Move over NASA -- US private manned space station by 2010

[St Leo]

Originally posted by DanS
I would love to hear the word "canceled", "ISS" and "Space Shuttle" all in the same sentence.

Let's not burn the eggbasket that works before the alternatives stop being pipedreams.

[Sprayber]

Perhaps it should be declared that whatever country/corporation/NGO reaches Mars first they can have sole rights for 50 years.

[St Leo]

How about 'No'?

Turning it into an Antarctica-style preserve may be too extreme on one end, but handing it over to some interplanetary Hudson's Bay Company doesn't strike me like the best idea ever either.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Duce Bigelow in Space? If the space trailers rockin don't come knockin'.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Sprayber
Perhaps it should be declared that whatever country/corporation/NGO reaches Mars first they can have sole rights for 50 years.

[Urban Ranger]

This sounds more and more like the new dotcom craze.

[Ted Striker]

[DanS]

Let's not burn the eggbasket that works before the alternatives stop being pipedreams.

These aren't pipedreams. You can see the test articles pictured above. The endeavors may in the end be unsuccessful (as any achievement worth the effort and time is inerently risky), but the programs are fully-funded by private individuals and entities and we're seeing hardware fabricated and flown.

But in any event, I think that ISS and Space Shuttle should be canceled based on the programs' lack of merit, not because of what is happening in the private sector. My position might change if the private endeavors are becoming more successful, however. The ISS and Shuttle programs suck $6 billion per annum from NASA and return little but jobs for a few congressional districts.

[DanS]

Here's a good rundown for the "critical mass" of private space endeavors that I mentioned above.

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/09274wna.xml

To this, I would subtract the DaVinci project and add the Armadillo Aerospace project, which has stable funding and a good approach to building rockets.

Add Jeff Bezos' project "Blue Origin" to the mix too. They didn't list it in the article because the Bezos has been hush-hush about the project. But Blue Origin has been hiring for years. Much of Bezos' $4 billion fortune will be going into the space business, as I understand. It's just a matter of when it will be invested and what it will be invested in.

http://www.blueorigin.com/

[chequita guevara]

How is this free market when it's largely funded without an expectation of return as well as involves lots of NASA input?

[DanS]

You're the first person in this thread to mention the "free market." Even the privately developed rockets (SpaceX Falcon I & Falcon V), draw on a long history of government-funded experience in rocketry. The SpaceShipOne suborbital rocket plane is probably the least influenced by government funding and experience, but there is still some residual.

[:) Smiley]

It's more of an expensive hobby for nerds with lots of money.

[DanS]

Some rich nerds are trying to make money off of it (Elon Musk, Branson). Some rich nerds aren't (John Carmack, Robert Bigelow). Carmack looks at it as a hobby and compares it favorably to his race car hobby. Robert Bigelow looks at it more existentially.

Bezos appears to look at it existentially, but we don't know if he's really trying to make any money off of it.

[chequita guevara]

Okay, never mind then. I'm still concerned about the ability of these things to stand up to space debris. If the material is tough enough, though, perhaps they might consider setting up protectie sails near the stations.

[DanS]

These materials are much more robust than the aluminum shells used by ISS (the multilayered fabric is 1 foot to 18" thick, after all). Inflatables are one of those rare novel ideas that seems to make more and more sense as you continue to look at them. That's why even though NASA canceled the Transhab program which developed the idea, it is supporting the program with its brain power and experience.