YI,<br><br>Recently found these references to
commercial space policy.<br><br>CATO Institute's Handbook
for Congress<br>(sect.) 37. National Aeronautics and
Space
Administration<br><a href=http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-37.html
target=new>http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-37.html</a><br><br>Space
Policy:<br>Commercialism
articles<br><a href=http://www.policy.com/issuewk/1998/1026_39/detail89.html
target=new>http://www.policy.com/issuewk/1998/1026_39/detail89.html</a><br><br>S\
pace Policy: Present Challenges<br>Space Tourism
articles<br><a href=http://www.policy.com/issuewk/1998/1026_39/detail93.html
target=new>http://www.policy.com/issuewk/1998/1026_39/detail93.html</a>

YI,<br><br>This ISU Symposium will challenge
individuals with many backgrounds, from different countries,
and different expectations, to look at Space Station
as a marketplace.<br><br>I was asked to promote an
International Space University (ISU) [<a href=http://www.isunet.edu]
target=new>http://www.isunet.edu]</a>
Symposium on "commercialization" of the International Space
Station. The conference to be held on May 26-28, 1999 in
Strasbourg, France at the ISU campus is titled, International
Space Station : The Next Space Marketplace (symposium
web site is at [<a href=http://www.isunet.edu/Symposium/].
target=new>http://www.isunet.edu/Symposium/].</a>)
Their interest is to encourage significant discussion
on cutting-edge ideas for ISS
commercialization.<br><br>although my expectations of any real commercial
activity
to occur aboard ISS is low, this ISU forum would be
a good place to debute business proposals aimed at
utilizing ISS for commercial purposes. Not only will ISU
probably publish submitted papers, but hopefully an
arrangement can be made to make choice papers available on
the Space Future web site
[<a href=http://www.spacefuture.com] target=new>http://www.spacefuture.com]</a>
as well. My suggestions for potential presenters
is to press the ISU organizers to expand the focus
to include all commercial space business niches
beyond "Mir"-ly ISS. :)

had read of Pegasus before but I didn't know
that it already has transported cargo to
orbit.<br>These kind of rockets launches sounds very promising,
when talking about getting something to orbit with
quite low cost - btw, how much it would cost to launch
a satellite with Pegasus? And what are the odds of
failure?<br><br>You all must have noticed, that last Ariane 5 launch
was succes. Now it can rival any rocket in the world,
execpt the famous Saturn V. I think that new Ariane is
going to be the number one rocket in heavy space
indrustry - what is your opinion?

ere's the latest news from my employer, Orbital
Sciences Corp.:<br><br>(DULLES, VA 23 OCTOBER 1998) –
Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) today announced
that its Pegasus® rocket successfully launched the
Brazilian SCD-2 environmental monitoring satellite last
night in a mission that originated from Cape Canaveral
Air Station, Florida. Also aboard the Pegasus rocket
was NASA’s Wing Glove Experiment, which gathered
aerodynamic data related to hypersonic flight
characteristics. This mission was the fifth for the Pegasus rocket
in 1998 and the 24th overall mission in the
innovative air-launched rocket program’s history. In
addition, this mission marked Orbital’s 32nd consecutive
successful rocket launch, including missions carried out by
the company’s Pegasus and Taurus® space launch
vehicles and by its extensive line of suborbital rockets.
<br><br>Last night’s launch originated from Cape Canaveral Air
Station, located on the East Coast of Florida, when the
company’s “Stargazer” Pegasus carrier aircraft took off at
approximately 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening. The aircraft flew
approximately 100 nautical miles offshore at an altitude of
39,000 feet to a predetermined launch point over the
Atlantic Ocean. After being released from its carrier
aircraft at approximately 8:03 p.m., the Pegasus rocket
ignited its first stage motor after a planned five-second
free fall. Following an approximate 10 minute flight,
Pegasus accurately delivered the SCD-2 satellite into a
circular orbit approximately 750 kilometers above the
Earth, inclined at 25 degrees to the equator.
Preliminary information gathered from the satellite indicates
that its main operating systems are operating as
expected. <br><br><br>You can read all about this mission,
and other products and services provided by Orbital,
a leader in the commercial space industry, at the
Orbital web page - <a href=http://www.orbital.com
target=new>http://www.orbital.com</a>

i,<br>Incredible Adventures is geared toward
"adventure tourists". As a result, none of our sales
information is very technical in nature. People don't seem to
be very concerned with the "how" of getting into
space, etc. They just want to be one of the first to go
up! If our needs change, or if I hear of anyone in
need of your company's services, I'll let you know.
Thanks for asking!

