Bootstrapping Hawaii

>the pioneers of new endeavors these days are largely corporations.
>
>Which is why the scale of the investment in orbit need not be a
>project killer, if the economc potential is there.

Yes, but there's one other kink, and that time to profitability. In most
Western economies, no corporation can sell 10 years of multi-billion dollar
losses to their owners/stockholders, no matter how much the seeming payoff
is after those 10 years. Investors in the modern era just won't stand for
that long a maturity on their investments, not on something with even a
whiff of risk to it. If you can start earning the payoff in 6 months or a
year, most stockholders will wait that long. More than that and you better
be a closely-held corporation with several cash cows in the portfolio to
keep people cool. Someday the ISS will be replaced by the IOSC, the
International Orbital Sam's Club.

This is why I think China will establish Lunar and Martian colonies before
NASA or ESA the Japanese, because they don't suffer these constraints on
their investments.

Brad W.

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