On Tue, Jan 21, 2003 at 01:23:39AM +0000, Ian Woollard wrote: > Actually, I think that nuclear rockets, and interplanetary research are > what government organisations like NASA should be working on. > > [I'll probably change my mind when I see what a pigs ear they make of it > though ;-), but if they can get it to work, it could be very nice.] > > NASA should be working at the space frontier- the space frontier isn't > launch any more; it's interplanetary. Companies should be working on > launch; sure they'll moan and groan about how they're not ready, but > there's no new tech they need to make it work, they need to work on the > markets; and NASA certainly can't do that for them. NASA needs to get > out of the launch market; and they need something else to go into... > NASA isn't going anywhere soon, so it needs to be diverted to where it > might do some good.
I have to say that in spite of being a market anarchist I completely agree with this position. If the government is going to be in the business of space, let them do bleeding edge space research and leave the already-explored stuff to the rest of us to commercialize. Let them go to Mars and leave LEO and the moon to those of us who are willing to sink private capital into it. It *should* be hard for NASA to arrgue that taxpayer dollars should be spent on endeavors that actually discourage the investment of private capital in the same industry, such as launch services!
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