Today's Assignment
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We are at a cusp, a decision point. We can decide to go one way, to the stars, and enjoy unlimited opportunities, unimagined possibilities, endless evolution, and eternal racial life. Or we can refuse the challenge, stay where we are—and die.
--Robert A. Heinlein, 1972Our race will spread out through space--unlimited room, unlimited energy, unlimited wealth. This is certain.
--Spinoff by Robert A. HeinleinBehaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of mankind. The door they opened leads to the hope that h. sapiens will survive indefinitely long, even longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight. As a direct result of what they did, it is now possible that the human race will never die.
--The Pragmatics of Patriotism by Robert A. Heinlein
Both Robert Heinlein and his wife Virginia were strong advocates of human advancement into space through commercial endeavors. As encouragement and support, Robert and Virginia Heinlein funded The Heinlein Prize; a substantial award and recognition “to the individual or individuals who achieve practical accomplishments in the field of commercial space activities.”
Anyone who has read Heinlein is aware of his dedication to the virtues of capitalism and free market competition as a force of improvement for our species—and his contempt for government weenies and socialist/bureaucratic nimrods.
Not as many as I would have desired by this late date, but there are a quite a few people who have accomplished practical steps in the field of commercial space activity. Below I have borrowed incomplete bits of a list from one of those fine people, Pat Bahn CEO of the TGV Rockets corporation, in an article he published at The Space Review:
Peter Diamandis, Greg Maryniak, and the Ansari X Prize Foundation: The Ansari X Prize has created a fantastic achievement for millions of people around the world. I, along with over 50,000 people watched SpaceShipOne fly into history.
Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, Mike Melville, and the Scaled Composites team: The successful flights of SpaceShipOne demonstrated that a small team of people with moderate funding could make the dream a reality.
Paul Allen, Vulcan Ventures: His deep commitment of funding without wavering made the SpaceShipOne flight possible.
Richard Branson and the Virgin Galactic team: The creation of Virgin Galactic makes commercial suborbital space tourism into a commercial market event. The commitment to suborbital tourism is a major change in the field.
Dennis Tito: The first space tourist fought NASA to get to fly. He showed that by working hard, being smart, and paying money, anyone could fly in space.
Eric Anderson and Space Adventures: By pioneering commercial space with the Russians, Space Adventures has created a commercial channel for space tourism.
Walt Anderson and MirCorp: Working with Jeff Manber and other visionaries, Walt Anderson founded MirCorp and created the first commercial space station. Despite its ultimate failure, it was a symbol of what could be done. MirCorp unsuccessfully fought NASA to create a private space business.
Walt Anderson and FINDS: The Foundation for the Independent Non-governmental Development of Space (FINDS) funded numerous small programs with the intention of making commercial spaceflight a reality.
Tom Rogers and the Sophron Foundation: A former government official, Dr. Rogers has been a tireless voice for commercial space efforts. He helped fight for industry when the dominant theme was that space belonged to the nation states. Dr. Rogers funded the Sophron Foundation, the first entity with a public charitable charter to enhance spaceflight.
Max Hunter, Pete Conrad, and the Universal Space Team: Pete Conrad and Max Hunter not only were key figures in the DC-X team, they also created Universal Space Networks, a successful space services company. USN took control of key space resources away from the nation-states and into the private sector.
Jack Biddle of Novak, Biddle: They financed the first commercial spacecraft launch in 1987. Their Delta vehicle was requisitioned for two years by the USAF when the Challenger was lost. This event showed the vital energy and robustness to national security space efforts having industry procuring and funding launchers.
Lutz Kaiser and the OTRAG team: The OTRAG team was the first substantial effort at a private spaceflight capability....
Charlie Chafer and Celestis: By creating a market for memorial spaceflight, Charlie proved that people were dying to go to space.
I urge you to investigate The Heinlein Prize and then drop them a note voicing your suggestions.
Making some small effort to support the most important, life-sustaining efforts of the human race is part of the responsibility of living in a non-Taliban state.
ThanQ! TBK
I love the sign that guy is holding. Says it all!
Posted by on 02/17/06 at 04:05 PM
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