SpaceShipOne/Discovery Channel porn

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 18:08:57 GMT, Jose
wrote:

That is sufficient. (well, the "cheaper" part anyway)

"Cheaper" makes all the difference in making technology available to
the masses. Absent "cheaper" we wouldn't be flying with GPS, in fact
we wouldn't be flying at all.

Could you explain this differently? The sentence, to me, reads that
without GPS we would not be flying at all. Wait, you mean to say that
without inexpensive airplanes we would not be flying at all? I agree.

Cars proliferated because Henry Ford
made them cheaper. The internet opened up because computers became
cheaper. When RFID tags are cheap enough, society will change
dramatically.

It's not always about doing new things. It's often about making
things that have been done, doable.

So the value of what Rutan has developed, and what others are
continuing to attempt is a cheap (well cheaper than NASA) near space
ride? Basically a carnival ride with a spectacular view?


Again, I go back to the Wright brothers. Had you been standing on the dune
with them and saw the first flight, I'm sure the concept of a 747 or an F-22
was nowhere NEAR the front of your mind. Hindsite is better than 20/20. We
can look back now and say "the moon shots brought us X,Y & Z". But during
the 1960's the entire program was in constant risk of being shutdown simply
because no one could say what they were getting out of it.

What does the Rutan flights do?

#1 - It proves that it doesn't take a country or it's Billion dollar budget
to fly into space.

#2 - It begins the process and opens the lines of communication for the next
step. Heck the FAA didn't even know how to classify SS1. They finally
settled on "glider". Now with legislation in works, more of this kind of
thing is going to happen and the hurdles of red tape won't have to be
cleared...again.

#3 - It proves that we can still dream big. Most people think of it as a
"simple suborbital flight". But it was MUCH more than that. Why do you
think that they were able to set an altitude record during the flight? If
it was easy, Bruce Bohannon would have already tried it in a rocket powered
RV

#4 - ??????????????? Who knows. 20 years from now there will be another
100 things that you can list as direct and indirect derivatives of this
program. For now, our sight isn't quite 20/200, much less 20/20. We'll
see.

jf