Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!watmath!grwalter
From: grwalter@watmath.waterloo.edu (Fred Walter)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Does this proprosal make sense ? (was RE: SPACE QUEST)
Message-ID: <27897@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 21 Jul 89 18:40:52 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 65

The article about forming a group (Space Quest) got me thinking.

Why not form a non-profit organization whose goal is to get everyone of its
members off the planet ?

The work would be done by the members; all money raised would be put back
into the organization to better the facilities/do R&D/etc. 

The administration of the group would serve to connect people together
into working groups. They would gather information on the members
(regarding what everyone can do/will do) and give the information to its
members and ask the members for possible plans of action. The
administration would then gather all the plans and try and condense them
into one plan, which would be given back to the members. This would bounce
back and forth until a plan was had that everyone could live with.

I can describe this better by giving a possible scenario :

	You have engineers who are willing to design a rocket
	that would be able to put a payload into orbit. You have
	machinists who are willing to produce the parts (and 
	who are willing to produce the equipment needed to 
	produce the parts). You have salemen/marketers who are 
	willing to try and find people/corporations/etc who have a
	satellite that they will pay to have put in orbit. Plus 
	you have people who are willing to do all the other necessary
	things.

	The administration would design a plan based on plans submitted
	by the members (eg. engineer 1 designs this part; engineer 2
	designs this part; etc.) and gives it back to the members.
	The members would give critique the plan (engineer 1 says that
	he doesn't have the time to do part A, but he can do part T; 
	engineer 3 says he can do more then he's been given; engineer 7
	has some fancy hardware/software that will make certain jobs
	easier and is willing to let other people use it; etc. etc).

	Eventually, a rocket would be build, a satellite launched, and
	non-member money would come in, which would be used to improve
	facilities, so that bigger/better rockets could be built.

	Etc. Etc.

In return for giving time/money to the organization, one would get some
number of shares. When the stage is reached that people are actually being
sent into space, then the people with the most shares are the people who go
first. 

Once the organization is in a position where money is coming in, it could,
instead of shares, remunerate with money the people who give time (IE. said
machinist/whatever could be able to live while working on projects and
gaining shares).

This is a pretty rough outline. Does anyone see any obvious flaws ? Does
anyone have any suggestions ? Is anyone willing to help organize something
like this ?

	fred

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