there's a reason Pournelle's and Niven's work resembles RAH's stuff. He was their mentor and guide through much of their early careers. He even is represented by a character in the novel that this stuff was used in Footfall, along with fictional versions of Niven and Pournelle, as advisors to the war effort (the Dreamer Fthipt at Colorado Springs). He was a member of the advisory committee cited in the article right up until his death. They were mostly concerned with fixing what was wrong with NASA way back when in the 70s. I wish we'd listened to them then.
Been a while, though. I guess I should dig my old books out of storage, dust them off and read about what's going to happen next year. ;^)