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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!stolaf!mmm!umn-cs!quest!dave
From: dave@quest.UUCP (David Messer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Re: spinoffs
Message-ID: <299@quest.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Dec-85 02:32:46 EST
Article-I.D.: quest.299
Posted: Fri Dec  6 02:32:46 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Dec-85 03:17:30 EST
References: <8511251310.AA17146@s1-b.arpa>
Organization: Quest Research Inc., Burnsville, MN
Lines: 29

> I was interested in spinoffs, so a few years ago I sent away for one
> of those (NASA) books.  It was pitiful.  The best spinoff they could point
> to was ferrofluids, which are used in (among other things) magnetic disk
> drives as a dust seal.  Its worth maybe $100 million, tops.

You're right.  It is pitiful that that was all they came up with.
What about modern computers for instance?

> 
> > The big advance coming now is direct manufacture in space.
> 
> I am skeptical.  There is not one product yet identified that is a good
> bet for large scale space manufacturing. ...

How about solar power satellites?  Communications?  Weather
prediction?

> What
> about perfect crystals for semiconductors?  When launch costs are
> $50+/ounce that's unlikely to be economical ...

Do you realize how many semiconductor chips you can make out of
an ounce of perfect silicon crystals?  $50/ounce is an inconsequential
cost for such a product.
-- 

David Messer   UUCP:  ...ihnp4!quest!dave
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