Biosphe2 bashing

Justin,

You are right. I was projecting some frustration from hearing other attacks
on Biosphere 2 this past week. There was only one stupid message, and a
couple joking reactions. I shouldn't expect everyone to jump in with a
defense of that project when they hear these dumb remarks. (Hookers! What
an idea! It's not like these people were Congressmen! :-)

As for NASA's role in suppressing space activities, I agree we don't need a
thread on that now. But the whole issue goes back to why SSI was created,
so people should be aware of it.

One of my favorite stories is from John Lewis about AMROC (see page 8 of
Space Manufacturing 7, 1989). Besides AMROC, I suggest learning about more
of the alphabet soup of companies that NASA has tried hard to stop (ISF,
the other SSI, ETCorp, LunaCorp, ITA, MirCorp, Whitaker, Beal, SpaceDev,
even SpaceHab and USA, along with lots of the RLV companies, etc.). NASA
plays hardball, and acts illegally. A US Chamber of Commerce survey found
NASA was considered the number one problem (more than technology, or
investment) by space businesses. Even a NASA-funded KPMG study described
NASA as the major block to commercial space development. (That was brave of
them.) It took me 15 years, but I have come to see NASA's efforts as the
reason we don't have space activities one the scale described by the movie
"2001".

But thank God we still have those free-enterprise Russians! :-)
- Eric

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