Subject:
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Re: Some good news for a change, maybe?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 22 Jun 2004 20:04:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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959 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> It's valid to ask whether this is scalable technology or not but if one isn't
> impressed by this, one is part of the problem, in my view.
That's absolute nonsense. My impression or lack thereof has no direct impact on
this venture, as I don't have the money to throw at it either as an investor or
as a customer. I could be the most excited person in the world and it wouldn't
really benefit them any more than if I had firmly decided to boycott them. My
level of excitement is based not on the potential for future achievements, but
what they ultimately end up doing with that potential. If they never get beyond
the tourist market, I'll be very disappointed in them. If they contribute to
improvements in the NASA program, I'll be somewhat more excited about their
achievement. If they actively contribute to improving the living condition of
mankind in a non-superficial way, I'll consider them to be true heroes.
> It's not the technology per se that's the impressive part, although that's
> certainly cool, it's that someone finally broke through the stifle that the
> FAA, OCST, NASA and others have put on commercialism.
There has never been any fundamental roadblock that couldn't have been overcome
before except a real desire to do so. Until the Ansari X-Prize was announced,
the complaint was always that NASA hadn't commercialized their activities to the
point of flying astro-tourists on their missions (never mind the fact that the
Russians have only found two people who were both willing and able to pony up
the $20 million for a seat). The market has always been there for whoever felt
like tapping it, but it took a simple contest to give entrepreneurs the guts to
pursue that market on their own, rather than trying to use NASA as nothing more
than a crutch to largely eliminate their own financial risk.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Some good news for a change, maybe?
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| (...) You're entitled to your viewpoint, even if expressed not very politely, but I have a different view. As for your second para, do some research into how NASA, the FAA, and the OCST have held things back. It's not lack of desire or lack of (...) (20 years ago, 23-Jun-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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