Category Archives: Business

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space

Live Blogging Jeff Greason

From his opening remarks for the Space Manfacturing Conference.

Didn’t want to be in the rocket business, just wanted a ride. Believed all the claims about the Space Shuttle, and they didn’t happen and got tired of waiting, so now in the rocket places. No point in going just to go — have to have some reason, something to do when you get there. If you haven’t figure out how to use this new land, what’s the point? People have seen that there was no point, but there still can be, but not a focus of what we’ve been doing in space. The point is to live there.

In the 21st century, with amazing technological powers, living twice as long as previously imagined. But we’re not proud of what we’ve done, but seemingly ashamed of it. Almost cowering and unwilling to take on the responsibility of wielding the power we’ve created. It’s a symptom, the disease is the closing of the frontier. New things bring new problem, with new opportunities, but in a society when you think we’ve got all we can, change is a threat. From feeling of running out of resources to thinking that it’s time to shift from creating to redistributing. While we sit on the edge of an ocean full of limitless resources. Worrying about our impact on earth’s climate and environment when Mars sits there begging for an impact on its climate and environment, just to warm it up a little. Time to reach out and grab what the universe is offering us. Picked up a book by Heppenheimer called “Colonies In Space.” Can look back with thirty years of experience and see that some of the technical concepts weren’t quite right, and some of the economics weren’t quite right, but one could say the same about Newton. Someone had to be the first to stand up and say, don’t these people need jobs, something to do to pay their way there? Don’t they need a cash crop, just as every migration has had. Gerry O’Neill was that man, we’re all Gerry’s kids, and it’s time to pick up where he left off, and start thinking afresh about how we get out there, make it pay, leave this earth with people who will not come back, and make it the next part of this great human adventure.

Business, Space

Armadillo

11 Comments

Neil Milburn just showed video of a flight to about a mile in altitude, with deployable legs. I think they have a little too much compliance in them, though. It did a cute little bounce after what looked like a slightly hard landing. Talking about a “tube” vehicle, fifteen-inch diameter, that will be useful for testing out avionics. It’s interesting to see that both Masten and Armadillo’s new vehicles have aeroshells.

Business, Space

Bigelow

27 Comments

“No company on the face of the planet knows more about these expandable habitats than we do.” 185,000 square foot expansion of facilities in North Vegas for production, not R&D. Clients are corporate and “sovereign client.” Up to fifty countries interested in this. Talked about meeting with the Chilean astronaut corps, who sat in one chair in his office. A lot of pent-up demand for smaller countries to get into space in some way other than NASA and Russia. Coming out with client leasing guide in middle of November. Have been cautious about shallow pocket books in the recession, so have expanded menu items from seven to eighteen, for more flexibility in amount of time and volume clients can lease. Using a real-estate model. Are offering financing. View themselves as wholesaler, so have no problems with reselling or subletting, as long as users meet minimum requirements. Thinking farther out, look to moon as stepping stone to Mars. Would like to see Delta IV upgraded to seventy-eighty ton vehicle.

Business, Political Commentary, Space

Private Space Station Progress

10 Comments

Bob Bigelow was at the reception last night. So was Leonard David, who got him to spill the beans on his “sovereign clients.” I think that Mike Gold makes an important point:

While countries in Asia and Europe take commercial advantage of space, “my fear is that this could become yet another extremely lucrative economic opportunity that is engendered here … and then shipped overseas,” Gold cautioned. “The U.S. Congress should spend less time questioning the business case of the commercial market. They need to spend more time trying to figure out how to grow that market and ensure that it happens here in the United States.”

With their blinkered “NASA must develop, own and operate its own vehicle” mentality, they are unwittingly aiding commercial space — in Russia.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Satire

The Job-Creator-In-Chief

13 Comments

Why is he playing favorites in Texas?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period. If every state in the country had performed as well, we’d have created about 1.5 million jobs nationally during the past year, and maybe “stimulus” wouldn’t be such a dirty word.

To quote the president in another context, you’d think they would be thanking him, but I’ll bet those ingrate Texan hicks won’t even vote for him in 2012.

[Tagged as “Satire” because I’ve never created a “Sarcasm” category. Maybe I should.]