Re: Another space race: China & Russia vs. the USA

On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 21:59:18 +0200, in a place far, far away,
"frédéric haessig" <fhaessig@xxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Why? All space programs to date have been run by socialist bureaucracies.

Yes. That's why space is so expensive.

As I understand it, Physics ( as in gravity wells ), technology ( as in
throw-away launchers )

That's not a technology problem, it's a design choice.

and economics have a little something to do with it
also.

I don't know what it means to say that "economics" has something to do
with high launch costs.

It's unusual for governments
to reduce the cost of *anything*, let alone transportation.

Unusual? Maybe.

That doesn't mean unheard of.

Just for exemple, compare the current price of an Ariane V rocket ( PA lot )
with the original price. And there's pressure to go even lower for the next
batch.

But it's still ridiculously expensive. And I was talking about cost,
not price. Government can easily make prices low, by fiat.

Customers, even governments try to get as much as possible for as little
money as possible. Big customers, whether retail chains or space agencies,
use their position to put pressure on their suppliers.

No, governments often (in fact usually) have other agendas than saving
money. For instance, it's more important to ESA to make sure that
each country gets its share of the work than developing projects as
cheaply as possible.

And a lot of projects all the agencies would like to see happen depend on
Cheap Access To Space.

That's not at all clear. Many projects go forward without it. Those
who want cheap access to space don't control the budgets required to
develop space access.

And yet, after decades, none of them have done much to actually
provide it, not do they show any signs of doing so.

Agencies have tried. Not sucessfully, true, but the goal was there.

Trying isn't doing. And NASA isn't even trying any more.
.

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