Let private firms run space taxis, panel told

[bananas]

Let private firms run space taxis, panel told
8 hours 7 mins ago
Reuters Irene Klotz

The U.S. government should leave the business of launching cargo and people into Earth orbit to private commercial space transporters, members of a presidential panel said on Wednesday.

A subcommittee of the Human Space Flight Review panel said turning over transport services to the International Space Station to private firms would allow the U.S. space agency NASA to focus on new challenges, such as extending human presence beyond low-Earth orbit.

The International Space Station, a $100 billion (61 billion pounds) project involving 16 nations, orbits about 225 miles (360 km) above the planet.

"My God, great NASA has been to the moon and we are sort of thinking that it is a big challenge for us to continue going to (low-Earth orbit)? Let's turn it over to newcomers," Bohdan "Bo" Bejmuk, a former Boeing executive, told panel members.

<snip>

Two months ago, Robert Zubrin made a prediction:

In an interview after his speech, Zubrin said that he expected the Augustine panel to look at broader goals for human spaceflight rather than tackle a detailed technical analysis of Constellation and competing architectures, given the names associated with the panel to date. “Either they say going to the Moon is stupid and we should keep going up and down to the space station, or going to the Moon is stupid and we should set ourselves a real goal, and that is to aim for Mars,” he said. There’s some reason to hope for the latter, he said, noting that panelist Chris Chyba is an exobiologist who might better appreciate the scientific rationale for human Mars exploration.

June 1, 2009

If Zubrin is correct, the commission will recommend Mars as a priority.

[comtec]

1. Anyone see Total Recall?

I know silly Q...

THAT was a corporate owned and run facility.

Now someone want to tell me again why I should trust a corporation to run space?

Mind you, as soon as they accept how much raw resource there is out there it'll be ON like you have never seen.

but... o m f g will it be fucking evil out there.

you think human violations here are bad wait till you get to space.

[Raster]

2. Oh, you! Just get to Mars!

[comtec]

3. I'm tryin!!!

I'm not worried about myself personally.
I'm an engineer, a tech. I'll probably have a cushy corp overlord position.
I'm worried for the poor mutants' ancestors.
The slave, sorry outsourced low-cost labor that will come from india and china, and the slums.
There is no way in hell that the heavy labor on mars, and asteroids, etc will be done by highly educated sorts. especially not if the operations are run by corporations.
They'll look at the cost of training, pay, and shipping vs loosing a few thousand over the "life" of the project.
and I guarantee you that the human cost will be worthless to them.
"if you die, I don;t have to pay you, and look at all this work you did for free for me."

[Orrex]

4. Here's an early prototype:

[Orsino]

5. Surprise, surprise!

Bohdan Bejmuk, the "former Boeing executive" quoted above who wants newcomers to handle space cargo transport, was also a VP of Sea Launch, one of those newcomers. :eyes:

http://www.sea-launch.com/news_releases/2000/nr_000229.html

Anyone else sick of hearing businessmen tell us that business is good for business?