On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 23:59:17 -0400, Alex Fraser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> There are those that believe that huge government projects are not >he way to go. The belief is that small business and competition will >spawn innovation and make space travel cheaper and more accessible to a >larger portion of people. This adds an interesting element to the ERPS >experiment. Is ERPS primarily trying to prove the truth of a social mode >of organisation or just trying to get into space. It's one of those >means and ends type arguments which puts it in the realm of philosophy. >Ideology can hinder science. ERPS exists because a bunch of people in the Bay Area want to go to space, and have concluded that the government is not going to send them - so they have to build the ship themselves. So they are. The roughly aligned social/political views of ERPS members - and remember, these are the members' views; ERPS has none - stem quite simply from their self-selection into ERPS. Only gritty independent libertarian types will say, "To heck with the gummint, I'll build my own," and actually go do it. That said, ideology can indeed hinder science, but it can *really* bollix up engineering. Some years ago, ERPS kept itself ideologically pure, at the cost of flight testing. It wasn't fun, and I dare say it's over now. >The bloated milk cow of the aero space industry has actually blundered >it's way into space. The old Soviet whatever you call it system >blundered it's way into space. Any system can succeed for a while if enough good people work hard enough at it. NASA has tens of thousands of dedicated, motivated, talented people working for it. That's how it keeps going. The same is true of what's left of the Soviet space program. >I wonder when (or if) ERPS will blunder into space? I'm glad I'm not an ERPS executive any more. It means I can say openly that I find that remark offensive. You think it's easy? You try it. -R -- Son: Dad, I have a question about women. Suppose I Dagwood: Apologize anyway. Son: Yeah, that's about what I figured Dagwood: It saves time _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
