Earth-Moon Network = Maturing Space Industries

I think you're going to have a tough job defending the position that
the way industry develops in terrestrial markets, markets which are
well serviced by the infrastructures of existing societies, is going
to be a necessary pre-condition to developing space.
I never said it was a "necessary pre-condition". I said having such an infrastructure in place would reduce the cost of individual missions because it would eliminate their expense of having to integrate infrastructure subsystems. In eliminating this cost, space industry could be made more fundable because the overall cost of the mission would be less.

This whole conversation started because I said one of the reasons space missions were costly was because they had to bring all of their infrastructure with them. I made the comparison to current businesses and said we would have fewer Earth-based businesses today if every one of them had to furnish their own infrastructure. That is what started this recent debate over infrastructure.

Who do you propose build the infrastructure for all of the
businesses to use?
I propose the MUOL, as described in earlier posts. Let me know if you need additional information.

>
> That was then. That thinking is gone for the most part. They
didn't have a
> choice. The financiers of today do and choose to finance companies
that
> either (a) use existing infrastructure or (b) virtually guarantee
high
> profitability (thus warranting the added expense of including
> infrastructure in their start-up). Space businesses can neither
guarantee
> high profitability nor piggy-back on existing infrastructure. But
of the
> two, which is most likely? I believe infrastructure can be
provided
> separately and profitably and make doing in space more affordable
to others.

You're trying to have your cake and eat it too! You write
that "Space businesses can neither guarantee high
profitability . . " but then go on to write that the infrastructure
will "provided separately and profitably . . " My question to you
is how will the infrastructure operate profitably if the business
that it is there to support aren't operating profitably. The
businesses will go bankrupt and then who will pay for the
infrastructure?
Separating the two (the business and the infrastructure) reduces the overall cost. By making the business more affordable, you increase fundability and therefore at least improve the potential for profit. At the very least, you should be able to show a quicker ROI. There can be profitability without it being guaranteed up front. I never said the businesses couldn't make money. I said it was difficult to get a space business capitalized because it costs sooooo much up front. reducing this up front cost increases the likelihood of being capitalized.

Jack