Re: Space Access Update #112 9/19/05


"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:p62gk11es1p0hel5jmoomeot5gg0ae673a@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 10:10:14 -0500, "Paul F. Dietz" <dietz@xxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >It may be that the best way to get to space in the long term
> >is to ignore it in the short term, and instead make the
> >terrestrial economy even bigger and more capable. We didn't
> >reach space in mid-1900s because of some long term space program
> >started in the 1800s; we did it because of knowledge and wealth
> >accumulated on Earth for reasons that had nothing to do with
> >space.
>
> According to that reasoning, Ferdinand and Isabella shouldn't have
> financed an expedition to the New World. The Spain of today, after
> all, could do it much more easily.
>

No, I think you've got it backwards.

F&I expected returns on their investment in the short term, but limited by
the size of the boats at the time.

As opposed to staying home and spending a couple hundred years developing
Panamax and larger boats so they could haul more on each trip.


> By their very nature, great expeditions are apt to seem pie-in-the-sky
> when first proposed.
>
> The world is littered with the carcasses of once-great cultures that
> grew complacent.
>
> --
> Josh
>
> "It was amazing I won. I was running against peace and prosperity
> and incumbency." - George W. Bush


.

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