Category Archives: Business

Business, Space, Technology and Society

Jeff Bezos

21 Comments

An interesting interview. It’s mostly about Amazon’s business model and plans, but Blue Origin does come up:

Levy: You have a separate company called Blue Origin that hopes to send customers into outer space. Why is that important to you?

Bezos: It is a serious effort. When I was 5 years old, I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. It made me passionate about science, physics, math, exploration.

Levy: Will you walk on the moon someday?

Bezos: Me? Are you saying would I if I could?

Levy: I bet you’d like to, but do you think you will?

Bezos: Boy. I’ve been asked to make tough predictions before. That one’s very tough. But that’s not what this is about. If I wanted to buy tourist trips to fly to the International Space Station and Soyuz and those things, there’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s $35 million. I want to lower the cost of access to space.

Levy: How do you do that?

Bezos: I like to say, “Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times.” For Amazon, that’s selection, speed of delivery, lower prices. Well, for Blue Origin it’s cost and safety. If you really want to make it so that anybody can go into space, you have to increase the safety and decrease the cost. That’s Blue Origin’s mission. I’m super passionate about it.

Levy: Do you feel that it’s a bit disconnected to start a space-exploration company in this economically grim time?

Bezos: No. We employ a lot of aerospace engineers. They have families, their kids go to college. We buy a lot of materials. Somebody made those materials, right?

I don’t even understand that last question, but note the use of the e-word. I wish we could get people to think about space in terms other than science and exploration.

[Late morning update]

This is sort of related. Lileks isn’t impressed with the Kindle Fire.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Ironic Presidency

45 Comments

The difference between 2008 and 2011:

The one constant here is Obama’s false pitch in 2008 that everything that came before his hope-and-change elixir was simply awful and everything after would be wonderful, from a cooling planet to falling seas — all delivered in teleprompted mellifluousness with a new post-racial cool. In 2008, for a conservative critic to suggest that the former Chicago community organizer was a glib rookie senator — without any experience in national politics, clueless about the private sector, with no prior record of industry or inspired legislation, and with a mostly unknown and poorly researched past — was to earn the charge of racism; in 2011, for a liberal to do the same, I guess, will be seen as sober and judicious bipartisan reflection.

And they’ll still call us racists.

Business, Space

Lynx

8 Comments

…is finally moving forward, apparently no longer constrained by cash flow.

[Update a few minutes later]

This is pretty cool — robots that could build facilities on the moon.

[Another update a few minutes more later]

Speaking of lunar bases and cash flow, they sure buried the lede in this story about Shackleton Energy Company:

The company has set a goal of US$1.2 million and at the time of publication of this article had raised $3,665 with some 40 days remaining.

So, only $1,196,335 to go.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Avastin Decision

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Did the FDA do the right thing?

The Wall Street Journal, and others, have denounced the FDA’s move as “a chillingly blunt assertion of regulatory power.” But my Manhattan Institute colleague Paul Howard is the guy who gets it right, in a blog post for Medical Progress Today:

If you think (as I do) that the FDA should be expanding the accelerated approval pathway and allow more drugs to get to market based on promising early studies. rather than waiting for large Phase III clinical trials that can take years to complete, you can argue that this outcome actually strengthens AA. Critics have charged that AA is sop to industry, and that companies never do the follow up studies to support AA. Avastin proves them wrong.

This is exactly the point. If you want the FDA to approve more innovative, new drugs based on promising but early clinical results, you have to give the FDA a way to revoke those approvals later on, should larger trials prove that those drugs aren’t as safe or effective as they first seemed. This is why the FDA should be congratulated for the way it has handled the Avastin breast cancer saga, and why I hope we will see the FDA handle more cases like this one, not less.

Yes, this is better than the way they’ve done it in the past, but this argument presumes that the FDA should have such regulatory power in the first place. It’s one thing to provide data on efficacy. It’s another to prevent people from making their own decisions about what drugs to use for which ailments.

Business, Space

A Tantalyzing Space Press Release

2 Comments

I just got this from Shafer Corporation:

Schafer Corporation Signs Licensing Agreement with MoonDust Technologies LLC

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 21, 2011

Schafer Corporation Licenses Space Commercialization Technology to MoonDust Technologies, LLC

Albuquerque, NM – The Schafer Corporation, a scientific and engineering company, has signed a Licensing and Development Agreement with MoonDust Technologies, LLC (MDT) of Tucson, AZ to give them exclusive, worldwide production and marketing rights for a unique line of products resulting from the use of Schafer’s Proprietary microgravity production technology. Although well known for their defense-related space capabilities, Schafer has been developing and evaluating technologies for commercial space applications since 2008.

The Agreement grants MDT the exclusive right to produce and sell these products worldwide and provides Schafer with royalties on the sales. As part of the agreement, Schafer will provide MDT with technical and engineering support focused on the design and development of space hardware. “We’re excited about this opportunity,” said Schafer Corporation President Tony Frederickson. “For over 40 years, visions of space-based commercial ventures have been driven by the advantages of microgravity fabrication for a range of high-value products. We’re pleased that Schafer technology will play a part as this dream at last nears reality.”

“We were blown away,” said MoonDust Technologies CEO Rick Gibson. “When we saw what they had developed it was a no brainer; form the company and let’s do this. The impact will be stunning – we’re looking at a broad range of transformational products involving medical, information, and DOD applications.”

MoonDust Technologies, LLC was created as an affiliate of the Medusa Group of companies in Tucson, AZ. Dan Hodges, CEO and President of Medusa said “Notably, Schafer’s micro-gravity technology allows us to solve some extremely difficult technical issues and create solutions and products that are desperately needed, but simply couldn’t be solved with earth-bound processes before. This approach is the only way to go.” MDT expects to have sample products available for industry review next summer, 2012.

About Schafer Corporation

Schafer Corporation, formed in 1972, is a leading-edge technology company providing high quality products and professional services to government and industry customers. Schafer’s legacy is rooted in space, optical, and directed energy programs. Today, our knowledge and experience supports all branches of the military, the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and NASA. In addition to our legacy competencies, we support these customers over a broad set of disciplines including system engineering, technology management, missile defense, commercial space, net-centric systems and communications, nano-fabrication, modeling and simulation and agile software development.

For more information, please visit: www.schafercorp.com

Contact: Rhonda Peyton P: 505-338-2856

About MoonDust Technologies, LLC

MoonDust Technologies, LLC (MDT) was created in 2011 by Rick Gibson with its headquarters located in Tucson, AZ. MDT is an OEM product company that specializes in the production of unique materials that can only be manufactured in microgravity environments. MDT owns exclusive rights to Proprietary technology that has been developed by leading edge defense and advanced aerospace companies.

For more information, please visit: www.MoonDustLLC.com
rpeyton@schaferalb.com
MoonDust Media Relations: Rick Gibson
 p: 520-661-6797

About Medusa

Medusa comprises a group of five affiliated companies specializing in electromagnetic, ultrasound and aeronautical research, development and operations. With broad operational expertise, MRO and laboratory facilities, the Company has unique large corporation capabilities with the attention to detail and customer needs which emanate from a small company atmosphere.

For more information, please visit: www.medusa.com

Medusa Media Relations: Darrin Holman p: 520-512-5299

Via Rich Glover at Shafer, who says that “…if successful, this is a game changer.”