
- News: Euro-Mars habitat arrives in the UK
- Correction: The two Clarke awards
- Issue 5, 1 March 2006
- Essay: Exploration is good; political and economic relevance is better
- News: BROHP 2006: the place to be this April
- Issue 4, 1 February 2006
- Tom Harris and Charles Laughlin on why robots are not enough: people want to travel in space in person
- The space index measures human activity in space since 1961
- Royal Aeronautical Society launches its own study of UK policy on manned spaceflight
- Issue 3, 1 January 2006
- Astronautical Evolution in 2006
- BIS one-day space tourism symposium
- On NASA’s plans to return to the Moon
- Europe’s Martian Dream / Europe’s Footprint on Mars
2005:
- Issue 2, 17 October 2005
- Virgin moves closer to first-time experience
- Forthcoming anniversaries
- Europe’s Martian Dream
- Issue 1, 19 July 2005
- Astronautical Evolution – One small step closer to reality [re the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in Oxford]
- One small step… [re the quibble over Neil Armstrong’s words as he stepped onto the lunar surface]
- Sixtieth anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings