Physics

Nothing has changed in the basic physics that makes space travel, beyond the minimal scale achieved in the 1960s, essentially impossible. On the contrary, advances in physics have shut off every theoretical loophole that might have permitted us to exceed the limit imposed by the speed of light. Nor has there been any reduction in the massive amount of energy needed to propel even a single person into space.

Moreover, everything we have learned about our own biology has emphasised the lesson that we evolved to live here on Earth and nowhere else. Six-month missions to the Space Station produce a loss of bone density that takes three to four years to repair itself. On average, crew members lost as much bone mass in one month in orbit as an elderly woman loses in an entire year. Life in space, were we to attempt it on a serious scale, would be, in Thomas Hobbes’ words, ‘nasty, poor, brutish and short’.

John Quiggin at Independent Australia, stating the blindingly obvious.

Planning

Speaking of obituaries, here's one for a man (Donald Rumsfeld) written by someone (Harold Jackson) who died two months before his subject did. This makes The Guardian's obituary-writing office better at planning than Rumsfeld ever was.