🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
-Subject: Re: Latest Pegasus news?
-Date: 31 Dec 92 00:45:13 GMT
-Organization: Destructive Testing Systems

-In article <1992Dec27.203327.21241@iti.org> aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes:
[Debate on cost of DC.]

-You misrepresent my position. All I'm saying is that new systems are
-rarely as cheap and easy in metal as they are on paper. That's what
-research and development programs are designed to discover. Only a few 
-things that pass through development ever reach mass production as
-cheap and troublefree as they were on paper.

Allen generally takes projected "worst-case" cost estimates for DC
and multiplies them by two or more in making his calculations, which
I think shows he is aware of the problem. That the results still come
out favorable to DC is an indication that work on DC should be continued.
(I presume you favor that.)

I should make one additional point regarding Allen's calculations - they
don't include the large opportunity cost if the Shuttle program should
be cancelled before DC is fully operational (and able to handle the full
operational capabilities of the Shuttle, if that ever happens). Doing so
would add a considerable amount to the cost estimates for DC. So I
consider Allen's calculations to be reasonable, provided that the Shuttle
program is allowed to continue while DC is being developed.

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov