business plans

>
> > On the subject of space business plans and what is
> > really needed,
> > some thoughts and links from Michael Mealling on the
> > following blog entry:
> >
> http://www.rocketforge.org/modules.php?
op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid3&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
> >
> > On how tourism is a start, but not everything...
> > Could it
> > be everybody's really in agreement, and we just have
> > trouble
> > communicating it to one another?
> >
> > Arthur
> >
> I think this really gets into the essence of what we
> have been going back and forth on over the past week.
> Especially the links in his blog. As tango has said,
> I too am interested in hearing others thoughts on near
> term markets. To reiterate our earlier threads, we
> have already mentioned the following:
>
> Suborbital Tourism
> Suborbital cargo delivery systems
> In Orbit Refueling
> In orbit repair (this is also going to be big
> giving the shuttle crisis)
> Remote Sensing (this is really an emerging market
> with some success)
> Orbital Debris Removal
> Military/Defense projects
>
> I'd be interesting in hearing what other near term
> markets are identifyable as well hearing their
> business feasibility. And for tango's purpose, how
> these advance the bootstrapping concept.
>
> Ryan

Nice synopsis.

As my mind wandered during a presentation at work this morning, I
got to thinking about this "entertainment" of ours.

Just a few disjointed thoughts.

If we're like bricklayers, we know we can build houses of many
stories, even though nobody has thus far order a 5 story brick
house. Then someone wants a World Trade Center built (you can see
how SSI permeates everything that enters my life:-) and you need a
whole new paradigm. That's what I think is in store for us in
orbital development once we exhaust the obvious business plans
listed above. None of them really requires orbital infrastructure or
orbital resources.

I am working from a position of Faith that given sufficient R&D
resources dedicated to science that is unique to space, then orbital
specific processes that are non-replicable on Earth will be
developed, or not economically replicable on Earth for industrial
production. Right now, there is a subset of science that addresses
space science. It is very small as a part of overall R&D spending.
When the volume or orbital R&D reaches a sizable percentage of
terrestrial R&D then I BELIEVE that a flood of innovations will
follow. In a sense, I believe that there is a relationship between
funding and human capital and resultanat discoveries.

I think we lack people on the list who can speculate on research
trends, so we have the blind leading the blind. I'm curious what
industrial processes we can develop so that can use the extreme cold
of space to slow down chemical reactions. What can be learned and
developed from that. We can do this on Earth but it's expensive. To
do it on an industrial scale will be horrendously expensive. As Ryan
pointed out, given sufficient infrastructure in orbit over time
(leaving out my concern of how we actually get from here to there)
the industrial scale concerns will be easily engineered. How can we
use the radiation, extreme vacuum, zero-g, or perhaps the
application of variable gravity at different stages of process, to
create new technologies, and how would having access to these
environments cheaply affect an orbital economy. What we need are
some actual scientists to say, "given these conditions, this is what
I'd investigate." And some industrial engineers saying "Given those
conditions I would design this process to achieve this product."

None of the business plans are revolutionary. We need some sci-fi
sprinkled in here to whet our imaginations of what could be possible
and unique to orbit.

I didn't really know where to introduce these comments so excuse me
if they're tangential to this topic.

TangoMan