The next X prize

So, what do you think the next X prize will bring? First privately
funded re-usable spacecraft to orbit the earth? To the moon? Looks like
this is gearing up to be the next big economy 'boom'

"Chris" wrote in message
...
So, what do you think the next X prize will bring? First privately
funded re-usable spacecraft to orbit the earth? To the moon? Looks like
this is gearing up to be the next big economy 'boom'

It will be interesting. However, its to bad that greedy American CEOs have
ruined engineering as a profession so much that now American schools
graduate less and less engineers each year, and of those graduates many are
foreign born. Perhaps the Chinese and Indians will do well. Once they rule
space they will rule the planet. But we can provide the marketing fluff.

Earl G

So, what do you think the next X prize will bring? First privately funded
re-usable spacecraft to orbit the earth? To the moon? Looks like this is
gearing up to be the next big economy 'boom'

According to "Air & Space" magazine, Congress has before it a bill that
would provide $20 million for various aeronautical "X" prizes, in hopes of
spurring more Rutan-like entrepreneurs. One of the ideas being proposed is
an "X" prize for flying a "life form" to the moon, and keeping it alive for
90 days.

Although using taxes for this kind of stuff rubs me the wrong way, it *does*
provide "seed money" for thinking outside the box.

Sadly, some stupid government bureaucracy will (of course) have to be set up
to administer the program, which will probably suck most of the life (and
funding) out of it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Earl,

Lots of truth here! When I graduated as a E.E. in 1987 engineering
was a respectable profession. Now we are just an expense item that
needs to be reduced by off-shoring to India and China. The current
crop of CEOs are mostly MBAs without a clue as to where all the
product they are currently selling came from... or maybe they just
don't care. If I were entering college right now, I don't think that
I would want to go through the expense and hard work of an engineering
curriculum with such an uncertain return on investment waiting for me
in corporate America. That's why American students are staying away
from engineering right now...

Dean

"Earl Grieda" wrote in message ink.net...
"Chris" wrote in message
...
So, what do you think the next X prize will bring? First privately
funded re-usable spacecraft to orbit the earth? To the moon? Looks like
this is gearing up to be the next big economy 'boom'

It will be interesting. However, its to bad that greedy American CEOs have
ruined engineering as a profession so much that now American schools
graduate less and less engineers each year, and of those graduates many are
foreign born. Perhaps the Chinese and Indians will do well. Once they rule
space they will rule the planet. But we can provide the marketing fluff.

Earl G

Lots of truth here! When I graduated as a E.E. in 1987 engineering
was a respectable profession. Now we are just an expense item that
needs to be reduced by off-shoring to India and China. The current
crop of CEOs are mostly MBAs without a clue as to where all the
product they are currently selling came from... or maybe they just
don't care. If I were entering college right now, I don't think that
I would want to go through the expense and hard work of an engineering
curriculum with such an uncertain return on investment waiting for me
in corporate America. That's why American students are staying away
from engineering right now...

Supply and demand rules.

When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, engineering ruled. My Dad, a
career manager with a herd of engineers working for him, urged me to get an
engineering degree. In his mind, it was the Holy Grail that would ensure
his son's future, as the pay was extremely high, and the hours were
certainly good.

Instead, much to his dismay, I obtained an English degree. :-)

It appears that a lot of my peers listened to their fathers, and went the
engineering route. The pay was (and still, in some industries, is)
extremely high, and the hours are still good -- but as the supply of
engineers increased, the demand for them decreased.

Any good CEO is ALWAYS looking for areas to cut costs, and salaries are
usually the biggest item on the balance sheet. If a company can get the
same work for less pay, they would be stupid not to.

That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Supply and demand rules.
[snip]
That's the free market. It sucks, sometimes.

It is getting to the point where it will suck ALL the time for the incomes
of many Americans. The global free market economy will tend to level out
standards of living world-wide. Americans (and West Europeans) will not
like this, I predict.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

One of the ideas being proposed is
an "X" prize for flying a "life form" to the moon, and keeping it alive for
90 days.


The Melissa worm?

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

I work in the software industry and have a lot of friends who got their
degrees in mechanical, civil, electrical, and chemical engineering. They all
weathered the past three years better than my other friends who had "leisure
arts" degrees, but they've all also gone down more of a management track.

In IT, what I see is that core engineering is still being done here, but
grunt work that involves relatively little local-area expertise is slowly
moving offshore. The real losers in this case are the marginally-skilled
people who were just capable enough to get into IT, and because of the
relative shortage of people were enjoying relatively high salaries (e.g.
60-80k in New England) performing relatively straightforward jobs.

However, I think for every ten companies that talk about doing it, there is
maybe one or two that actually go for it, and the wage differentials
everybody talks about (e.g. $5/hr for an Indian engineer) never pan out. For
instance, if you want to employ 20 engineers at a call center in India,
you'll need to run your own fiber optic lines or get a satellite dish, and
have an electrical generator that can run it all when (not if) the local
power station browns out. Quite a few companies have seen offshoring blow up
in their face.

Does anybody remember the days when computers were going to put us all out
of a job? Well, I guess they did eliminate the need for so many telephone
operators and clerks, but overall white-collar employment is quite a bit
larger as a proportion of the population than it was 50 years ago. Something
tells me we'll survive this latest scare too.

Best,
-cwk.

American schools
graduate less and less engineers each year,

fewer and fewer engineers. (I are one).
--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America

Although using taxes for this kind of stuff rubs me the wrong way, it
*does* provide "seed money" for thinking outside the box.

I'd much rather pay this than for gasoline subsidies to Iraqis.

"Hello, NASA, (tap tap) is this thing on?"