I love private enterprise. At this rate, it won't matter much what government space policy is if the private sector has its own manned flight capabilities. Perhaps by the time the Chinese fulfill their ambition of getting to the Moon a half century after everyone else, there'll be a Starbucks waiting for them.
2 comments:
This raises a question. It was after all, military (i.e., government) funding that first sent rockets into space, first in Germany, then in the USSR and US. And now that government-run programs have shown that there is a buck to be made in space, overcome the first technological hurdles, and made the first exploratory trips, private enterprise takes over. I'm not sure that this could have been accomplished without government funding of the monumentally expensive initial, necessary R&D, or of the many launches that discovered the properties of the extra-atmospheric environment; private and corporate pockets are simply not this deep.
This is a thought that does not seem usual to the owner or other readers of this blog. Or for that matter, to me.
It's a valid point. Governments can and have had a stimulating effect on various industries and have even created them wholesale, such as the nuclear energy industry and the exotic metals industries that support them. However, such examples are few and far between and more often than not, it turns out that private industry would have filled the need anyway and much faster.
As far as space is concerned, the US government did not create the technology. It was merely the customer The real credit goes to Boeing, Raytheon, Grumman, Rockwell, GE, and a thousand other companies. Indeed, if we look at where space technology has really taken off, it has either been in the military sphere (supported by private industry) or in those areas that turn a profit for private industry. The areas where government has a solitary interest, such as manned spaceflight and planetary exploration, operate at a glacial pace and show little innovation.
Frankly, I believe that if private industry saw a way to make a few bob out of lunar exploration, we'd have atomic shuttles making daily runs to Luna City by now.
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