Re: Could SS1 be exported?

From: John Schilling (schillin_at_spock.usc.edu)
Date: 12/14/04 

Date: 13 Dec 2004 23:05:06 -0800

vince@offshore.ai writes:

>> 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 somewhat more reasonable fear, and somewhat harder to address, is
that the noise from every rocket launch may scare off every mama bird
for miles around, not all of whom will return in time to prevent their
baby chicks from starving to death, being eaten by something less
noise-averse, or whatever. 

-- 
*John Schilling                    * "Anything worth doing,         *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP       *  is worth doing for money"     *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner *    -13th Rule of Acquisition   *
*White Elephant Research, LLC      * "There is no substitute        *
*schillin@spock.usc.edu            *  for success"                  *
*661-718-0955 or 661-275-6795      *    -58th Rule of Acquisition   *