Gold in them thar rocks.

[Desdichado]

I wouldn't say gold literally, but I think you're right, unfortunately.

Nobody cares much about space exploration just "because it's there" or "to boldly go where no man has gone before" or any of that jazz. However, find a good commercially viable reason for space travel, and I bet you we'd be all over it.

 

[Turanil]

Turanil, I don't mean any disrespect, but I'm banging my head against the wall trying to remember or figure out why platinum would be required for nuclear power in any way other than as a conductor.

No disrespect here! I just retold in short words what somewhat told me on the Transhuman Space mailing list. I just believed there had to be some truth in what he said, because it was based on a book he did read. The book had been written by a scientist, or NASA guy. Well:

Mining the Sky and High Frontier

 

[F5]

Not gold, but platinum.

I can't think of why platinum would be necessary, either. Are you sure they didn't mean plutonium ?

 

[Turanil]

I can't think of why platinum would be necessary, either. Are you sure they didn't mean plutonium ?

I don't think so, since plutonium is useful for nuclear fission, while nuclear fusion uses hydrogen (or something like that). Anyway, better read the book mentioned in my previous post rather than ask me.

 

[Umbran]

Commercial space development is, as I understand it, hindered by a subsidised NASA. NASA is pretty inefficient, but is able to undercut any commercial companies by offering to do things (launch a new coomunications satellite, etc.) at below cost price, relying on government subsidies to make up the difference. Commercial companies can't operate at a loss in the way that NASA can, and therefore can't get into the space race.

While there's some truth in here, I think this statement has a lot of spin in it.

The fact of the matter is that at the moment, launching into orbit is really darned expensive. Even when NASA does it, it costs about $10,000 per pound to lift something into orbit. That cost isn't from legislation, or government restrictions or anything. It's simply that the technologies we currently use are really darned expensive.

The government subsidizes NASA to make launches cheaper, but that's not some form of anti-competition measure. That's because very few launches would get made otherwise, and we need communications sattellites to make our world go around these days.

If that were to change, it would be economically viable for commercial companies to research and develop space technology.

I'm sorry, but that's backwards. With current technologies, launching isn't really profitable for anyone smaller than a nation, period. Removing the government subsidies on NASA will only make launches with current tech more expensive.

NASA and the US government don't put many blocks on research. If someone would do the research, and bring launch costs down by a factor of ten, they'd make a mint! But the research is darned expensive, and not sure to bear fruit. In other words, it's a big economic risk. Most companies shy away from big risks.

That's why the Ansari X Prise exists - to make the research more appealing. It took one of the greatest aeronautical engineers on the planet and a co-founder of Microsoft to toss in $20 million just to get something that would make the trip to space (not orbit, just space) semi-reliably. And they only won back $10 million for their troubles.

 

[Stone Angel]

I think that there a lot of things that go int this. If there were to be a resource that was vast enough to warrant sending private companies to build and send ships, then maybe that is where it would start. Then the government would have to regulate it and tax it and such. Then I am sure that there would be some sort of standards enforced on said resource.

Then before you know it there would be private and millitary funded builds going on for housing and such.

In actuality it might be the next industrial revolution. Before you know it there would be tourism and such. Crazy a little when you think about it.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[IronWolf]

I agree, until something is found in space that interests corporations or people with the money, space exploration is apt to creep along. Once something in space is found that plays to a little greed I think there will suddenly be an abundance of money fueling the desire to get into space. Just my thoughts....