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55 Comments
- Aeaus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+50I disagree with that completely, the spirit of invention and innovation isn't driven by "let's wait till we can offer a mature product," it's driven by people who take risks like these.
- redxii, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Build a machine that uses Vulcan hailing frequencies and transmit it through subspace.
Someone will need to be in charge of the papier-mâché warp drive, until a real one is built. - benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Wouldnt it make more sense to have an EFFICIENT spacecraft before people start building spaceports?
- Vacinchipi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Columbus didn't think he was being premature, as neither did Magellan or Captain Cook. They were crazy fools who were seen as failures in their lifetimes, and often didn't make it home alive but they changed the world
- falcyn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10We have senses of humor... but only when things are actually funny.
- nakile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Great.
Seems as anything with the word "Space" in it anymore is ridiculed, voted down, or budget reduced.
...Then we go nuts when the Space Shuttle malfunctions. - orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7On one hand I could see why people would view this as a joke and a waste. But then again, 80+ years ago, I'm sure people said the same thing about commercial airports and flight in general.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Great so a STATE Government is gonna work in this? Come on
- orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7That price is not that bad deal. Even the average person, if they saved $1,000 for ten years, they could buy a ticket for the space trip. Given the fact that they would literally be traveling off the planet, I'd say that's a bargain.
- terribly1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6First stop, Arrakis!
- scatteredbomb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I too am going to school in Dona Ana County. I really hope this thing passes. It is sorta far-fetched, and there isn't any certainty what will come out of it. But thats the idea behind exploration.
I've gone to the past 2 annual X-Prize Cup expositions, and both have been really great. I think people have trouble signing into any idea that doesn't have some level of security that it will succeed, but these types of things can't happen if there isn't enough initiative for them to take place. There is a lot of potential for good to come out of this, for science, and for the state of New Mexico. Thats why I'll be happy to go vote next week to support it.
For those of you interested, you can check out their website for some more info and such.
http://www.xprizecup.com/
http://www.xprize.org/ - crashflow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Both the north and south continents are called "America". Mexico is part of Latin America. But of course, we are talking about New Mexico, which is part of the US.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11I just want to pee in my space suit and play with the floating liquids, etc.
- Meatshield, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I don't see space tourism/misc. trips to be economically feasible until we get a cheaper way to get to space. As it stands, unless the X Prize winning ships turn out to be a great deal to produce and maintain, the current method of getting into space requires millions of dollars per trip. So to take let's say 10 people up would be several hundred thousand dollars each. That puts the target audience at the extremely rich. And there aren't a lot of those guys, and even less who would either want to go up or be able to due to health concerns
Now if you have a cheaper source of fuel and can send people up for hundreds of dollars per person as opposed to thousands, then you could easily have a space tourism industry. As it stands though any space building is slow because it takes millions of dollars to blast five guys up to put on one module of the ISS or whatever our next project will be. - psyphen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7And people complain about other misuses of taxpayers' money.
It's like giving your tax money so the government can fund a Disneyland. Except cooler. - orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I say go for it. The United States desperately needs a new positive triumph of national achievement. It has been a long time.
- KamikazeeDriver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3best point yet.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For some reason this reminds me of a south park episode where the boys were tricked into thinking a killer whale was from the moon and decided to send him home. all the other countries space agencies were too expensive but Mexico (MASA) did it for $200
except of course thats "old" mexico - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I live in Dona Ana county and I support the measure. Initially I was opposed to it--while it's cool why should private citizens be paying taxes to support a for-profit business? The area is in need of high tech industry, however. We have a University with a world class Engineering program but no significant high tech jobs so we have a massive brain drain. If the spaceport takes off and can encourage other businesses to move to the area it'll mean increased property values and other benefits in the area.
The issue makes me think of Microsoft, which started out in Albuquerque. I can't help but think how the state might be different today if more effort had been made to keep them here. I just hope I can find time to vote--that Tuesday happens to be my busiest day of the year (I work for an organization that puts on a college/high school environmental competition) and I'll be working about 15 hours that day. - 15charmaxwtf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, I'm glad I have better stuff to do that to be jealous of rich people.
- philscotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well, if there isn't an industry it will never develop. We need to be able to do it and figure out how to imporve it in a practical manner. See what works better, what doesn't, etc. But there's gotta be the industry and the means first.
- logic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2polymathic: you must be new here.
- KamikazeeDriver, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"I don't see space tourism/misc. trips to be economically feasible"
Well, if they come out with an ad campaign that says, "Join the 30,000 mile high club today . . ." it could be somewhat successful. - robharper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I go to school in Dona Ana county. Personally, I'm glad I won't have a layover on the return trip from space.
- fluxion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2you can do it Dona Ana County! spaceport ftmfw.
- thewise1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Personally, I'm disappointed that they want to call it spaceport America instead of Mos Eisley spaceport, being in New Mexico and all.
- Zuph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@beerthirty7
Should be. Isn't. States almost CONSTANTLY help out large construction projects like this, because they'll generate more tax revenue in the long term than they'll cost immediately. Stadiums, Airports, Skyscrapers, etc. are almost ALL subsidized like this, even if they're just getting the ability to pay no property taxes for X number of years.
