A lobbying window of opportunity

>
> > There will be no new space race. It's time to get
> over it. The desire
> > for a new space race is like the cargo cults after
> WWII -
> > understandable, but irrational and pitiful.
>
> We need this, and I firmly expect that there will be
> a new space race,
> but between companies rather than between national
> governments.
>
> > ......Andrew

I am hesitant to think that what we need is a race. I
tend to support the idea behind the ISS, though not
the implementation. We need further coopoeration in
space, not competition. Look for example at weather
sats, astronomy and earth observation. We have been
able to greatly advance in these fields through
coopoerating with each other.

One of the things that needs to be differentiated here
the differences between space as a public good and
space as a commercial interest. Too often this gets
confused and things get messed up.

Look at the initiative in the 1980s in which US
government tried to commercialize landsat. This was
an utter failure because the main client of public
goods turn out to be public serviing agencies who tend
to have very small budget due to our tax structure.
So these agencies cannot afford to pay market demand
for data which would help for planning for and dealing
with urban sprawl, forest fires and natural disasters
(to name a few).

Having a race between commercial interests is good for
commercial services (commsats and the like) but I do
not believe this mentality is a beneficial for public
services (look at the current landsat mess today).

Ryan Z