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Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but those companies will go bust before they get any hardware off the ground. They won't want to spend $20 billion USD over a quar
by Solarsail 12y ago
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but those companies will go bust before they get any hardware off the ground. They won't want to spend $20 billion USD over a quarter of a century before making a dime in revenue. SpaceDev wanted to do that. Now they're a parts supplier.
(To be truly pessimistic...) Nor will NASA or any other governmental agency ever make use of asteroid resources. That'd be too useful. Instead they'll spend 400 years doing political stunts and in-space handshakes. In 400 years time, we'll all have uploaded ourselves into The Cloud and gone exploring simulated galaxies. The real moon will be empty, save for some smiley faces carved in it from Earth with lasers.
(To address the actual topic at hand, I think long-term research isn't getting done on either side.)
- pdonis 12y ago> but those companies will go bust before they get any hardware off the ground. They won't want to spend $20 billion USD over a quarter of a century before making a dime in revenue We'll see. The companies are being funded by people who have enough personal wealth to do it without having to answer to public company shareholders or directors; so they don't have to show revenue or profit the way a publicly traded company would.