----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Sloan II" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 5:48 PM Subject: Re: SCOUTED: Space Hotels
> "Marvin Long, Jr." wrote: > > > http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/02/06/aldrin.hotel.reut/index.html > > > This is actually a recycled topic from several years ago. > > At the time, Alberto convinced me that Buzz Aldrin was > > chasing wild geese, but I'm intrigued to see the subject > > in the news again. > > On the monthly LarryNiven-L chat on Saturday, I was pointed > to a more promising space hotel story: > > http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2002/MERC-Jan-17-Thu-2002/17821307.html > > This guy is using his own money. Apparently, his only real > obstacle is trying to get NASA off his back so he can try it. Well, that's what he claims. :-) I read the site and I'm not really impressed. It sounds boosterism to me. I'll briefly give some reality checks. 1) I know a decent number of research biochemists developing drugs. We talk shop some. I never every hear of a desire for a weightless research facility. If people are sure, I might ask around, but I'll be happy to bet I'd just get blank stares. 2) The government is set up as the big bad boogy man stopping everything. Why? If cheap reliable rockets were easy to build, and the government was inept, is there really a law against investing money in a foreign rocket program. If Enron can have a zillion fake offshore companies, can't there be a real offshore company that builds a launch facility on, say, Grenada. And, IIRC, weren't there private boost companies that talked about their certain bright future and then folded? I checked the rotary rocket home page and got a "not there" message. I saw a new ad for a new company that has a bright future, but not much done now. 3) Engineering is not as easy as it looks. I remember countless times when field people were convinced that Houston was a bunch of high priced idiots who took forever to do the simplest things. They would jury rig stuff and it would sorta work. They'd say "see, just finish it" and be amazed that it would take us years. If they were very very bad, they would be transferred to Houston to head a program to do it themselves. They then found out the order of magnitude difference between engineering that sorta works and works reliably. 4) There are other launch programs available. Why can't he pay the Soviets to launch his habitat and then let them use it for free for 6 months or a year? If it is really that efficient, then they could work out a decent arrangement to split the profits after that? Dan M.
