"BitBanger" :

"Neil Halelamien" wrote in message
oups.com...
[I'm kind of surprised this hasn't been posted about already, so
something I wrote yesterday to here.]

This is a very exciting week for private spaceflight! In addition to
the Virgin Galactic announcement, hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow (of
Bigelow Aerospace) has mentioned plans to announce a $50 million
orbital space prize, to a team which produces a commercial space
transport capable of sending 5-7 passengers to a Bigelow inflatable
space module by 2010. This will be dubbed "America's Space Prize."
There's an article with photographs available he

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0409/27bigelow/


LOL

LOL at you. Silly boy don't you that is what some people did when the Xprize
was first suggestted. But it seems to be working.

$50 million for a spaceship carrying 5-7 passengers into orbit and bring
them back safely? What a joke. There's no way someone will be able to claim
that prize for a long time. Orbital flight requires at least 20 times the
energy compared to a suborbital flight, so the prize should be 20 times
that
of the X-Prize (i.e. $200 millon). For that kind of money, someone *might*
be willing to invest in such a venture, but that's a big 'if' IMHO, because
you're losing serious amounts of money if it doesn't work. And if it
doesn't
work someone's likely to get killed.

What does the size of the prize have to do with the costs? The present prize
is 10 million, but most people are quoting $20 million for the SS1 & it's
carrier. Clearly the prize does not have to cover all costs to get people
started in construction.

Infact, name one single major racing event with machines involved where the
prize is greater than the construction of the craft used. Not NASCAR, not
Formula One, not the Jules Verne Prize, not the America Cup. Infact I don't
think the prize of the Tour du France covers the costs of bikes and training.

All that matter is the prize exists and look worth trying for.

And as for someone getting killed, what is this stupid fear of death that you
think you must try to wrap us all in cotton to protect us from ourselves.
Have you stop driving in a car because you could get killed? Avoided tall
buildings? Refused to fly on airplanes or sailed on ships because you could
get killed? What a dull life you must live.

I canoe every year knowing people have drown, I climb mountains (small ones)
knowing people fall to thier death. I drive a car on Ontario's major
highways to the cabin and have even seen a major accident happen between
three cars, a jeep, a towed boat, and a large RV that drifted into thier lane
just 100 meters in front of me. Does that mean I should lock myself up at
home?

For this kind of craft to be anywhere near safe it would have to be a
capsule, and a big one at that. The Russians are having a hard time
realizing it (both technically and financially) and the U.S. isn't even
thinking about one at the moment (but I suspect that will change in the
near
future). I believe this is far beyond private commercial enterprise's
capabillities at this time but I hope I'm proven wrong.

A) What does big have to do with safe? Safety comes from good designs not
size. Remember the Titanic?

B) What does government programs have to do with costing of private programs?
NASA would have spent $20 million just designing the SS1, then they would
try adding so many safety features the costs of finished product would be sky
high, that is assuming that they would get it finished. Lately NASA has had
a lot of unfinished X-craft.

Earl Colby Pottinger

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