Re: New Essay On Space Policy

From: Pat Flannery (flanner_at_daktel.com)
Date: 09/14/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 19:27:09 -0500

Rand Simberg wrote:

>
>
>
>>...one loopy sidelight of that would be that a country's airspace
>>could continue up into outer space
>>
>>
>
>No, as you say, overflight was accepted in 1957. If the OST was
>needed to resolve this issue, how did we manage for a decade without
>it? And even if it were a problem, it could be handled in the
>renegotiation.
>

I was digging around on Fortean Times breaking news and ran into this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3028490a11,00.html
It appears that the Maori have gotten an early foot into the space
ownership concept. :-D

>
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>>Rand's idea seems to be to let the government set financial rewards for
>>individuals and corporations to develop private spaceflight into a
>>workable form- if we are going to go with a nice free-market approach,
>>then let's free the private side of the equation from the threat of
>>_all_ government interference....by having it do whatever it wants to do
>>all on its own.
>>
>>
>
>What's your point?
>

To prevent the danger of creeping socialism ;-) , it would be best if
business were to develop any private spaceflight capability by its own
means, rather than an influx of public money...Burt Rutan made a
spaceship on his own, Bill Gates could certainly develop a privately
financed space access capability if he thought it was a good idea (hell,
Gates could probably finance his own manned Mars expedition if he felt
like it.), but I have doubts about the concept that we will develop this
new technology of large-scale space access, and then it will develop
into a worthwhile and profitable industry all on its own.
About the only thing that might have a near-term economic impact that
can be done in LEO over the next ten or twenty years would be large
scale solar power satellites. The amount of weight that would have to
carried to orbit to build those would require large, not small, carrier
vehicles of the type you seem to favor... or are the Moon and Mars in
the scenario you propose?

Pat