Otherwise, all these projects would move to communities that WOULD give them those incentives. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Screw border jumping incidents. There is going to be planatery jumping.
- bonez56, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this idea sucks
- FishyJoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're missing the real profit motive. A spaceport can also launch payloads, aka satellites. Low cost, reliable rockets would make such a business possible.
- Agares, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Live and go to school in Dona Ana also. (Hi fellow Dona Anans)
For the people who say it's too early:
Same thing was said about cars and commercial aircraft when they first started. At first it wasn't financially feasible for a great majority of citizens. But you have to start somewhere and as time goes by technology changes and things become cheaper and more efficient. The spaceport isn't only for commercial business, but also for companies/governments to launch satellites and such into orbit, which for sometime will be the majority of activity.
For the environmentalist:
It's a fricken DESERT and there's plenty of it here! There's nothing out there but dirt, rocks and weeds. The mountains aren't going anywhere anytime soon and you can see those from pretty much anywhere.
Anyways the positives outweigh the negatives IMO. Anybody who lives in NM knows this state needs more quality jobs. Of all the people that I am graduating with (that I know well enough to ask anyways) in May in engineering none of them are staying in NM because there are no jobs for people with a technical degree. Well I shouldn't say there are no jobs but they are few and far between plus you can go to another state and make $10,000-$15,000 more doing the same exact thing even areas with similar cost of living. New Mexico also had the chance to be the headquarters for Microsoft (oh no not the M word) , when Billy was starting off, in Albuquerque but we managed to screw that up. Let's not make a similar mistake. - kidford, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I live in New Mexico. This thing is a joke. So far, we've had a handful of small, unmanned rockets launch (and in short order, blow up).
While it's a cool idea, and rather ambitious, I don't see why we need it. Maybe sometime in the future it will be useful, and maybe the goal is to be the first spaceport, but currently it just seems a waste of money. - fluxion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yes, but whatever ;p
so many other nations are building them as well, i assume there's some type of viable technology out there, or there's something the works. certainly they couldn't build a spaceport within having in mind a particular type of spacecraft. - flyingengineer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1World's first spaceport?..... Umm... not quite. The Mojave Airport (http://www.mojaveairport.com/) has the claim as "America's First Inland SpacePort" - granted there isn't too much there yet (besides Scaled Composites) when I was out there last fall but there were signs of growth & expansion.
- ggore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Uh, there is already a spaceport in operation in Oklahoma that will be having its first flights in a year or so. http://www.okspaceport.state.ok.us/
- drgruney, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Luckily they don't have to be economically sound, because rich people are crazy.
- HotMovies, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would cash in everything I own for a trip to space. That's a fact.
- philscotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Ever heard of ISS?
- vsujohn2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wouldnt you technically need another port somewhere in say...space?
Otherwise you cant go from port to port. - 15charmaxwtf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It _will_ develop because people value space (or at least going there :p .) The materials are far cheaper and better than before and companies can use computers tocut stuff easily rather than hiring the best machinists etc so it requires so much less money than it did before. This can only improve, government is not needed to create an industry (although, in this case the previous NASA missions have helped!)
- fluxion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1except Disneyland isnt the salvation of mankind; space is.
- ZeroFresh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's not just about tourism. You can have astronauts living in space more comfortably. Able and ready to do tasks to government stations when needed. Being able to have them on 6 month tours (or something along those lines) and more of them up there for faster construction and development of other projects. Not to mention they can meet the few millionaires that can afford to go to space so they at least have someone to try and take to bed at night.
- Ngai, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"If Spaceport America meets with voter approval, a maiden space voyage is expected in two to three years. If passed, the new tax would add 25 cents to a 100-dollar purchase, bringing in about 6.5 million dollars per year. "
6.5 million .... The people of New Mexico should wonder how much it would be to keep the program running... and how much is one ticket.... last time I checked it costs $10000 to go into space... - vladimus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0New Mexico desperately needs this. It's been referred to as the dumbest state in the union, and considering I have some family there, I can't argue. This should finally bring much needed intelligence to the gene pool there.
- beerthirty7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Isn't building something like this the job of private industry and not a state?
- AvailableName, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Hey, there's a *New* Mexico...
- Polymathic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Yep, and then the actions of a guy named Lindbergh made the world a considerably smaller place. It is human nature to want to explore the unknown - not for everyone, as some have a personality makeup that doesn't seem to allow for that desire, but luckily a portion of the people on this planet have been willing to stretch the limits, slip the surly bonds of Earth, and try to touch the face of God.
- xXAzraelXx, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5If we don't have a big enough space port where do our new alien friends land?
Oh yeah that's right, crop circles and then everyone goes ape ***** bananas lol - resinoth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Make Carl, Jules, Edgar, FM, Stanley, Arthur, Robert, Isaac, Douglas, Herbert, Johnathan, Spider, Alastair, L Ron (...), Philip, Hugo and ME proud, New Mexico.
DO eet. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1It's driven by people making a docking station? umm k.. lol
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