Private Spacecraft's 1st Space Station Trip Launches in September

Making progress.

Private Spacecraft's 1st Space Station Trip Launches in September

Progress? How so? It's just commercialization of existing technology.
Now, if Orbital Sciences was using a transporter, that would be progress. (Please forgive me for using the dreaded "T" word.)

I don't think the US has the political will to properly exploit space, so commercialization is the way to go.

richard09 wrote:

I don't think the US has the political will to properly exploit space, so commercialization is the way to go.

I don't think 'the commercialization of space' is a money-making proposition.

richard09 wrote:

I don't think the US has the political will to properly exploit space, so commercialization is the way to go.

Are the two firms mentioned in the article doing any actual private-sector work? Or are they just doing the same thing the  government has been doing: running supplies to the space station? At any rate, they are using technology developed almost entirely with taxpayer money, and doing work for which the taxpayers will compensate them. Hardly  what I would classify as "commercialization."

And what, exactly, will be gained by the exploitation of space. I'm not even sure what that means. Mining on asteroids? Vacation condos on the Moon? Casinos on Mars?

_Howard wrote:

And what, exactly, will be gained by the exploitation of space. I'm not even sure what that means. Mining on asteroids? Vacation condos on the Moon? Casinos on Mars?

You forgot one, "Providing LEO bragging rights for billionaires." So far that's the only product.

Hardly a viable industry.

_Howard wrote:

And what, exactly, will be gained by the exploitation of space. I'm not even sure what that means. Mining on asteroids? Vacation condos on the Moon? Casinos on Mars?

All of the above and more.

_Howard wrote:

Are the two firms mentioned in the article doing any actual private-sector work? Or are they just doing the same thing the  government has been doing: running supplies to the space station? At any rate, they are using technology developed almost entirely with taxpayer money, and doing work for which the taxpayers will compensate them. Hardly  what I would classify as "commercialization."

You have to start somewhere. You don't get to asteroid mining and all the rest if you sit back and wait.

Are you serious?
You're just yanking our chains now, aren't you?

I haven't made any predictions, bad or otherwise. I have only asked questions.
I have read many articles and seen a great many documentaries on the boob tube about the subject under discussion. The one thing I have not heard discussed is the expected benefits of such endeavors.

There are certain costs to escaping Earth's gravity that will not go away with new technology or economies of scale. There are distances involved that have been misrepresented by movies and books and the public really doesn't understand. There are real cold hard facts about sustaining life in the inhospitable environment of space which cannot be overcome cheaply.

All this makes the pipedream of commercialized space exploration nothing more than a fantasy.

richard09 wrote:

You have to start somewhere. You don't get to asteroid mining and all the rest if you sit back and wait.

Absolutely right -- but the learning curve, investment in infrastructure, half-measures necessary and distance to travel before arrival at "mining asteroids" -- both literal and figurative -- mean the payoff would never come close to paying off for investors.

richard09 wrote:

_Howard wrote:

And what, exactly, will be gained by the exploitation of space. I'm not even sure what that means. Mining on asteroids? Vacation condos on the Moon? Casinos on Mars?

All of the above and more.

For a moment I thought I'd fallen asleep and was living in an episode of Futurama.

_Howard wrote:

For a moment I thought I'd fallen asleep and was living in an episode of Futurama.

I always thought her name should've been "Liisa -- with two 'i's"...