🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3pge6o$p9o@kocrsv08.delcoelect.com>,
rex i beard <c2xrib@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com> wrote:
>In article <D8q8JA.Fx3@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>,
>Alan Scott <ascott@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>>
>>The space industry requires a huge initial investment.  Most companies are
>>satisfied to pay by the shot rather than build their own rockets.  Someone
>>has to put those satellites up.
>
>So do the air, rail, sea and auto transport industries. Free people seeking
>profit are willing to invest vast sums if they think they've got a good
>chance of being worth while. If people don't think it has a good
>enough chance of success *WHY* should they be made to invest in it?
>
>I pay for the research into building planes
>somewhere in the price of my airline ticket. Those who want to launch
>satellites should do the same. And they should pass the costs right
>on down to me on my phone bill. If I think it costs too much I'll find
>another way to communicate. How else can we decide if a venture is worth
>while? By political decree?
>

You also pay taxes which are used to pay the salaries of university 
scientists.  A lot of this research is not commercially viable at present.
Do you feel that all non-applied fields of science should have their 
funding cut?
Do you really think the world would benefit from so many engineers?

It all comes down to this.  Some people feel that there is intrinsic worth
in knowledge.  Perhaps it will not pay us back immediately in profits.

One needs the long term commitment that a government can provide before
the more obvious returns start flowing in.  Companies do not have the 
necessary patience to put the money into such a venture at this point in
time.  Rest assured that space will become commercially viable as the
technology is improved.  Remember, the first electronic computers were 
developed by the military to gauge trajectories.  Private industry didn't 
really get involved at first.


>>
>>No.  It would mean a larger NASA work force and a larger private sector
>>workforce to support it.  NASA contracts out a lot of it's work to private
>>aerospace firms like MacDonnell-Douglas, Spar, etc.  Someone has got to
>>supply them with tools, raw materials, computers, etc.
>
>Again, the number of humans is *FINITE*!!!!
>
large argument about the skill level of auto workers declining if the
space industry were to increase

Advertise your openings in Canada.  We'd gladly displace the less skilled
American workers. :)

-- 
"If I get good enough at insulting anybody who questions my
bullshit ideology, I might only have to defend one untenable
piece of bullshit at a time, instead of two..."  Ted Holden Himself.
Al Scott--The Bard  Company of Dreams