(Photo: Daily Tech)

Quinn Norton speaks out on what life inside the Aaron Swartz investigation was like. "This will not be the final word on Aaron's story, nor is it intended to be. Two years later, these are the events as I remember them, and the feelings as I knew them." [The Atlantic]

Former dotcom millionaire Jennifer Sultan plead guilty to selling prescription drugs and conspiring to sell a firearm in exchange for four years in prison on Friday. Ms. Sultan, who sold her company Live Online during the first boom, burned through her fortune after becoming addicted to prescription pain killers. Let this be a cautionary tale for bubble 2.0. [New York Times]

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz took to Rap Genius this weekend to decode Andrew Mason's goodbye letter. Swag? [TechCrunch]

If you got an email this weekend from Evernote that it had reset your password, that’s because the company suffered a major security breach. [The Verge]

SpaceX Dragon has successfully docked at the International Space Station, which is great because we don't really need any more griping from Elon Musk right now. [Ars Technica]

Meanwhile, in the near future... (Photo: Delicious Baby)

Journalism 101 It looks like somebody is gunning for a spot at Nick Denton's soon-to-relaunch Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag. TechCrunch co-editor Alexia Tsotsis wrote an impassioned post about why tech journalism needs another Valleywag, "a watchdog with enough independence and daring to call it as it is." Writers at blogs like her own, Ms. Tsotsis argues, are simply too embedded in the ecosystem to properly perform their jobs, unwilling to report on certain unseemly aspects of Valley business and culture for fear of having to, get this, sit next to those she's written about at a demo day.

We're still not sure if it was a cover letter or a cry for help. But while we appreciate her willingness to admit that TechCrunch is not that far off from a press-release-factory, it's still shocking that someone sat down and wrote a piece about how tech journalists can't be real journalists because of San Francisco Society . . . or something.

Meanwhile, we've never known Ms. Tsotsis to shy away from a good troll, so it's hard to say who will have the last laugh here. We'll leave it to TechCrunch's clever commenting cabal to speculate.

Your Face Here Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer got a special present for his office: a chair emblazoned with the handsome visage of actor Ryan Reynolds. There's gotta be a joke here that we're not getting.

(Photo: Instagram)

They Got Jokes SpaceX engineers took to Reddit today to answer burning questions such as, "Would you rather fight one spacecraft-sized duck or 1000 duck-sized spacecrafts?" Though writing software for rockets is a job generally reserved for the brilliant, we had no idea SpaceX was such a team of jokesters. When some mannerless Redditor asked the group what their salary is, they coyly replied, "It's astronomical!" Zing.

2 Fast 2 Furious Is there anyone in the whole wide world more excited about the premiere of the sixth movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise than Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley? It seems the trailer aired during the Super Bowl spurred his enthusiasm to new heights: "CLEARING MY CALENDAR FOR MAY 24!!" he tweeted. You and us both, Mr. Crowley. 

Super Bowl Subs Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, Brew PR honcho Brooke Hammerling was hosting her own shindig. But her crew got excited about a slightly different commercial: "At @brooke's secret Super Bowl party, we all applauded when Jared came on the screen," tweeted the New York Times' Brian Stelter, referring to a Subway commercial featuring mascot Jared Fogle. We wonder: What sorts of snacks were available at this get-together?

Jack Dorsey Update Still picking up trash with fellow members of the Square crew. This time they hauled in 127 pounds of garbage, plus nine (nine!) syringes.

Duck Hunt You need all the security you can get when you have a multimillion dollar mansion and you're an entrepreneur who's continually hassled by the FBI for your ties to file-sharing services. So Kim Dotcom got the best possible security he could: swans and geese. "Watch out FBI," he warned on Instagram. "My specially trained counter-raid Swan & Geese will protect #Mega." What? Those beaks are sharp!

(Photo: Instagram)

Mash Note  At the end of last month, Forbes published an interview with Mashable chief operating officer, Sharon Feder, in which the magazine heralded the rise of the female COO. An anonymous tipster who "aspires to be a leader in media" took issue with the piece, emailing Betabeat to rag on Ms. Feder for following her husband—former Mashable COO Adam Hirsch—into the executive ranks:

"Reading 'Feder’s' answer to the question of “how she got her foot in the door” in Forbes you would think she’s some sort of selfmade Sheryl Sandberg (it will become clear why that’s in quotes momentarily). But what’s gone completely unreported in her ascent is that she’s actually ridden the coattails of her husband all the way to the 'c-suite' at Mashable."

What's more, the tipster complained, Ms. Feder has a reputation as a bad woman to cross. "With Feder in control of the pocketbooks and promotions, Cashmore concerned with little more than his next John Varvatos photo shoot (or CNN exit?), and a long line of “departed” employees on the outside looking in, there’s a tremendous amount of fear that going against Feder means a short career at the company."