o any of you have technical publication dept's
in your companies? My company, Information Universe,
offers editorial services (i.e. indexing, editing,
proofreading) to the space industry and space sciences
community. We offer these services for both online and print
publications or databases. Web site indexes and archives are
also within our capabilities. I am the president and
chief indexer for the company. I've been with various
space activist groups including the L5 Society, NSS,
Planetary Society and now the Space Frontier Foundation. My
favorite space subjects are asteroids and extrasolar
planets. I would love to get work in these areas as well
as company documentation dept's. Here's my web site
if you want to check out an online index I've done
already.<br><a href=http://informationuniverse.com
target=new>http://informationuniverse.com</a>

hanks, Mark, for asking about our programs. We
currently offer zero-gravity flights in the Russian's IL-76
MDK, flights 80,000 ft. high in the MiG-25 and
hands-on cosmonaut training, including such things as the
navigational simulator, Orlan space suit training, Mir and
Soyuz simulators and centrifuge training. We hope to
send our first group into the Hydrolab for underwater
weightlessness training next spring. I recently met some guys
from NASA at a trade show. They found it "interesting"
that we could offer such things but didn't think NASA
would ever "jump on the bandwagon" and open facilities
to civilians. (Wouldn't it be a great way to raise
money for research?) We'd love to be able to offer
zero-gravity in the US, but getting approval won't be easy or
cheap.

ane,<br><br>Please tell us more about your
company and the<br>space tourism services that you are
offering.<br>If you want to comment on the regulation
hurdles<br>and solutions to overcome them, do so as well.

im provided quite much information about
resources and colonization of Moon - thank you very much!
<br>Now I would like to present my opinion and
vision.<br>I think that mass driver tech could be one of the
most important Moon to Earth transport systems.<br>Low
gravity of Moon is perferct for mass driver transport -
and don't forget that moon has no atmosphere! Mass
driver could be powered with electric power if we used
maglev (magnetic levitation) tech. The mass driver
module is floating on a track like maglev train. And
acceleration is produced electrically - maglev train yech
again. Where do we get enough power, you might ask. The
answer is the Sun. Solar power is one of the most
important resources of moon - no clouds and pretty long
days! So what do you think? Could it be possible? Is
this a good idea?<br>At least Heinlein tought so...

am president of Incredible Adventures, best
known for offering MiG flights in Moscow. (Please check
out our website, listed on the links page.) We are
marketing flights in cooperation with Zegrahm Space
Voyages. Vela Technology is working to build the Space
Cruiser. We currently offer flights "to the edge of space"
in Moscow in a MiG-25 and zero-gravity flights in
Russia's IL-76. We'd love to do such things in the US, but
unfortunately, our efforts to convince the FAA it's a great idea
haven't been successful. Maybe someday! :)

have read that the Senate is ready to pass H.r 572, which will make it easier
for your company to get the clearances needed. By the way, which company would
that be?

work for a company marketing civilian flights
into space. If all goes according to plan, our first
flight will take place December 1, 2001. Building the
vehicle is the easy part...getting all the required
certifications and approval will take time..hence the 2001
"blast off".

hat depends on when the Artemis Society can
start bending metal. I estimate that they will land
about a year after they finish building the lander. See
the link I will provide in the links section for more
information

cross the 8th Dimension_ used to say, "Where are we
going: Planet 10! When will we get there? Real
Soon!"<br><br>One of the more complete lists of space tourism web
sites is to be found on
<a href=http://www.houstonspacesociety.org/entlinks.html#transport
target=new>http://www.houstonspacesociety.org/entlinks.html#transport</a> as I
recall.<br><br>Harry Dace says he'll fly in
July 1999. See his site at
<a href=http://www.mayflowerrocket.com/
target=new>http://www.mayflowerrocket.com/</a><br><br>Burt Rutan just test flew
his first stage carrier
aircraft for a two stage to orbit fully reusable vehicle.
His site is <a href=http://www.scaled.com/
target=new>http://www.scaled.com/</a><br><br>Then
there's Rotary Rocket. They just had their airframe
rolled out. See
<a href=http://www.rotaryrocket.com/index.htm
target=new>http://www.rotaryrocket.com/index.htm</a><br><br>Finally, there's the
X-Prize, which does a pretty good job
of keeping up with the major competitors.<br>See
<a href=http://www.xprize.org/
target=new>http://www.xprize.org/</a><br><br>Regards,<br><br>Jim<br><a
href=http://www.ezez.com/free/ target=new>http://www.ezez.com/free/</a>

