Re: Waiting for controversy...?


Fred J. McCall wrote:
simberg.interglobal@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg) wrote:

:On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:25:52 GMT, in a place far, far away, Monte
:Davis <monte.davis@xxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
:in such a way as to indicate that:
:
:>royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
:>
:>>But a robust, reusable 2STO launch vehicle could easily be
:>>built in a few years, given (unlike Shuttle) realistic funding and
:>>design parameters.
:>
:>Let's see: for the Shuttle, as of 1970-71 NASA was looking for
:>~$11B... in 1972 got a commitment for about half that... and ended up
:>spending ~$10B by 1981.
:>
:>NASA's NewStart inflation calculator tells me that $10B in 1976
:>(picking the year in the middle) should be about $40B as of 2010.
:>Is that your figure for "realistic" funding? Or are your "realistic"
:>design parameters so dazzlingly economical that this is going to be
:>funded out of, say, Virgin Galactic's annual net?
:
:You didn't adjust for the private/government cost factor. The former
:doesn't have to provide jobs in certain congressional districts. It's
:possible that you have no idea how huge a factor this is in space
:program costs.

Merely eliminating government oversight cuts the price in around half,
I think.

I recall a Congressional interview with the CEO of one of the rocket
companies, where they asked him why it was that he charged the
government twice as much for a rocket as he charged when he sold a
launch on the commercial market. His answer was something along the
lines of, "Congressman, if you exempt me from the FARs today, I will
start selling you rockets for half the price tomorrow."

Yep, the high cost of launches theses days MUST be due to more govt.
oversight.

Why don't you find the magic ingreedient to the high cost of oil? You
know to half the cost of a barrel of oil.

Eric


--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney

.

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