Want to guess who wrote it?

Now, Mr. Musk has spoken out on his Twitter account saying that, yes, he would like to get tech people to Mars, but no, he is not the red planet's vegan-loving leader.

(Screencap: Twitter)

But sir, Betabeat has one question for you: if you are not the kale eating overlord of Mars, then who is?

Sick vacation spot, bro. (Photo: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons)

Looking for a lift... to space? Today, after a week of Internet speculation, a new commercial aerospace startup called the Golden Spike Company made its official debut. Headed by former NASA administrators, the company wants to get regular missions to the moon going by 2020--and at a fraction of the current cost. The name is meant to evoke the transcontinental railway that opened up the American west for settlement.

Yeah, they basically want to build a train to space. NBD.

Leading the charge are former NASA science head Alan Stern, who's CEO, and former Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin, who's chairman of the board. Legendary investor Esther Dyson is also on the board; advisors include former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, Rocket Boys author and former engineer Homer Hickham, and noted space nut/zoo enthusiast Newt Gingrich.

The company estimates they can send two people to the moon for a mere $1.4 billion. For comparison's sake, the Mars Curiosity project ran about $2.5 billion. In a press conference today, Mr. Stern explained that they plan to keep costs low by using existing rocket design and partnering with other aerospace companies, like SpaceX. That means they only have to build elements like the lunar landers and space suits.

But before anybody stocks up on freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches for their trip, there are a quite a few obstacles these guys are going to have to surmount.

For one thing, this isn't something you can launch out of a Brooklyn coworking space on $50,000 in seed capital. And there's a reason that the newer ventures in commercial spaceflight--SpaceX and Virgin Galactic--are backed by men with immense personal fortunes. Commercial aerospace tends to be a dicey bet for even the most adventurous of venture capitalists.

In a briefing earlier today, Mr. Stern declined to comment on where the money is coming from, other than to say that, "We don't have any billion-dollar backers," adding, "for most businesses, you don't need to do that." Rather, Mr. Stern cited the example of Boeing, which takes advance orders based on a solid design then begins building once they've got the scratch. Of course, Boeing is a known quantity, a company that's been around for almost a century.

It's also not exactly easy-peasey to make money off regular flights to Nebraska. You want to try running a commuter shuttle between here and the moon? The announcement says that "market studies" suggest they could do as many as 15 to 20 trips in the 10 years after an initial landing:

Golden Spike expects its customers will want to explore the Moon for varying reasons—scientific exploration and discovery, national prestige, commercial development, marketing, entertainment, and even personal achievement.

The people who already climbed Everest need something new to aspire to, we suppose.

To make the economics work, Mr. Stern said, they'd need "the right number" of missions. He wouldn't elaborate other than to say that means "a bunch" but not "ridiculous numbers." He also alluded to the possibility of multiple revenue streams, include the possibility of advertiser involvement and media rights for some sort of international competition, like the Outer Space Olympics.

It's a long shot, and the company has a long way to go before it's taken seriously, but God bless them for trying. Beats the hell out of watching another Color Labs, which burned through millions of dollars chasing what was, in the end, a pretty underwhelming dream.

Mr. Musk, please take my money for your rockets. (Photo via flickr.com/jurvetson)

Yesterday, before venturing forth to the casting call for Bravo's Start-ups: Silicon Valley spinoff, we made a rather wonkier stop, at this month's meeting of the MIT Enterprise Forum. The topic of the panel? Space, the final frontier, and aerospace investing in particular.

As we arrived, a brief SpaceX video with a Top Gun-style soundtrack was wrapping up. Adam Harris, the company's VP for Government Affairs, let slip a little, "Yay!" as it came to a close. 

Much of the panel that followed focused on the knotty details of the business. For example: If you make rockets, you can't export them, because they're classified the same as ICBMs. Panelists included NASA Associate General Counsel for IP Courtney B. Graham and Aireon CEO Don Thoma, whose company sells satellite phone technology for use as an air traffic surveillance product.

But when somebody brought up crowdfunding in the Q&A, things got almost rowdy. (Almost!)

One man in the audience posed the question of whether, now that the SEC is finalizing rules for equity-based crowdfunding, that might work to fund the more starry-eyed of aerospace projects. He offered the example of the Kickstarted Pebble. The creators wanted $100,000; they got more than $10 million. "You don't get any stock or anything," he said, sounding a bit incredulous. And people love space way more than they love dorky watches.

"For some of these startups that sell a dream, like SpaceX, I do think that's a perfect funding resource," he said.

Then, nodding in the direction of Mr. Thoma, he added: "When you're talking about Iridium, and all we remember is that it was a great idea but a very expensive telephone, it doesn't have the same sex appeal."

