Space Cynics

I’ve decided to do this as a new posting, but would like to give credit where it is due for the starting thought - the previous posting which looked at why/how a company morphs into TransConX (insert name here) from a championed space startup…

First off: Hi back at you, Monty!

Now, to the matter at hand - what makes a company a “white hat” vs. a “black hat” in the minds of the alt.space community?

I don’t pretend to speak for anyone other than myself, but i will make a few observations on the matter, which you may agree or disagree with.

White hat companies seem to fall into two categories in the alt.space community: true seed-stage startups funded by believers in their particular cause (space solar power, RLV, space elevators, etc), and “startups” being driven by well-heeled investors that are tackling a specific segment of the market (SpaceX, Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites, Bigelow, etc).

Black hat companies, also referred to at various times as the Military/Industrial Complex, Big Aerospace, or just Satan, are large established aerospace companies (Boeing, LockMart, NG, etc) which are considered behemoths, ossified, in the way, and generally the primary reason why the White Hats aren’t successful - that if they would simply get out of the way, not take all of the government funding, etc., the White Hats would prove and develop a robust private sector commercial space economy for the masses.

Interesting concept.

Apparently, you can go from being a White Hat to a Black Hat in a not-very-easy-to-understand process, as Orbital Sciences has done. I’ve yet to hear of a Black Hat becoming a White Hat, though. Anyone?

And yet, i have to wonder: it seems as if the underlying prerequisite for becoming a “black hat” is that you are either (a) large, established, and not living off credit cards in your mom’s basement, or (b) not backed by a rock-star dot Com bazzilllionaire, or (c) surviving primarily on government largesse (read: contracts).

So here’s the question for those following along: how many of the White Hats are either currently the recipient of government funding or loan guarantees of some sort? How many White Hats (and WHSs - white hat supporters) are lobbying for more government money to flow in the direction of the alt.spacers?

There’s a great publication, the Journal of Irreproducible Results, which bills itself as “The fact-filled, fun-filled, thoughtful science humor magazine”.

For those who are unfamiliar with the JIR, it is a magazine which has a go at the more dubious claims coming out of the scientific community. Hence the title.

Here’s what Omni magazine has to say about JIR:

“There are few outlets in the world where scientists with a sense of humor can poke fun at themselves and publish theoretical breakthroughs. The finest one today is the Journal of Irreproducible Results.”

So what? you might ask.

Well, today i had the pleasure of stumbling across a new publication which at first I thought must be satire, but in fact appears to be serious. In fact, the tagline reads “the world’s 1st monthly magazine focusing on Space Tourism and Commercialization!”

Of course, there is no option to actually VIEW a bit of the content in advance, before deciding if one might want to subscribe to this publication. I’m almost tempted to sign up for it anyways - at a bit over $8/issue, it’s pricey for something which I would be hard-pressed to believe could run more than 4 pages (after all, how much can you write about a non-existant business on a recurring monthly basis? Wait. Scratch that…)

I’d be particularly interested in seeing the questions on this topic:
“In addition each issue (starting with the May issue) of the magazine includes an educational space tourism quiz !!”

Exciting times.

I just wonder if they recall that little, well funded publication known as “Space Illustrated”?

Feel free to click on the link under the google sponsored ad - that way we too can say we are making money off an alt.space idea