They also assumed all infrastructure to build SPS would be developed, built, launched and put into operation producing SPS before any revenues came in. Reliance on such new transportation technology entails an additional risk which is hard to sell. They should have based the system on more mundane transportation technology. SSI and its people are heavily invested in the Mass Driver and believe in it. Asteroidal resources were not considered in the Low Profile report.
Many researchers see asteroidal resources as more economical than lunar resources.
Since the time of the Low Profile report, the distribution of SSI research money has shifted significantly so that their interest now reflects both asteroidal and lunar materials in a more balanced way. Mass Driver research and development has not continued like before. Dr. O'Neill saw the promise of large revenues from the global positioning business. Dr. O'Neill and some of this top associates started spending a lot of their time, effort and resources getting Geostar up and running. Geostar used no SSI research, as it was technically unrelated, so all time, effort and resources going into Geostar did not benefit SSI one bit.