Aireon is a subsidiary of Iridium, selling a wonky product without much obvious sex appeal. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Thomas disagreed with the man's assessment.

"I've spent my whole career in space or telecom associated with space," he said. "I always wondered if other industries have as many nuts as the space industry has."

Mr. Thomas is perpetually running into dreamers with ideas of, shall we say, varied quality. "I think there's dangers in crowdfunding, because they're going to fund these dreams that don't really have a real business," said Mr. Thoma. There are viable companies for whom it might be valuable, but there'll be a whole lot of dreck to sort through.

The crowdfunding proponent immediately leapt back into the fray, before Mr. Thoma could get any further. "I don't think we need guardians of people's decision to invest in something," insisted the Kickstarter fan, adding that "The Wright Brothers may have looked like a bunch of nuts to their neighbors."

The notion of a cable to the moon might be "a great idea for somebody to put money into. I don't know. And I don't think that you know," he said.

"Let's democratize investment," said the man, who we were beginning to suspect as an Indiegogo ringer, before concluding with a flourish: "Why do we want to protect people from making stupid investments when we don't even know which ones are stupid and which ones are terrific!"

To boldly go, indeed.

Elon Musk (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)

Several state associations of auto dealers are invoking older laws protecting conventional methods of selling cars by claiming the way Tesla sells cars is unfair to other dealers and possibly even illegal. Here's one example out of several cited by Automotive News:

In Illinois, the Secretary of State's office told Tesla officials in a meeting on Sept. 28 that the EV manufacturer is breaking Illinois law by listing company founder and CEO Musk as the owner of its suburban Chicago store. Tesla officials said they would correct the problem and asked for 30 days to respond, said Jay Mesi, deputy director of the Secretary of State's Department of Administrative Hearings.

Tesla has said in every case it's working to comply with existing laws. The company also insists that it isn't trying to change the way the auto industry works, simply providing a special, product-focused customer experience.

The complaining dealerships should also probably remember that if their conflicts with Tesla's methods can't be resolved, Mr. Musk did just oversee the launch of a fiery Dragon into space.

Elon Musk in SpaceX Mission Control

Weather permitting, it looks like Elon Musk and his SpaceX aerospace startup will ride their Dragon cargo capsule into a shiny new era of private enterprise in space Sunday night, when Dragon is set to launch from Cape Canaveral on its first trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

The New York Times reports on Dragon's payload:

The rocket will lift a cargo-only capsule called Dragon that contains about 1,000 pounds of food, clothing, equipment and science experiments, including 23 designed and built by students. The goods would arrive on Wednesday, and the capsule would stay docked at the space station for a few weeks. “It actually marks the beginning of true commercial spaceflight to take cargo to the International Space Station for us,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, said during a video chat on Google Plus on Friday.

Dragon's launch time is set for 8:35 p.m. Eastern Time. If the weather holds (Accuweather predicts "patchy clouds"), then Elon Musk's path to taking humans to Mars by 2025 will be well underway.

That does look a little cramped. (Photo: spacex.com)

Good news for anyone who dreams of retiring to a ranch on Mars: Elon Musk's aerospace startup, SpaceX, just landed a $440 million NASA contract to develop the Space Shuttle's successor and get some real, live American astronauts back into space. That would mean, for instance, no more hitching rides with the Russians.

According to a statement the company released earlier today:

"This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration," said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk. "SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown."

SpaceX has 2015 circled on the calendar for its first manned spaceflight, which seems ambitious until you realize that hey, they've made it this far. (Thanks again, PayPal!) Plus, the Dragon capsule is already operational, ferrying cargo to the International Space Station, and both Dragon and the Falcon rocket were designed to carry human crew.

But Mr. Musk's personal equivalent of Stark Industries isn't the only contender to receive a sudden injection of cash. Boeing received $460 million, and Sierra Nevada got $212.5 million for Sierra Nevada. The goal is to have American astronauts back in space within five years. Reports NBC News:

The next phase of NASA's commercial spaceflight effort — known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability, or CCiCap — calls for these three companies to take their design and testing program through a series of milestones by May 2014. Optional milestones could lead to crewed demonstration flights in later years.

Surely there's some way we can pre-order tickets, perhaps on an installment plan?

"Yes, this will be perfect for repairing the irrigation system on my massive Martian ranch." (Photo: flickr.com/jurvetson)

The L.A. Times recently sat down with Paypal mafioso and SpaceX founder Elon Musk for a brief chat about his recent endeavors and goals for his commercial aerospace venture. In short: His ultimate goal is still Mars. (Always Mars. Never Not Mars.) Someone keeps a battered copy of Red Mars in a place of pride, we'd wager.

