That was one of Reagan's lines. I agree, especially when I consider the space program. Sure, a government program got us to the moon, but it hasn't been able to do anything since. Why?
Here's the problem: it is said to cost too much. That's it in a nutshell. We can't do anything because it is too gosh darn expensive. The trouble is that the government has no incentive to save money. Governments don't go out of business. If you are in business, you have a powerful incentive to cut costs, because if you don't, you are out of business. Therefore, if you rely upon the government to go further than the moon, which was canceled because of high costs, then you aren't going to go anywhere. You have to bring in private enterprise in order to bring costs down, and to make it financially feasible to accomplish. In other words, the government is the problem here, not the solution.
Paul Spudis was on the Space Show recently, and he goes into his disappointment with the
government report on space. Why, of course he would be disappointed. Why should you expect anything else?
It seems that to look to the government for guidance here is a huge waste of time.
No,
Elon Musk seems to have the right kind of ideas. Get the launch costs down, and you can open up space. But even that isn't enough. That's because, what do you do when you get there? Going to Mars may be really cool, but what do you do there? How do you set up an off world civilization and make the human race a multi-world species? Once again, you rely upon private enterprise.
I
suggested mining the multi-trillion dollar asteroids for their platinum and gold.
All this leads up to what I brainstormed just now. It seems that osmium is the most dense element known. Because it is so dense, it is hard to work it. But it can be produced as a powder. What if you take that powder and mix it up with plastic? I'm thinking such a concoction could make a relatively thin iron man suit that would protect an astronaut from the radiation in outer space.
As you may recall, if you read my series, that the human body only covers a small area. I reasoned that you can save a lot of weight by protecting just the human body as opposed to
protecting a large area. It makes sense to do this if you want to reduce weight, which is the biggest enemy in space travel. Whatever helps with weight will be a big advantage in completing the mission.
The problem here is that nobody has tried this. Well, maybe when I get on my land, I will try it some day. You sure can't do it in an apartment.
If only I can live another 30 years. Ah, the possibilities. As long as the government doesn't do anything to screw things up so badly that
it will never be done by anybody ever.
Update:
I downloaded two Space Shows, with the second one featuring John Powell of JP Aerospace. The remarkable thing about it is the man is not the type to rub people the wrong way. You can disagree with him without it turning into a war. Good for John Powell. It may be one of the reasons why he may succeed, while others who may be better funded will fail.
