Re: Could SS1 be exported?

vince_at_offshore.ai
Date: 12/13/04 

Date: 13 Dec 2004 13:14:54 -0800

> Since the island is occasionly swept clear by major storms it is hard

>to see it as a needed protected enviroment.

Sea birds nest there in large numbers (I would guess a few thousand).
The environmentalist fear is that every rocket launch roasts a few
hundred birds and their baby chicks. There clearly are ways to
address this. The launch pad could be near the edge of the island
and designed such that flame was diverted off the island. The area
right around the pad could be fenced in and have enough dogs that
birds did not nest inside the fence there. Etc. It is not clear how
much of this kind of thing Beal did.

There are birds in Florida and NASA still launches. Do they do
anything
to keep birds from nesting too close to the launch pads? How close is
really too close?

>As a rocket base I have tried to find better on a map of the
>caribean. The only other choice I personally found is Montserrat
>Island, where I think the locals would like the econimic boost
>a space port would bring.

They have the same British there that we do here. We went there
a couple weeks ago. It is not a very big island and everone has
moved to the Northern part of it since the rest is covered with
Pyroclasic flows and/or ash. If you were in the Northern part
you would be near people (the whole inhabited part might be
3 by 4 miles). If you were in the rest you have the problem of
the volcano. Also, East of Mrat is Antigua. So I don't think
it is nearly as good as Sombrero. Sombrero is like 40 miles
from any humans and nothing East till Africa.

I think Beal's failure does not mean that someone else could not
launch from Sombrero. So if you are trying to make a new
launch pad, don't cross Anguilla off your list.

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