To senualpilgram's Free State Proposal

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Ravenart@a... wrote:
>
> In a message dated 9/6/02 5:46:54 PM, tango_dancer@h... writes:
>
> << You may want to look at this site:
>
> http://mob.nfesc.navy.mil/
>
> Such a platform may work well with your ideas, if you can discount
> the organization that's promoting it.
>
> If modified it could take the Boeing Sea-Launch project to a whole
> new realm. You could have 5,000 of your followers on this
platform,
> launching rockets, doing assembly work, doing ground support,
> tracking, etc. Basically a small floating country.
>
> Hope you find it interesting. I certainly did. I've even
> incorporated it into some of my thinking, but more as an off-shoot
> rather than central to the goal of space development. >>
>
> This will really simpify all the launch business with least amount
of
> paperwork! In fact it could be used as a way to drop-kick the
space tourism
> rather than struggling through thick defense to the goal. Why
don't we think
> of it in term of as a way to start up the transportation business
so that the
> concepts will be proved and improved in the first few years until
our reconds
> are solid enough that the nervous nellies in the states are
reassured that it
> won't post real dangers to their tax bases. Let's keep think
guys. The less
> delays and costs we have, the more attractive space transportation
will be to
> investors.
>
> Carl E. Mullin
>

I'm not sure what you mean. I didn't get the impression that the
Mobile Offshore Base was something that could be built on a
shoestring. What I did read was the the bean-counters in the Navy
were trying to figure out if it was worth spending $2-3 billion per
module, for a five module system.

In the end, it may be cheaper to launch from the US and jump through
all of the bureacratic hoops, than it would be to spend $10-20
billion dollars on a launch platform and floating island for a new
nation of space enthusiasts who don't want to have bureaucratic
oversight from any government organization.