Most of the younger generation knows "Santorum" as the slippery substance first and are surprised then LOL when discovering such a deserving ... person shares that name. Google has nothing to do with the search results beyond providing the framework. Search result modification by popular participation is a valid form of social critique.

This could become the SUSTAIN platform the USMC has asked for. Spacedrop a squad of Marines anywhere in the world within 40 minutes. The main question though is whether the crewed X37 will include commercial access or is this military only?

100X cheaper is roughly $100 per pound to LEO. That is absolutely doable with robust RLV architectures. It's just that no one has really tried yet. Musk has shown an entirely new way of building and operating otherwise conservative rockets. He chose the most known path (single core, 2nd stage, capsule) for a default cargo/crew system but used his knowledge of innovation to make that into the most affordable rocket on the planet, in 8 years.

This is one of the advantages of older water-landing proposals like the Boeing LEO from the 70s. It would have reached terminal velocity in the atmosphere then propulsive braking and dropped into a freshwater landing pond. That was for much, much larger hardware. Jon Goff has done extensive trades on propulsive vs heatshield/chute/etc reentry methods and propulsive comes out looking pretty good.

This reusable Falcon will have the same fireproof curtaining between it's engines and the rest of the outside is metal so not much of it will burn. Still has the issue of blast coming back from the tarmac. The animation's landing legs are pretty hefty, have to wait and see on real hardware.

It was to late to restart the contracting process by the time Obama came into office in early '09. To many contractors had already laid critical staff off. Shuttle was a dead letter after the Columbia tragedy; after RTF they were only flying out the remaining manifest. CCDEV, especially SpaceX and Boeing, is the way to go forward. Wings don't matter where there is no atmosphere.

We nuked each other, we'll nuke the little green buggers too.

My real critique of this is why would the aliens care so much for Earth's environment. We are a very aggressive, technical species with a penchant for things like nuclear bombs. Logically if they were going to exterminate us it would be for those reasons not because we don't tend the daffodils.

Go to the tech college in Takoradi, Ghana and install a FabFi mesh network. The students have to go to an Internet cafe for network access. They were one of the Fab Academy labs this year but had trouble keeping up due to lack of access.

This might not be as basic as digging wells or whatever but is much more technical.

Only really need: LEO, Earth-Moon L1 (EML1) and supplies in Mars orbit, then stage downward for surface expeditions.

But have to disagree with the message. We can not be seen as dumping/abandoning people in space. Dr. Davies' concept for crew transit has much merit but only if it becomes a sustainable method of transportation. We need to plan for the first crews to Mars but also for 10,000 people there.

We also need to plan for surface-to-orbit and Earth-return not just brush those aside. Cost-benefit to Mars orbit-only or orbit-early also need to be performed. Just dropping a crew on the surface has some serious unknown issues.

...than a Prius sliding silently past while you are cycling at speed. The first time this happened I only knew the car was there because the road vibrated differently as it approached.