What Casey Handmer thinks about space
Physicist, formerly at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and founder of Terraform Industries, which is building plant to make synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. Writes about energy, space and manufacturing at caseyhandmer.wordpress.com.
Casey Handmer did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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24 dated positions, 2019 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Casey Handmer has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingStarship will bring the price of low Earth orbit down to roughly a hundred dollars a kilogram.
Their wordsStarship promises a near future with launch costs to LEO of perhaps $100/kg.
↗How to build a lunar mass drivercaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsAt even $500/kg, launch cost is only 5% of the total satellite deployment cost, so a lunar mass driver is unlikely to drastically improve the economics of space-based AI, by reducing launch costs.
↗How to build a lunar mass drivercaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Our reading · no longer heldManufacturing and mining in space will never be lucrative enough to pay for human settlement of space.
No longer holdsToday, exploding demand for power-intensive AI applications provides enough of an upside to justify producing components in space, providing the economic engine necessary to justify and fund the trillions of dollars necessary to build and sustain space factories.
SaidToday, exploding demand for power-intensive AI applications provides enough of an upside to justify producing components in space, providing the economic engine necessary to justify and fund the trillions of dollars necessary to build and sustain space factories.
↗Space AI: I guess we’re doing Moon factories nowcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsStarship can lift orbital power generation to about 100 GW with perhaps 10,000 launches per year, or about one per hour.
↗Space AI: I guess we’re doing Moon factories nowcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
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Our readingA Chinese crewed landing on the Moon before America returns would be a defeat for the free world.
Their wordsI am far from certain that NASA can regain anything like the vigor necessary to respond decisively to the Chinese threat, but I am determined that the free people of Earth not live under a Red Moon
↗NASA’s Orion Space Capsule Is Flaming Garbagecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Our readingOrion is too heavy for any rocket that exists to carry it to low lunar orbit and bring it home.
Their wordsEven for $5.2b per launch, Orion is so overweight that there does not exist a booster nor an upper stage that can launch it to Low Lunar Orbit and return it to Earth.
↗NASA’s Orion Space Capsule Is Flaming Garbagecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
- 7 weeks earlier
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Our readingNine tenths of the cost of Mars Sample Return comes from a single planetary-protection requirement.
Their wordssomething like 90% of the complexity and cost of MSR is driven by a requirement that the samples “break the chain” on the way home
↗How to get samples back from Marscaseyhandmer.wordpress.com
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsone square meter of silicon like like the thickness of a sheet of paper floating in space that's a future human form that's that's my final form
↗China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmeryoutube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording
- 2 months earlier
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Their wordsIt is clear, however, that today’s NASA is but a shadow of its former self.
↗NASA Is Worth Savingcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Our readingNASA is worth saving.
Their wordsI believe NASA is worth saving.
↗NASA Is Worth Savingcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 6 months earlier
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Their wordsCurrent PhD students will be nearing retirement by the time these missions fly.
↗It Is Time To Build The Monster Scopecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe same as JWST, only 150 times wider and 22000 times more sensitive.
↗It Is Time To Build The Monster Scopecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 8 weeks earlier
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Their wordsFour years on, the program has consumed another $20b with nothing to show for it.
↗SLS is still a national disgracecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsSLS, like JWST before it, eats everything in its path, meanwhile NASA hasn’t sent a single mission to Venus since 1989.
↗SLS is still a national disgracecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 3rd of 5 in this piece
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Our reading · no longer heldNASA can still be reorganised into an agency that exploits cheap heavy lift, and the next administrator will decide whether it is.
No longer holdsAt the time I was optimistic, now I am not.
SaidThis obviously has not occurred.
↗SLS is still a national disgracecaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 4th of 5 in this piece
- 10 months earlier
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Our readingMars Sample Return as designed is too complicated, too slow and too expensive to succeed.
Their wordsThe brief summary is that MSR’s architecture, pictured below, is incredibly complicated, slow, and expensive.
↗What is going on with Mars Sample Return?caseyhandmer.wordpress.com
- 2 years earlier
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Their wordsAt the same time, launch costs drop as low as $50/kg, roughly 100x lower than the present.
↗Starship is Still Not Understoodcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsEither the incumbent space industry adapts to Starship by finding ways to produce much more space hardware for much lower cost, or dozens of other new companies, unbound by tradition, entrenched interests, and high organizational overhead, will permanently take their business.
↗Starship is Still Not Understoodcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 8 months earlier
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Their wordsThe required organizational transition is equivalent in scope and difficulty to the Apollo program, and will be made or broken during the tenure of the next NASA administrator.
- 10 months earlier
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Our readingSpace exploration has never had majority public support, not even at the height of Apollo.
Their wordsThroughout history, space exploration has failed to attract even a weak majority of support among the general electorate, even at the peak of the Apollo program.
↗The big question: Why go to space at all?caseyhandmer.wordpress.com
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Their wordsFurthermore, I believe it’s very unlikely that space-based manufacturing or mining could be lucrative enough to fund the venture.
↗The big question: Why go to space at all?caseyhandmer.wordpress.com
- 8 months earlier
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Their wordsMy contention is that there are no known commodity resources in space that could be sold profitably on Earth.
↗There are no known commodity resources in space that could be sold on Earthcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsMore broadly, for every industrially valuable ore, there is already a competitive and adequate, if not spectacular, supply chain here on Earth.
↗There are no known commodity resources in space that could be sold on Earthcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 7 days earlier
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Their wordsCommunications satellites remain the killer app for the commercial space industry.
↗Space-based solar power is not a thingcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com 3rd of 3 in this piece