Farlops Industries

Prince Charles of the UK weighs in on nanotechnology. I guess the guy is entitled to his opinion, but you’d figure he make an attempt to be better informed about it. But to be fair, we have our share of foolish notions about scientific research here too.

Recently a scientist predicted that we could have an operating space elevator within 15 years if a mere ten billion dollars is spent. The cynic in me thinks he is underestimating the cost, but I do agree with the time frame. If we spent the money, we could do it by that date.

This is something that should be built. I think it matters much more than Bush’s diversionary promises about exploring Mars. It matters more than than a privately fund jet-powered joyride called SpaceShipOne. I’d say, that in some ways, it matters even more than Sputnik or Apollo. It matters because it actually makes space travel, really, really cheap. Once leaving Earth’s gravity becomes extremely cheap, everything else follows. The industrialization and infrastructure of space can finally take off.

Post-industrial countries subsidize the fossil fuel industries by about 73 billion dollars every year. On the other hand between 1 and 3 percent of the 40 billion dollars spent energy investment in developing countries is actually spent on renewable and alternate forms of energy. This is according to the report, The Price of Power, which was released by the New Economics Foundation, a think tank based in the UK.

The gist of the argument the report makes is that fossil fuel use not only contributes to global warming but also perpetuates poverty in the developing world by keeping citizens dependent on centralized energy distribution systems based on fossil fuels. If India, China or Indonesia are ever going to reach a standard of living equal to that of the post-industrial world, they’re going to have to invest in decentralized, small-scale, energy sources, like solar, wind, biomass and hydro.

Short Answer: It’s only suborbital. It’s just an exotic, jet-powered joyride for rich people.

Long answer: Look, if purely private funding built something like a space elevator, then I’d be impressed, then I’d say NASA, ESA and the RKA need to close up shop. But that’s not gonna happen. Even if Bill Gates and Paul Allen spent all their money, it would equal only a small fraction of the money (Military, engineering and scientific research budgets.) spent by governments around the world on space use. That’s just facts. If you want to explore and colonize a harsh environment, expect enormous government subsidy and a lot of interesting but monetarily profitless scientific research. We will one day colonize space and, the private sector will play noteworthy roles but, it’s certain that the governments of the world will play the biggest part in that process.

Why am I so harsh? Why am I such a killjoy? I was born in the Sixties and grew up as a nerd in the Seventies. This means I read a lot of libertarian-flavored hard science fiction and rants that spun fantasies about the miracles of private funding even as I watched the United States and Soviet Union scale back their ambitions after their military goals had been achieved. The contradiction was so obvious to me as a sorely disappointed teenager as the Eighties dawned. As I prepared to become a physics student in university, it became clear to me exactly how hard space travel really is. I grew increasingly irritated with certain science fiction authors ranting about how the government was screwing things up. Their promises of a bright future created by some privately funded miracle rang hollow to me.

Technology just doesn’t work that way. There’s a lot of hidden, subsidized, profitless scientific research lurking in the past of every technology we buy and sell today. The Libertarians forget that. By the time a piece of technology becomes commercially viable, all the hard work has already been done.

Anyway after reading all the gushing news stories about the privately funded miracle of SpaceShipOne, this rant triggered in me. It may be unwelcome news to worshipers of Ayn Rand and Heinlein, but NASA and JPL ain’t close closing up shop anytime soon.