Finally some sense in all of this hoopla. Im not usually a fan of Slate but this time they are right on target. I dont belittle the attempts here, and the investment of some of the technology, but Im not one to cave in. Because Musk or Branson said it does not make it fact or true. It means they are making an attempt for their own gain. As Ive said in the past the term Commercial In Commerical Space means you make a profit, plain and simple. There are firms out there that know that. They love making boosters, spacecraft, satellites and satisfying the client but they also like to make a profit too. It isnt about Exploring other worlds, thats what NASA does, it explores for explorations sake. If you think companies explore for explorations sake, I have a bridge in Brooklyn Id like to sell you. Exxon/Moble explores the Earth, but for oil reserves, not because its seeking new sea species. It may run into such critters along the way, but thats a by- product of its oil search, not the purpose. The only time you make a profit in space currently is delivering satellites to Earth Orbit right now or delivering supplies and later crew to a government space station. Period. At some point in time, perhaps in the coming decades after ISS, there may be new space stations in Earth Orbit run by companies who will lease time on board with firms providing scientists, researchers and perhaps post docs, transport to and from them. Id still like to see a private owned Lunar or Mars Orbiter launched and time on that vehicle leased to universities, governments, or even just plain folks who want to look at areas on the Moon or Mars. (Mars One is working on such a probe but with different aspirations). Space Tourism? Well perhaps IF there is a high flying five star hotel in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) where celebrities who have too much money that they dont know what to do with it can spend some time, floating around, looking out the windows and dealing with microgravity toilets. There is talk of asteroid mining and manufacturing bases on the Moon. Ive heard such talk on and off for the past 20 years. (Im old enough to remember David Gumps and others lunar aspirations in the 1990s ) Those things need to be profitable and right now its flat out too expensive to GET to the lunar surface let alone sustain a raw materials pipeline from other worlds to Earth, Will that ever happen? Yes, but sorry to burst the bubble folks, its not coming in the foreseeable future, no matter what Musk, et al say. We need a cheap new efficient and low cost propulsion system for stuff like this to work. Although I would really love it, I simply dont see a supply of dilithum crystals coming around the bend.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:37:10 +0000