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That's not luddite thinking, that's a politician thinking. Ariane, just like SLS, is mostly a job program for large companies with huge workforces and thousands
by rtsil 6y ago
That's not luddite thinking, that's a politician thinking. Ariane, just like SLS, is mostly a job program for large companies with huge workforces and thousands of small subcontactor shops. Manufacturing less rockets without a viable replacement would be an economic and political disaster.
Of course, pretending like SpaceX was not a serious threat was an economic and strategic disaster, albeit on a slightly longer term and with less visibility. The ArianeGroup CEO in question retired less than a year after that infamous interview, so he clearly didn't care about that longer term.
- lenkite 6y agoWon't decreasing the price, increase the demand and thus increase the workforce required ? I mean this is basic production engineering "Law of Demand".
- rbanffy 6y ago> Won't decreasing the price, increase the demand and thus increase the workforce required ? This assumes there is a need for additional launches and that lowering the cost will increase the demand. While, in this case, I think it's obvious lowering launch costs will increase demand, but, if you could remove an appendix for half the price I don't think there would be a huge uptick in demand for surgeries.
- lenkite 6y agoI wonder if your analogy holds true for cosmetic surgeries. We know that cosmetic surgery tourism has increased for nations like South Korea (and even Turkey) thanks to cheaper procedures compared to the US. Of-course, the pandemic has messed up all such economic key-indicators currently.