Markets

Carl,

I must take issue with some of the points and claims you made.

> There ARE markets right now for business in space! In new book by Lou Dobbs,
> "Space: the Next Business Frontier" he pointed out that space already make
> $100 billion a year combined. The biggest is satellite industry with many

These markets will not get us to the high frontier, since they all invole launching unamnned satellites
which are constructed from terrestrial resources.

By themselves the communications/locations systems will not lead us to space manufacturing.

Note that for most of these systems, the bulk of the cost/value is in the gorund segment,
and the spoace hardware is a small part of the overall system. Hence launch costs are
not very important, launch costs represents less than one percent of the overall system cost if you
include the gorund segment.

> new products coming soon or are already up. In the wake of WTC on Sept. 11,
> we have seen a huge need for far better communication and location system.

Not really, there is plenty of capacity in existing systems to cover this level of usage.

Satellite phones and location systems already exist.

> Cell phones were useless in city with high buildings and few broadcasting
> points. TV and some radio was knocked out, except for CBS. We need better

Satellite phones exist but they aqre very expensive, and are not a realistic
alternative to conventional cell phones. For consumers. They are useful
for emergency workers, but that is about it. Not a mass market.

The Iridium company who provides satellite phones went bankrupt. Their assetts were
sold off at a huge discount, and are still underutilized.

> location tracker for people in case of being buried in building collaspe or
> soidlers needing to be pull out of territory. Also, we need better air

Are you saying that we will all walk around carrying satellite locators ?
I really doubt that. There might be some market for emergency workers,
but again, that will not be a large market.

> traffic tracking for airplane and Boeing have proposed air control system

This system was proposed by o'Neill decades ago. It is expensive and for
now there is no sign that the FAA will invest much in this area. After Sept 11th the
Iridium company made a proposal to FAA for real time cockpit downlink, but that can probably be
satisfied using existing their capacity.

> based on satellites. Even solar power satellites could be sold on text of
> freeing ourselves from oil and being protected againest terrorist attacks
> because of their locations. Even if they destroy the ground transformers,
> it's a simple matter to switch to another transformer right away.
>

No that is not much of an argument, SPS is very expensive and there are other alternatives which are much cheaper.

There is plenty of coal, gas, oil shale and methane hydrate deposits around the world and on the ocean floor.
We do not need SPS to become independent of the Gulf states.

Completely disabling a rectenna would be practically impossible because of their size.

But the power transmission lines would still be vulnerable, perhaps more so in centralized recetenna power
distribution system. Compared with lots of smaller power stations scattered over a wider area.

> Now the question to ask is how can we use today's needs to our advantage in
> pushing for future colonization? As long as we use the markets' own power,
> we can ride them like surfboarders to the place we want to go.
>

I really do not see the terror attacks of Sept 11th changed anything from the standpoint of the high frontier,
neither for better nor for worse.