Flight profile (Virgin Galactic models SpaceShipTwo)

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RE: Flight profile (Virgin Galactic models SpaceShipTwo)

I think it's far PAST time private enterprise got involved in space travel -- particularly the way the American government has dragged its feet and taken draconian measures in its approach to the space program ever since the end of the Apollo missions.

Roughly 30 years ago, a physicist (I can't recall who, offhand, but he had good credentials) wrote an article in Omni magazine about how virtually LIMITLESS, FREE (after initial costs and maintenance) electricity could be generated via an orbiting space station with its entire exterior composed of nothing but solar cells, exposed to unfiltered sunlight 24/7.

He said a large enough station, rotating at the proper speed, could generate its own partial gravity in work areas via the rotation, grow all its own food, be a completely private and profitable project and collect millions of megawatts of electricity to beam back to earth using lasers or masers or some similar technology (again, it's been A LONG TIME since I read the article, and I hawked the idea to everyone I met for years, but the details are a bit fuzzy at this point)...

Only VERY RECENTLY has this SAME CONCEPT (or something similar) been mentioned in the news as a possible "green source" of electricity for the planet... I guess the power elites had to wait until they were dragged kicking and screaming away from their Weapons of Mass Pollution (and most are STILL kicking and screaming)!

If more private enterprise had been allowed to get involved in this process much sooner, the benefits for all of us could have been realized by now... While I very much DISAGREE with the Bush Administration about government NOT being the one to do some things (like help the poor). One thing they definitely SHOULD have been opening to the private sector a long time ago is the space industry -- not just making the rockets and satellites, but doing the actual job and getting up there and MAKING IT WORK!

A lot of billionaires are little more than greedy oligarchs, but I think Richard Branson deserves his title of "Sir," because he continues to be an adventurer, innovator and a true inspiration for mankind, even if he DOES appear to have a bit of "billionaire ego."

Posted by: Jeff Hayes   Posted on: 01/23/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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