Space Ships, Inc. by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Space Ships, Inc.

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:33
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 3:29 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

With the abysmal dismantling of our space program, and the handover of space exploitation to private industry-

(I mean exploitation as in, the exploiting of a resource... Though the negative connotations may prove out)

I wonder if any of you know what happened to the corporate space ships, like SpaceShip Two from Scaled Composites?

Is this still happening? Where are we in development?

Thanks,

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 4:27 PM

DREAMTROVE

yes, it's not going to make you happy.

Private space travel is far more promising. I recall when genetic engineering hit the scene, I heard "govt must control it, don't let it fall into the hands of corporations" even from people I still support, like Nader. But come to find out, if given to govt, they would develop bioweapons. Given to corporations, they would cure diseases. See, there's no profit in plagues, because they have no customers, but there's a strategic advantage in them.

So too with space travel. You might recall the US and USSR trying to turn space back on the earth as a weapon, again and again.

Yes, This is what happened to space ship one and scaled commposites. They went under trying to build branssons wet dream space tourism, and were bought out by a defense contractor. Immediately, plans for space tourism, moon and mars ships, etc., were scuttled, and all work was devoted to a new project, the b-4 bomber. Ain't govt grand? Anyway, four days later, they had their first major disaster, and four workers were killed. The problem was upscaling the engine fuel capacity with a much larger tank to meet specs from the air force for the b-4.

This is just too common a story. Btw, I don't even call these private enterprise anymore than I would can a government worker an independent agent. Corporation is just a manner in which people organize, neither good nor evil. They can be independent agents when they do it, or they can be an arm of the govt, as they were in this case.
Sorry for the long preamble but it's very relevant.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010 4:42 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_B-4

This is the only b4 bomber I could find. Is there any article I can use to acquaint myself with the program?

Thanks,

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 3:42 AM

DREAMTROVE

Anthony,

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2009/01/08/report-scaled-composites-workin
g-advance-bomber/#recent-comments

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/29/scaled_composites_stealth_bomb
er_uncloak/

Basically, they want to use Rutan's fuel efficient technology to make a plane that can bomb the earth from the US rather than launch from a foreign air base. A smart idea militarily, but on the good/evil scale not the sort of progress that benefits humanity. The sort of thing a government might want.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 5:53 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Thank you, Dream. This is very interesting.

It seems to me, though, that the spaceship two concept is still moving forward? Do you have information about it being cancelled?

Perhaps the military money is being used to keep the spaceship program alive?

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:21 AM

DREAMTROVE

Anthony,

Last I read it was on hiatus, but frankly, I'm considering scaled composites to be sidelined at this point if not dead in the water, I know Rutan is a military man and has done defense work before, but the b4 project represented a fairly radical shift, because people were taken off of the spaceship two project to be put on the b4. Think about the goals of govt and the history of NASA, and younrealize this isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. I suspect the next advances will probably occur outside. The USA.

I hope you forgive the strange sentence breaks, the iPad creates them for reasons I cannot fathom.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:32 AM

DREAMTROVE

Also hard to make a long post. The engine being worked on is Now reported as "for spaceship two and other systems" but at the time was reported in more detail as for the b4.

I'm not letting Branson off here, his project also requires a larger engine. Three workers were killed, and it was a cold test, I read at the time that the switch was called for by Northrop. Again, wth Northrup calling the shots, you're unlikely to see a lot of investment on something that is not immediately profitable like spaceship two when there are outstanding offers for something like the b4 or whatever they're calling it now.

This is one of my major gripies with govt, they put a lot of cheese on the table, and offer it for things which do not represent human progress on an absolute scale. Sure, the market does the same thing, but on nowhere near the scale, I suspect the system could be tweaked, meaning the economy, but I'll grant that it wont be fixed without a complete reset. If the extant persistent capital dynamic is allowed into the system then you are going to see the same destructive capitalization of resources and manipulation

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:33 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Well, once the computers mastered correct grammar and correct spelling, then there was only one human endeavor left to apply them to:

Incorrect grammar.

All hail Apple, come full circle. ;-)

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 7:35 AM

DREAMTROVE

The ipads a really nice machine that also requires some tweaking, which reminds me, Im going to try to code some apps, maybe after making cookies.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 9:02 AM

OUT2THEBLACK

Instead of the CON-stellation ploy , NASA could have gone for the Direct route and maintained high-tech employment .

http://www.directlauncher.com/

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:33 AM

DREAMTROVE

API killed the x30 and x15 years ago because there was money in selling oil for a flying bomb.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:33 AM

DREAMTROVE

Double post.

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