Space Shuttle attempted to do what you describe, coming as close to that ideal as reentry dynamics would allow. It still required a 40-degree angle of attack during the hot part of deceleration. The final approach may look airliner-like, but the sink rate was something like seven times that of a Boeing, a requirement of the delta-wing design, which in turn was imposed by the need to reenter without stripping off the wings.

The Orion capsule may look like a throwback to the Sixties, but it's the most tolerant, safest design of all.

Both schemes are just part of the NFC standard, which has worldwide support. The problem with Google Wallet in favor of Apple Pay is that GW requires sharing customer data with Google. Better hope there isn't a breach. GW also requires the user open an app on his device and enter a PIN. AP just comes up when you touch an iPhone to the point-of-sale terminal, and authenticates with your thumbprint.

When I shop at Staples, I use Apple Pay.

No it doesn't. It leads to the question.

But if we assume that all robots - all AI in general - starts by being created by a biologic intelligence, that doesn't matter. We have already established that robots work really well in space, especially for long-distance excursions.

The first intelligent aliens we encounter will be robots. Furthermore, the encounter will be by our own robots.

Hacking, and the reaction to it from our Democrat elites, proves that North Korea is a superpower.

"Germany is leading all other countries by re-building its grid and moving to renewable energy on a very large scale."

Germany is also digging the world's largest strip mine, and for lignite, an energy source not fit for cavemen. And its push for renewable sources has run into a wall of eco-maniac opposition to the new transmission lines required to wheel power from sunny and windy places to urban users (like our envisioned "Smart Grid")

Only if the changed DNA could be passed on. Lysenko would be proven right!

The state is libertarian, not Bible Belt, and yet Idaho police organizations are incensed over pot legalization in neighboring Oregon and Washington. There have been a number of well-publicized cases of Bad Cop behavior exercised against out-of-state pot users, even to the extent of spying by Idaho cops in the pot-legal states in hopes of entrapping legally operating businessmen passing through Idaho.

Idaho has such a large population of anti-government types that I can see it not only legalizing pot, which they regard as basically a side issue, but being the first state to seriously cut back on law enforcement property seizure powers. Based on this year's headlines, this will start an even more popular serious of referenda across the country than pot legalization.

My fiftieth birthday was the exact day that comet Hale-Bopp reached its maximum brightness. You young whippersnappers will have to ask your parents what 1997 was like.

Yes, for the worst school shooting in the history of the world (up to yesterday, anyway) you have to go all the way across the channel to Norway.

Saturn's gravity well is certainly a factor, but you need to compare lift from Titan to lift from Earth itself, not from Earth orbit. There are no hydrocarbons in Earth orbit.

Low-energy nuclear reactions - a crazy idea that won't go away.

"Now every terrorist organization around the world will see how easy it is to control North American media."

A lot of Americans have been pointing this out for years.

What threats has North Korea actually delivered on? It's become an international joke for making threats that come to nothing.

But now that the Hollywood studios have to submit their films to it for approval, it may gain some status in the world. I wonder how long before we start to see leaks of the NK review copies of movies?

Actually, today's plethora of space-related articles is a test I suggested several weeks ago: let's design an experiment which will determine whether Space Nutter Troll is a bot or a person. If we can induce a plausible psychotic episode by the end of today, we will have proven it to be a person.