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Which X-Treme Spacer Are You
Philadelphia PA (SPX) Dec 11, 2006 There are many reasons for wanting more activity in space. But if you're an X-Treme Spacer, you know that there's one silver bullet -- the motivation that would have us halfway to the stars if people would just shut up and listen to you. So check out the list below and choose your team:
High Groundhogs Whoever controls the spacelanes controls the world. Unless you act fast, China, North Korea and/or Iran will soon be destroying vital US orbital assets, just as the USSR did in the 1980s with its terawatt lasers. The shortest path to space is via DynaSoar, X-ray laser battle stations, and Blackstar, because the warriors know how to get things done.
Insurance Adjusters Something wicked this way comes. It could be the next dinosaur-killer asteroid, runaway climate change, gray nano-goo, or that old standby, thermonuclear war. If your Space Ark hasn't weighed anchor by the time it arrives... game over, man.
Much Higher Consciousness Sharing a gene pool with E.T. and 2001's Star Child, you are pecking at the shell of the cosmic egg. Once you can gaze back upon the outmoded Earth, you will be transformed. (It's not clear how, but it will be a Good Thing). No radiation shielding needed, as cosmic rays can only speed your evolution.
Free-Fall Enterprise Space is really about unfettered growth: the New World, the Industrial Revolution, and the Heritage Foundation all in one. We should never have let Big Government get involved. You can't wait for billions in investment to start flowing, as soon as ITAR and the Outer Space Treaty are tossed on the dustheap of history. (NASA should stick around just long enough to prime the pump with COTS contracts, then commit seppuku.)
Goal Tenders Remember the thrill of your first time? Apollo proved that only the prospect of a flag and a footprint will get us boldly going. You demand a truly inspiring new objective (ideally reddish-brown, somewhere this side of the asteroid belt). Pedantic, bean-counting concerns about a cost-effective space infrastructure will be forgotten in the glow of achievement.
Traveling Salesmen Do people want clean energy to forestall global warming? You offer solar power satellites and lunar helium-3 (reactor extra). New frontiers to escape a globalized monoculture? Mix and match planetary settlements and O'Neill habitats. Raw materials? Zone-melted asteroids, coming soon. Whatever their future needs, your future's got it. It just happens to be in space. Once you've identified the end, consider the means. There can, of course, be only one True Way. Now holding tryouts: Detail Men (aka "trainspotters" or "anoraks" in the UK) Let NASA, RSA, ESA, and JAXA keep doing what they're doing, as long as they release the specs. This team revels in the minutiae of rocketry, the more arcane the better. If you can specify all changes in the Block N J-2 turbopump that Huntsville sent back for valve re-work before it flew on Apollo 14, you're in. Just don't ask about economics, politics, or what to do once the hardware gets us to space. Powerpoint Rangers (formerly Viewgraph Volunteers) You already have the key to space: it's in the files, a great but unjustly neglected launch architecture that could be developed, tested, and mass-produced for a fraction of what the Space Establishment spends on office furniture. You meet for pep rallies beneath the everlasting light bulb (suppressed by General Electric). Alt.Tech Chemical rockets have let you down: after decades of gritty engineering they remain expensive and trouble-prone. It's time to start over with a space elevator, deployed by laser launch and magnetic catapult. From the top, nuclear salt-water hotrods will set out to roam the solar system. This team will take the field as soon as a few remaining kinks are worked out. Skunk Wonks You know the real barriers to progress in space: bloated engineering bureaucracies with too many middle managers, design reviews, and checklists. Join this lean, mean team in their converted warehouse, where the holy DC-X relics are stored. Given complete freedom and a comptroller who doesn't ask questions, you'll be in orbit before the SEC and FAA know you're gone. Plot Drivers Means? Aww... whatever. You just want to get out there with Firefly and the Ferengi, and can't be bothered with the difference between a working technology and the latest bleeding-edge speculation on Slashdot. Kerosene, scramjet, Orion, zero-point energy, teleportation... make it so, and don't spare the dilithium. c. 2006, Monte Davis Monte Davis is a science and business writer living near Philadelphia. This is adapted from Down to Earth, a book in progress about space expectations and realities. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links All about Space Tourism and more at Space-Travel.Com Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
Element 21 Golf Company Golf Shot In Space Generates Unprecedented Retailer Interest
Toronto, Canada (SPX) Dec 07, 2006Element 21 Golf Company and Frankfurt hasw announced its positive efforts to keep up with the heavy volume of retailer interest generated by its recent successful golf shot in space from the International Space Station (ISS). The extensive media coverage of the extraterrestrial golf shot made by Mikhail Tyurin this past Thanksgiving on television networks and the national press has generated a flurry of inquiries from retailers in the U.S. and Canada, as well as some international markets. |
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