Proposing hyper-scale projects can make a small group a tidy profit. Being on such a huge scale, early proposals & research can take years (not requiring a larg

Proposing hyper-scale projects can make a small group a tidy profit. Being on such a huge scale, early proposals & research can take years (not requiring a large team), and those interested in throwing enormous funds at the actual implementation think little of the relatively tiny funds (but still large for those working on it) for preliminary analysis. We may not see sub-orbital airliners for a long time, but those working on early analysis now can make a comfortable living on it.