Xref: utzoo sci.space:31883 rec.video.satellite:915
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sequent!muncher.sequent.com!szabo
From: szabo@sequent.com
Newsgroups: sci.space,rec.video.satellite
Subject: Re: Access to Space
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.195748.27968@sequent.com>
Date: 18 Jun 91 19:57:48 GMT
References: <31516@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun18.172719.26033@sequent.com> <1991Jun18.182934.17996@iti.org>
Sender: news@sequent.com (News on Muncher)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Lines: 36

In article <1991Jun18.182934.17996@iti.org> aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes:

>[Satellite communications] is a big industry but it is by no means 
>self-sustaining. Buyers of launch services only pay the incrimental cost 
>of their launches.  They use huge amounts of infrastructure provided by 
>nasty central planners (some of it constructed to support evil manned 
>space).

Oh boy, now we're down to "good vs. evil".  So who is Darth Vader here?
The TV networks and telephone companies using those evil robotic
communications satellites?  Or perhaps the people watching the TV 
or making the phone calls?  May the Force be with you.  :-) 

Seriously, my goal is and always has been to create an economical, self-
sustaining manned infrastructure in space.  I am afraid that the 
solution is a bit more subtle and long-term than launching tin cans into LEO
that cost 2,000,000 times what it costs to build a house on Earth, without
producing any significant revenues.  That is not economical.  That is not 
self-sustaining.  It is not even close.

The U.S. commercial launch vehicles use USAF launch pads developed for 
the DoD automated infrastructure (which is also, sadly, self-sustaining, 
insofar as there are still Saddam Husseins and Soviets with thousands of 
nuclear tipped ICBMs and other assorted hazards on our planet).   The
automated launchers were themselves developed from automated ICBMs
(Thor, Atlas, Titan).   For the European launch service, both the launch
pad and the automated Ariane rocket were built from scratch to launch
automated commercial payloads.  The amount of Apollo and Shuttle 
infrastructure used by the satcom industry is practically nil, despite 
the $100's of billions NASA has spent on it. 


-- 
Nick Szabo			szabo@sequent.com
Embrace Change...  Keep the Values...  Hold Dear the Laughter...
These views are my own, and do not represent any organization.