From: pgf@srl02.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering)
Subject: Re: SPS feasibility and other space development
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana
Distribution: sci
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 15:19:50 GMT

szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) writes:

>In article <BtHtp9.7wF.1@cs.cmu.edu> amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk writes:

>>There are times when you follow hunches and gut feel on engineering  
>>issues because you simply don't have solid fact to go on. 

>This is quite different than persisting with a narrow set of hunches, 
>turned into religiously held beliefs, even if they have failed over
>and over, at great cost, while ignoring the many superior alternatives.

>>I think both Dennis and I and Allan would all agree that the fastest  
>>way to drive a technology (rather than science) into the the future  
>>capabilities we want is to build lots of quick and dirty prototypes  
>>that we can crash, blow up and otherwise mangle as a means of  
>>collecting EMPIRICAL data.

>This is not at all what Dennis and Allen have been promoting.  They
>have been advocating huge, expensive projects like HLVs, space stations,
>astronauts to Mars, and SPS that, when they fail, bring big chunks of 
>the space program down with them.  They say we lack "vision" 
>or "guts" unless unless we are willing to bet the house on such singular
>spectaculars.

If you'll notice, Allen is advocating that NASA say they'll buy
commercial HLV launches from suppliers who get stuck with the
bill if it blows up, while Dennis seems to want NASA to build
the HLV's itself, or at least dictate the size, shape, and even
the engines used to the "commercial" contractor...

A lot of what Allen seems to be saying is that "If you really
want an HLV, say you'll buy an HLV and maybe some dolt out
there will bolt one together out of Deltas and save you from
building an assembly line and factory for a vehicle you'll
launch once every two years..."

>Let's make NASA support the commercial space industry, by buying their 
>launchers and leasing their communcations networks, instead of NASA 
>dictating their narrow, obsolete plans for the shape, size, and orbit of 
>space infrastructure to all the other space users.  

Amen lord!

[...]

>In short, you have expressed a great strategy for the space program, 
>a visions of diverse and quick experiments, nearly 180 degrees opposed 
>to the way things have been promoted in the space advocacy community 
>and done at NASA.  Let's turn the keel and get on course.

Lots of space advocates talk about and hope for such things. It just
doesn't get covered _that_ much by the folks at _Ad Astra_ who seem
to deviate from mega-projects just long enough to clone Greenpeace's
newsletter every April for FROMATE (*) Day.

>-- 
>szabo@techbook.COM  Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks
>Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400, N81) 

(*) You know, the Fromates? The Friends of Man and the Earth?
The guys who have been trying to blow up Todos Santos for the
longest time... ;-)

--
Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5.
Phone: 318/365-5418 SnailMail: 2408 Blue Haven Dr., New Iberia, La. 70560
If seven maids with seven brooms swept for half a year,
do you think, the Walrus asked, that they could make it clear?
I doubt it, said the Carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.
---------
"NOAH!"                        \           \ Lewis Carrol
"Yes lord?"                     > Bill Cosby, The Story of Noah
"HOW LONG CAN YOU TREAD WATER?"/




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