Let's Play Politics

> One problem is that any one thing will have lobbyists and interest
> groups. You might never get them all to agree.

That's right. This is why I suggested finding something that
everybody wants, even if they want to use it for different things.

> I submit a prize for a goal that would - as a side benefit - make
> everything else doable would be your best bet.

Yes. I hadn't been thinking in terms of a prize, but it's at least
as good as anything I could think of. In fact, it's better.

> It's simple, won't get swallowed up by dissenting opinion,

Unless the goal is loved by some and hated by others.

> does not require a lot of complicated finagling among competing
> interests,

Let them do their own finagling?

> and you only are required to lay out cash when/if.

This might well be the best part about a prize. No paying companies
to do nothing.

> 10 billion (could be more) in tax free money

Right. And you could always tack on "NASA promises to buy five of
the new vehicles" or "you don't pay taxes on any profits made off of
this moonbase/space station/launch vehicle/whatever for five years"
or something else, if the deal still needs to be sweetened.

> for (say) a moon base would probably do it.

"But the moon is useless!"

"No it is NOT!"

"The moon is a distraction from Mars!"

"The asteroids have better resources!"

"The moon still has advantages, you know."

"Not enough."

So while I agree with you on the prize, I think that we need to shoot
for something that the proponents of non-moon stuff can look at and
say, "Heck, this helps my cause as much as any moon-nut/Mars-nut/etc."

Still, I could see telling them something on the order of, "Look, a
moonbase is hard enough to do, and requires developing certain
technologies that will make it a lot easier to do whatever it is that
you think is better than a moonbase." Has the advantage of being
true. So if it turned out to be a moonbase prize, I should hope that
the space community in general would support it.

Still think CATS is better, as it's hard to do moonbase or powersat
or Mars or habitats or asteroids or even really big unmanned missions
without it.