Space Enthusiast (formerly Cynic)
A view of alt.space from those who STILL won't drink the kool-aid.
TopSpacer at RLVNews.com says the following: “I have no idea if the K-1 is a great or even a good design for a RLV. My point has always been that it is simply a proof of the principle that fully reusable vehicles are practical now. ” I fail to understand the logic here. The quality […]
Read More Help Me UnderstandImagine a 6 year old boy sitting in a box on the sidewalk. He is wearing a helmet and goggles, and going “Vroom, vroom.” Fast forward 6 more years. The boy is now in his treehouse repelling alien invaders. Fast forward again for one third century. The boy now has a very, very fancy treehouse. […]
Read More Boys and Their Toys“It might be worth something in a few years.” This gem of an insight brought to you by Ms. Sarah Lang, a 31 year old housewife in England who won 1 million pounds in a contest (“Pokerface”) and apparently has decided she wants to buy a plot on the moon. According to the article in […]
Read More A Sucker Born Every MinuteSome space advocates (alt.spacers or NewSpacers or whatever they call themselves these days) have been pushing the concept that NASA should “buy the ride instead of buying the rocket.” The idea is that private enterprise can do a better job of developing manned vehicles and NASA should just purchase transportation from the private sector. This […]
Read More Buy the Ride BalderdashWhile it has been an “enlightening” conversation of late, regarding the philosophy and economics of that-which-we-will-NOT-call-spaceports, it has reached the point where there is a definite risk of going around in circles (as NASA has for decades) to a place of marginal utility. So I purport to make my final case here, then move on […]
Read More My final word on bread and circuses, New Space styleIn his recent blog post: Agreement! At least I think so… Bill stated the following: But I don’t see how theme park spaceports can hurt provided we do not expect too much from them They can hurt in one very obvious way: financial. You may not have an issue with governments expropriating taxpayers’ money on […]
Read More Port or Starboard?I see that someone has gone to considerable length to reply to my recent arguments concerning the economics of proposed “spaceports”. The author apparently saw nothing amiss with the notion that it’s OK to create a theme park atmosphere to attract customers at some level or another. In so doing, he unwittingly grants me the […]
Read More Ports and Theme Parks are Incompatible
Space Enthusiast (formerly Cynic) 