Flight Rates

> Be careful. I think that these kinds of non-market considerations are
> exactly the kind of top-down calculated-instead- of-discovered- price
> thinking that has sidelined what might have been the space development
> business for the last few decades. You're right of course. All of the Middle-East arguments and environmental arguments in the world wouldn't equal the significance of SPS underselling fossil fuels by a penny a kW. Unless... If the economic effects of global warming were precisely calculable (not trying to argue they are, mind you),some people would advocate a "carbon tax" being levied against use of fossil fuels. That might not fly politically, but if such a situation did come about, SPS might become competitive with fossil fuels at least a little bit sooner than otherwise. Similarly, I think if the costs ofwaste disposal and reactor decommissioning were to be fairly factored into theprice of nuclear energy, it toowould face difficulty competing with SPS. An unfair strike against SPS is that all of its costs are up front and obvious. Some of the costs of continuing to use fossil fuels and nuclear power are hidden.