Re: Could SS1 be exported?

From: Earl Colby Pottinger (earlcp_at_idirect.com)
Date: 12/14/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:25:30 -0600

vince@offshore.ai :

>> 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.

That may had been part of Beal's problem, maybe he presented himself wrong.

> 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?

It think the noise of normal operations keeps them away, on the otherhand was
there not a problem with birds and the foam on the ET?

>>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.

Ok maybe it not the best spot in the carribean.

> 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 was thinking that if the volcano settles down then there is nothing more
stable with minor enviromental impact as building on a old lava flow.

> I think Beal's failure does not mean that someone else could not
> launch from Sombrero.

So do you think it was more Beal's fault? Some of the writeups I have seen
implied that he just assumed everyone would go along his idea and was not
prepared to defend them when people start to oppose him.

> So if you are trying to make a new
> launch pad, don't cross Anguilla off your list.

The problem is I am small fry. At the time Beal was loking at the island I
was hoping ride the coat tails. IE there would be ramps built by his company
and H2O2 storage would already be on site. Even with major fees to use his
equipment if allowed it probably cheaper than building them myself.

              Earl Colby Pottinger 

-- 
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