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Blue Origin isn't that expensive, at least by nation state standards. Its just if there's no political will for a space program then there will be no space prog

Blue Origin isn't that expensive, at least by nation state standards. Its just if there's no political will for a space program then there will be no space program. Space is a money blackhole for the most part so there's no big incentive to start one especially when governments are busy, ideally, fighting poverty, enforcing law, regulating capitalism, and protecting workers. The USA didn't have its own human rated launch vehicle for years and it wasn't a big deal. Space isn't a compelling target for good reasons and the midcentury space-race was little more than showing off ICBM capabilities between two nations who wanted to murder each other. I'm glad we've moved to a peaceful and private-public model with BO and SpaceX but its not like every country is failing everyday at getting rockets off the ground. They just don't care that much and know they can buy rocket rides from other nations, the same as buying medicine or arms from them. It just makes a lot more sense to buy space-related services from others than start your own for almost all nations.

7thaccount 5y ago
Neils degrasse Tyson has a really good video presentation he made at some UAE conference that's on YouTube somewhere. I normally don't listen too much to the science popularizers (Bill Nye, Tyson, Kaku...etc) that get consulted to talk about subjects outside their specialty (Example: talk to a geologist or whatever and not a string theorist when discussing plate tectonics). However, this one got my attention. NDT says that people do big expensive projects for 3 reasons: 1.) War (people will do anything not to die like build a great wall or an atom bomb), 2.) For religious reasons or to satisfy a monarchy(pyramids, Notre Dame cathedral), or 3.) For economics. We spent $$$$ on the space program as it was a key part of showing off our might in the cold war (#1). NDT speculates that Mars will not happen unless there is a military or economic reason to go there since #2 isn't big anymore.

7thaccount 5y ago

Neils degrasse Tyson has a really good video presentation he made at some UAE conference that's on YouTube somewhere. I normally don't listen too much to the science popularizers (Bill Nye, Tyson, Kaku...etc) that get consulted to talk about subjects outside their specialty (Example: talk to a geologist or whatever and not a string theorist when discussing plate tectonics). However, this one got my attention. NDT says that people do big expensive projects for 3 reasons: 1.) War (people will do anything not to die like build a great wall or an atom bomb), 2.) For religious reasons or to satisfy a monarchy(pyramids, Notre Dame cathedral), or 3.) For economics. We spent $$$$ on the space program as it was a key part of showing off our might in the cold war (#1). NDT speculates that Mars will not happen unless there is a military or economic reason to go there since #2 isn't big anymore.