Naturally, the Times inquired as to whether Mr. Musk himself would be personally interested in a trip to the Red Planet, or if he's merely interested in lobbing other people skyward. His answer was basically, duh:

I would. The first flight would be risky; if I felt comfortable that the company's mission will continue, that my kids have grown up, then I'd be on the first mission.

Elon Musk, Martian homesteader?

Also, it turns out that he has many very strong opinions about the proper way to represent the planet on which he has his lofty sights:

We need a new archetype. I've talked to James Cameron about this. He's got a script for a realistic Mars mission because there's not been a good Mars movie. That's another thing that bugs me: The Mars movies have been so bad. I mean, honestly! And it's going to be tricky getting funding for another Mars movie after "John Carter." It was a good comic book, and they totally screwed up the movie.

Hey, maybe Mr. Musk might want to plow some of that fortune into financing James Cameron's next CGI extravaganza. Or at least have a go at writing a guest column for Entertainment Weekly?

When this reporter woke up for the interview this morning, she found herself struggling to find something to wear. ("All my lab coats are in the wash," we tweeted.) Turns out that we should've opted for a bow-tie, as Mr. Nye showed up to our interview in Bryant Park in that signature sartorial choice, a green paisley one tied around his neck. On the lapel of his jacket, a Planetary Society pin gleamed in the sun.

Mr. Nye, a resident of Los Angeles, was in New York to promote the work he is doing with Sophia, an online portal that hosts multimedia educational tools to promote social learning. He is helming the Sophia Summer Challenge, which aims to combat the "brain drain" that occurs over the summer. Students can sign up to take short tutorials and quizzes for a chance to win an iPad.

"Half of what you learn about science you learn informally or out of the classroom," Mr. Nye told us, after we'd settled in to one of the green metal tables on the outskirts of Bryant Park. "These kids today are in front of a screen seven hours a day. While you’re doing that, why don’t you do some educational stuff? People really lose their proficiency in the summer--you don’t practice math, you forget how to do it."

"What we want is more science literacy," he added.

Mr. Nye is also the CEO of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization, which was started by the late great Carl Sagan, one of Mr. Nye's former professors (he believes he got an A in that class, though an A- was also possible). As part of this position, he raises awareness about the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars. Mr. Nye recently had lunch with Elon Musk, the PayPal cofounder who launched SpaceX.

"It's awesome," Mr. Nye said of SpaceX. Before launch, Mr. Musk had a meeting with the board of the Planetary Society, said Mr. Nye. "He sat down with them and said, 'I want to go to Mars. What do I need to do?' And everybody said, 'We need cheap access to orbit.' It's the key first step. Getting to orbit right now is too expensive."

As a proponent of science literacy, what do you make of the gender gap in the field? we asked Mr. Nye.

"My mom was recruited by the navy because she was good at science," he replied. "My mother--and this is not some great-grandmother--my mother could not get an American Express card because she was Mrs. Nye, even though she was also Dr. Nye. She marched in the parade--she told us she threw her bra in the fire--I was not there, though, so I can't verify."

"Science is the best idea humans have ever had," he added. "Half of humans are women, so we want half of scientists to be women. This is a long journey--but the longest journey starts with a single step."

From the man who taught us so much about science, we wanted to know: what did he still find most fascinating about the universe?

"We are star stuff," he replied. "This is to say, you and I are made of atoms that came from exploding stars."

We didn't want to monopolize the chance to interrogate our childhood idol, so we asked fellow "Science Guy" watchers for questions. “Ask him to refute global warming in two sentences,” responded one Twitter follower.

"Global warming is true, whether or not you believe it. Sorry," he retorted.

"What do you make of this whole zombie apocalypse?" one of our Facebook friends encouraged we ask.

"Apparently there are some drugs that can render you pretty useless," Mr. Nye replied. "I joke all the time about how useless zombies are, though. Maybe they're the antithesis of what's cool now. What's cool is to be quintuple-tasking at any time, moving fast, gettin' 'er done, and zombies--along with their slow movement--they seem indifferent to the world around them."

"You don't see a lot of zombies on Facebook," he added.

In the middle of our meeting, a man came up to us and complimented Mr. Nye on his bowtie. "Do you get recognized a lot?" we wondered.

"A couple hundred times a day," he acknowledged. Of his role as a nostalgic figure, he joked, "It's a little disturbing. It's very sweet, it's very nice. I still don't get it. When people say I've affected their lives, I still don't quite get it. I went to work--most weeks--seven days a week. I put my heart and soul into that dumb thing, with the dream that some of you would pursue careers in science and engineering, or at least have an appreciation for it. The ultimate would be if one of you--or a group of you--solve some astonishing world problem."

We were happy to find out that Mr. Nye was familiar with a lot of topics on the tech beat: He raved about the convenience of the app Uber, and expressed excitement about the recent CornellNYC campus announcement.

"I'm hoping they'll give me a job," he added.