Space

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Original post by Mithrandir
private owned;
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con: competition would eventually die, and most benefits would immediately be claimed by a small set of the privledged, rather than benefitting society as a whole

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Maybe, but not necessarily. Extending space research into the private domain may eventually be the only way of reducing the costs enough for the common man to be able to afford space travel.

what happened with that newer shuttle? the X something?

Space is cool.

Yeah, I''d love to see spending diverted to research and away from invading countries on the other side of the planet. Specifically, I''d like to see more research go into finding and improving our sources of energy.

As for private-owned space research, I thik it''s got pros and cons, same as everything else.

Pro: Research is expensive. Private industry could funnel money into research instead of more/bigger cars/houses. This research would, presumably, help people eventually.
Con: Companies patent their inventions and make many times as much money as they spent. Companies possibly make so much more money that the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and grow faster.
Pro: Competition moves companies to bigger advances faster.
Con: The richest/smartest/luckiest companies make initial advances sooner and leave others in the dust. Innovation stagnates as a few companies strive for smaller/faster/better than the competition. See also: processor wars, Intel, AMD.

any innovation would be a benefit, even if just a few mega-companies form its better than a single government entity.

This raises some questions.

American corporations are horrendous at financing long-term plans (WHAT?! NO PROFIT NOW?!!!), with tiny exceptions here and there, like Amazon.com.

Corporations would be interested in profits from space, and profits only (arguably, scientific research could profit, but I don''t hold high hopes if the results of such are put under patents and perpetual copyrights), and therefore, corporations will find it difficult to fund space missions.


This brings us of course to the inevitable concerns about "regulation". Corporations have a habit of doing things "the most profitable" way, instead of the "right" way. What is to prevent some sloppy corporation from putting hundreds of shabby sattelites in spaces which fall apart, and create a disaster of debris. Or sattelites that fail and end up mauling buildings and people on the planet.

And how about territorial concerns? What happens when the corporations decide to claim land on other planets that shouldn''t ever belong to them (you *know* it will happen.)

There are so many problems with privately owned things; how would they be solved?

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Original post by Mithrandir
And how about territorial concerns? What happens when the corporations decide to claim land on other planets that shouldn''t ever belong to them (you *know* it will happen.)

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He he You are right though, it WILL happen.

I also think it''s a shame that they don''t spend more on space research, as it might very well be where our futures lies. If I ever, by some lucky chance, became filthy rich, I would want to dump a lot of money into NASA because the government sure won''t do it.

"American corporations are horrendous at financing long-term plans (WHAT?! NO PROFIT NOW?!!!), with tiny exceptions here and there, like Amazon.com. "

And do we really want MS to have an interstellar mmonopoly?

Not all government inventions are "for everyone''s benefit."

This is probably akin to mentioning Hitler: nuclear weapons. They weren''t for many people''s benefit -depending on how you look at the end of the Pacific theater of WWII...

GE, while not a government organisation, gets obscene amounts of money for weapons development programs. Does you consider this as private or public developments?

Back to the point...
To my understanding, NASA has decided they have a monopoly on space and pretty much own it. It may be hearsay (which I hope someone might be able to clear up for me), but supposedly all satelites in space need to pay NASA to use ''their space.'' I''m not sure that''s a good idea.

It might be possible to keep space programs publically funded and keep competition between nations. A bit like CCCP vs. USA to get into space, get on the moon, etc. Who can put a man on Mars first? EU or US?

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Original post by flangazor
It might be possible to keep space programs publically funded and keep competition between nations. A bit like CCCP vs. USA to get into space, get on the moon, etc. Who can put a man on Mars first? EU or US?

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Probabely they''ll do it together because it''s way to expensive for just one country to put a man on mars.

I''m more interested who will win he X-prize. The first of the launch dates were scheduled in 2003. If they have kept their schedules the first launches should be pretty soon. After that it''ll be a matter of months before you can buy your way into space for something like US $ 5000,-. I don''t know about you guys but $ 5000,- for a space-trip sounds definately worth it!



Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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Original post by Sander

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Original post by flangazor
It might be possible to keep space programs publically funded and keep competition between nations. A bit like CCCP vs. USA to get into space, get on the moon, etc. Who can put a man on Mars first? EU or US?

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Probabely they''ll do it together because it''s way to expensive for just one country to put a man on mars.

I''m more interested who will win he X-prize. The first of the launch dates were scheduled in 2003. If they have kept their schedules the first launches should be pretty soon. After that it''ll be a matter of months before you can buy your way into space for something like US $ 5000,-. I don''t know about you guys but $ 5000,- for a space-trip sounds definately worth it!



Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]

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does that include the life support systems?

Personally I think my 1:1 scale enterprise made out of balsa wood stands a good chance. However it may burn up on reentry, but the jam glue I''m using might prevent that. (i.e. caramalise -> heat shield ).

Or we could just speed up the earths rotation to escape velocity!

Yep, it does Take a look at the X-Prize website where you can find all the teams. For example: Micro-space have their manned testflights scheduled near the end of 2003. Scaled Composits wants to have it''s maiden flight (and the 10 million dollars ofcourse) before december 17th 2003 (anniversary of the Wright brothers).

All in all, it sounds very good and I''m very curious.

Sander Maréchal
[Lone Wolves Game Development][RoboBlast][Articles][GD Emporium][Webdesign][E-mail]