Space Access 07

Space Access 07 is going on right now. If you're at home reading this, you're missing it. I know that no one there is reading THIS because they're too busy setting boundaries for the future.

Someone has prevailed upon Jerry Pournelle to .. well it's not live blogging, really because Chaos Manor is a daybook. But this is pretty good ...

I'm listening to a pitch on getting gamers to play games with space prizes. The Man Who Sold The Moon becomes a text book. But the games and lotteries have to be free and get revenue from advertisements. State lotteries want no competition...

Win a trip to space by playing StarCraft?

Speaker: Barbara Morgan who graduated from high school the year I was born has been selected as an astronaut and has been waiting 22 years for a mission. Maybe the lottery system has a higher expected value of payoff than the government model.

Which is saying something. Twenty two years is a long time to wait.

Um, I think Jerry meant 'born the year I graduated high school'.

Also blogging the event are

http://www.transterrestrial.com/
http://spacepolitics.com/
http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php
http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2007/03/space-access-07-introduction.html

The latter is a new blog for me - wonder if he's got his kids along. That's not a bad idea. Granted it's not an event 'for' kids but exposing your kids to an environment like that has got to be good for them.

There is a lot of blogging going on - some bits that have stood out. From Hobbyspace

Space Access ' 07: Day 2 - update 8
8:35 pm: Jerry Pournelle gives his "irreverent" views on space development.
snip
- When he and friend heard about payload Getaway Specials
when the Shuttles began to fly they tried to propose a space burial
business with them. NASA was "horrified" both for the purpose and the
commercial aspect of it.

Capitalists! The horror.

snip
Proposal: Congress would pledge $10B to the first company to put 31 people on the Moon for three years and return them safely.

Capitalists! The horror.

snip
- NASA always wants to do everything with 40 year old PhD's. E.g.
Stations and Moon bases should be built by 18 year old construction
workers. Need to develop spacesuits that allow someone work in it for
18 hours.

Your typical 18 year old construction worker is not going to wait around on payroll for 22 years waiting to get to work. Clearly NASA is not the right organization to actually build stuff.

The question could be - is there a 'right' organization and what would it look like?