From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Jul 15 2002 - 06:46:48 MDT
I think private funding has done exactly what you have seen it do-not much.
If you want a Mars Mission, or a fly-by of Pluto and Charon, private industry
will never fund it because there is no return on investment. NASA has been
poorly funded, and many of their missions get cut because of budget
crazziness, but there is zero funding for private space missions with a
decent chance on ROI.
Greg Burch said:
<<With that said, I think the time for such private activity is *almost*
here: On the one hand, outfits like Xcor seem to have *finally*
identified a reasonable, incremental approach to private rocketry and,
on the other, we could be no more than ten years away from the
manufacturing revolution required to create materials strong and light
enough to make the hardware side of things something economically
manageable, so that a sufficient concentration of private capital will
be attracted to the enterprise that real private launch and space
operations businesses can be begun with a reasonable chance of success.
When that day comes, "the man who sold the moon" will have no more
enthusiastic supporter than me!
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net >>
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