On 1 Dec 2003 07:02:01 -0800, in a place far, far away,
(ed kyle) made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

(Tom Merkle) wrote in message . com...

Interesting that though Japan is the #2 economy in the world, and
supposedly techno-centric, there are no Japanese entries for the
x-prize. California and Texas both have multiple teams.


Probably because Japan is busy with important stuff like
conquering the world-wide automotive market, which is the
biggest part of the industrialized economy (think about how
many millions of vehicles are sold per year - and how many
tens of thousands per *day*). The space business is, and
will remain, irrelevant by comparison. Maybe some U.S.
outfit will win the x-prize, maybe not. But Japanese
companies have, in sequence, dominated the competitions that
really matter: first Formula One, then CART, and now IRL.
NASCAR would succumb too, if only the good 'ol boys would let
Toyota and Honda in. Japan dominates other competitions, like
the solar car race in Austrialia. Do these competitions matter?
Well, right now Ford is slipping from second to third in the
world, behind Toyota, and Honda just built its 10 millionth
vehicle within the U.S..

This thread inspired this week's Fox column:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104758,00.html

--
simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

"Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me.
Here's my email address for autospammers: