The mothings change...

Hi folks,

This has been a very interesting topic and your
observations mirror my own 30 years in the large
corporate aerospace government contractors employ.
Now that I have started out on my own however, I have
a somewhat more optimistic point of view. There are
several reasons that I believe will change this
NASA/DoD - Boeing/Northrop/Lockheed research status
quo.

1st: Although we are still ahead of the pack, we are
not the only government that can get into space. And
if we don't develop a strong space program now, we
will loose that lead. Most of congress knows this,
and is beginning to see that a more open, competitive
method of awarding research contracts is a better bet.

2nd: Several of rich people (who made their millions
in other industries) have committed their resources to
some specific space project that will ultimately lower
the cost of human activity in space. (The two that we
are most familiar are Elon Musk - low cost rocket
launch system, and Robert Bigelow - inflatable space
station or hotel.)

3rd: Investors are just beginning to see the
potential of space projects. Perhaps John Lewis'
"Mining the Sky" was read by a few of them?

4th: Because of the above reasons, and many more, and
because of past mistakes, and because of our
'peaceful' quest to return to the moon and Mars,
momentum has started to shift a little bit toward
"more bang for the (space) buck".

Anyway that's just my opinion.

As for NASA selling it's technology, I don't see their
gains as being that big. In fact compared to the
100's of millions of dollars they give away to
researchers of all kinds, it's only a small fraction.
If you want to know where that money goes why don't
you ask them? I'm sure they will have an answer
already for that question.

regards,

Dave

--- Jake wrote: