People aren't supporting Moon Plan

> Agian, the interim steps/projects are not minimized by keeping the
> bigger
> goal in focus - quite the opposite I'd say.

My point is this: given any goal that is so far down the line that we
cannot plot a simple path directly towards it, we must proceed on the
basis of intermediate goals which we believe will make the longer term
goal more accessible. We cannot necessarily be sure that the
intermediate goals make the longer term goal more accessible, but there
is generally a spectrum of possible shorter term goals from which a
promising candidate can be picked. I think your point is that the
candidate intermediate goals must be sorted according to a concrete
vision of a path which leads to the longer term goal, and you'll get no
argument from me on that point.

My concern is that I've seen various people attempt to shoot for the
longer term goal by (for example) designing a generic docking fixture
for spacecraft[*]. This is basically useless. First of all, there's
no short-term utility: all that's gained is a stack of paper or a
collection of bits on a disk. The concrete reward is so far away that
there is basically no hope at all of maintaining project momentum all
the way to completion. Secondly, does anyone really believe that a
major corporation or government agency that sets out to build real
hardware is going to leap to use a design cobbled together by amateur
volunteers? The effort involved in checking to make sure there are no
design flaws is almost as high as that involved in designing from
scratch, and if a hidden flaw is discovered the effort to fix it may be
greater than designing from scratch.

I'll post something more on what I think might really work in a
separate posting.

......Andrew

[*] This is an example cooked up for this email, not a reference to
anyone's actual project.