re lindbergh and the moon was why not give g in article r nuvinnjep lynx unm edu cook varmit mdc com layne cook writes all of this talk about a commercial space race i e g to the first year moon base is intriguing similar prizes have influenced aerospace development before the k orteig prize helped lindbergh sell his spirit of saint louis venture to his financial backers but i strongly suspect that his saint louis backers had the foresight to realize that much more was at stake than could it work with the moon who are the far sighted financial backers of today the commercial uses of a transportation system between already settled and civilized areas are obvious spaceflight is not in this position the correct analogy is not with aviation of the s but the long transocean voyages of the age of discovery it didn t require gov t to fund these as long as something was known about the potential for profit at the destination in practice some were gov t funded some were private but there was no way that any wise investor would spend a large amount of money on a very risky investment with no idea of the possible payoff i am sure that a thriving spaceflight industry will eventually develop and large numbers of people will live and work off earth but if you ask me for specific justifications other than the increased resource base i can t give them we just don t know enough the launch rate demanded by existing space industries is just too low to bring costs down much and we are very much in the dark about what the revolutionary new space industries will be when they will practical how much will have to be invested to start them etc keith mancus mancus butch jsc nasa gov n wvr mancus sweetpea jsc nasa gov black powder and alcohol when your states and cities fall when your back s against the wall leslie fish
