New Mars Forums

yes Bill I had miss interpreted you thought and full meaning.
But how many would be willing to do so?

If I recall there was such a skeem to advertise from space but I do not recall who.

The trouble is you want to make purchase from those that are going to donate to the cause not just identity brands you want your organization to be associate with.

I would have enjoyed see that but alas I do not have that ability to do so.
Question, how much weight was the proto type and what was the amount of payload it simulated to move up the ribbon.

So this may be the wrong thread but we are discussing how to make a profit. The only private industry right now is tourism or another way to put it joy riding to sub orbital or the zero G experience.
Lets look at that business model since developement cost must be recovered over a long time and we must manage the cost per flight over that same period. It is not hard to see how we start out with the first half of that time frame to only break even and only in the second half do we finally have the chance to make a profit.
So the developement cost for spaceshipone is in the 30 million range and the cost for flights are x (maybe some on has this data) and the expected life of the vehicle is XX( others might know this ) to average against the number of paying seats of 2 for a minimal break even cost balanced across all the years. Oh and we can not forget to add in some repair or refurbishment costs as well for the entire time period of use.

The trouble with the media portrail of the solder and that of the shot prisoner is that they see this person as Iraqi first and not as an insurgent , terrorist that was not asked by the remaining Iraqi people to wage war on the American troops that are there.

The Iraqi people instead do not seem to be upset by this action of the insurgents at all, or of there actions it would seem. And worst of all it seems that Iraqi are now attacking those Iraqi that want change as if a new civil war has started within this nation.

The field that is generated in this style design will not be robust enough to slow the particles down on impact with the magnetic field. This is impart due to field strength intensity. But if an outer jacket with an ozone layer inside of the chamber shells were created then the particles would be obsorb as if in a plasma area with the magnetic field. Also line the next layer shell with a water jacket to further slow down other particle types would also add to the amount of protection.

A few more could be to consider these space oriented businesses non profit, Attracting non union or civil servant for staffing needs as well as off loading of work to other more benificial locations as to maximize the use of available dollars.

On that same list would also be purchasing products where possible from other spare faring nations, working with developing nations for lower cost of developement of designs and the list goes on....

Creating other sources of funds to utilize in this whole process is a must as well.

Thanks Martian for the responses I had not ment to point my words directly at your previous comment. My comment in general was in regards to how we have floundered in demonstrator mode since Apollo with the only out come that works has been the shuttle as a production unit.

I do not know how much money was spent in the developement of the shuttle program but we do know how much each cost to build and we do have real numbers to plug into the equation to justify why we should not be using the shuttle. Especially when it comes to how much money is currently available within the Nasa budgets years to come.

I do not feel that cheap or expensive is the goal but rather one of affordability. Spending huge sums of money on developement must be balanced with regards to the actual product in the end and its eventual cost.

Another update on cabinet office filling before the new term startsd. President Bush Names Margaret Spellings to Be the Nation's Eighth Education Secretary

Some of these have been surprises while others are not.

Yes john we are discussing that under Planetary transportation group but in a different light as weaponery that is an Airborne laser successful test topic.

Airborne laser success

But as you noted bigger planes as the first stage carrier will be required by that mode of launch. Also greater speed and higher altitudes as well will work into that equation as well.

Here is a base line article into how old the developement of this technology is.

Project Eros Space Solar Reflector

The trouble with any off the shelf unit is two fold in that they do not have the heavy lift requirement of the future and they are not man rated or capable at this time.