he Moon is a great subject for a conversation
about space settlement. Luna is well endowed with fine
resources, plenty of water ice having just been discovered
by Alan Binder's Lunar Prospector team. There's more
good news. The Moon has iron, silicon, aluminum, and
oxygen in the common regolith or "soil" of her surface.
There is good evidence for differentiation, so we
should find plenty of useful ore bodies. Better still,
there are plenty of surface impact sites. There is good
reason to believe that many of Earth's best ore bodies
were originally asteroid impact sites.<br><br>Will the
Moon make a great spaceport? You bet. She's got low
gravity, but she has some. So you don't need to worry
about your tools floating off as you overhaul an
engine. Or two. She has some other good features for a
spaceport, too.<br><br>As a transportation node, she offers
a ready local supply of fuel, both oxidizer and
propellant, in various forms. Oxygen can probably best be
gotten from the water ice at the poles, as well as
hydrogen. Both can be electrolyzed once the water is
extracted from the dirty/slushy ice/gravel.<br><br>There is
also plenty of oxygen bound up in the regolith which
some 19th Century technology can release for our use.
Aluminum makes a pretty good propellant in solid rocket
fuel.<br><br>The Moon also offers a great deal of space for
placing industrial facilities that need some gravity.
These might include warehouse facilities for the
transporation node functions as well as manufacturing
facilities taking advantage of her low
gravity.<br><br>Tourism has some great potential, too. You should read
Robert Heinlein's "The Menace from Earth" for an
overview.<br><br>We could have a "first Moon base" in about 5 years
if we start today, have no trouble raising funds,
and everything goes right. The biggest issue is
economics. Can we make a good profit at this business? If
not, it will be much harder to get going.<br><br>Of
course, there is already a "first" Moon base, Tranquility
Base. That went up in 1969. We've been there before.
What has happened, is possible.<br><br>I think there
is a great deal of interest in commercial space
companies for using the Moon. I can think of quite a few
companies that have short term plans: Selene, Artemis,
Applied Space Resources, LunaCorp to name just
four.<br><br>More
later,<br><br>Jim<br><a href=http://www.houstonspacesociety.org/
target=new>http://www.houstonspacesociety.org/</a>

would like to start a conversation about the
future of Moon colonization. Will the moon be the
ultimate space port to other planets? And how we should
use the resources of the Moon? How long it will take
to build the first Moon base - what do you think 10
yrs or more? Is there any interest in commercial
space tech to use the the Moon resources?

ust when will we put live paying passenger into space? I use the word 'live' as
the Celestis company has been placing ashes into orbit for some time.

saw Dan Goldin on C-span this morning. Although he had much to say on John
Glenn's flight, he didn't say very much about commercial space.

orry for letting this discussion "club" go
unattended for so long. If you guys have news or views to
share please do.<br><br>All I ask is that the
conversation remain civil. If you feel you just got to sound
off on someone<br>do it elsewhere.<br><br>Any
suggestions of topics to discuss?<br><br>Here are a few good
links for commercial space<br>followers:<br><br>Space
Future<br>&lt;<a href=http://www.spacefuture.com/&gt;
target=new>http://www.spacefuture.com/&gt;</a><br><br>Archimedes
Institute<br>&lt;<a href=http://www.permanent.com/archimedes/&gt;
target=new>http://www.permanent.com/archimedes/&gt;</a><br><br>Houston Chronicle
Space Forum & Mars
Forum<br>&lt;<a href=http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/forum/&gt;
target=new>http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/forum/&gt;</a><br><br>\
Sam Coniglio's Space
Site<br>&lt;<a href=http://www.magicnet.net/~sam123/space.html&gt;
target=new>http://www.magicnet.net/~sam123/space.html&gt;</a><br><br>Keith
Cowing's NASA
Watch<br>&lt;<a href=http://www.reston.com/NASA/watch.html&gt;
target=new>http://www.reston.com/NASA/watch.html&gt;</a><br><br>SpaceCast<br>&lt\
;<a href=http://www.spacer.com/&gt;
target=new>http://www.spacer.com/&gt;</a><br><br>also the sci.space.policy
newsgroup if you don't mind
wading through the muck and mire.
:)<br><br>Later,<br><br>Mark Reiff

t seems curious that they would cancel a program that accomplished what it set
out to do, but pour money into a program that exacerbated the problem it was
swet up to solve.

ctually, Phil, not only was Apollo 18 cancelled
due to (shortsighted) budgetary constraints, but
there were also Apollo 19 & 20 planned, which also got
scrubbed. I guess for the cost of those three missions,
Congress probably spent the money instead on some
now-failed social welfare program.

iven all the interest in "portal sites" lately,
I designed Apollo Eighteen with the (admittedly
idealistic) idea that it might one day be the "hub" for space
history, news, and research on the Internet. The site
takes its name from (and I hope I am right about this)
the Apollo mission that was cancelled due to 70's
budget constraints. It symbolizes my optimism and hope
for the future of the space program.<br><br>I
designed the site so that it might appeal to a broad range
of people, from casual surfers, to space
enthusiasts. I continue to expand it every
month.<br><br>Please visit and tell me what you think. I am always
trying to improve it. I may not check this bulletin
board often; the best way to reach me is always email
at webmaster@...<br><br>Phil

've read that they intend to do their first
probe to the asteroid Nereus. However, it should be
interesting as the Japanese are sending their Planet D probe
to the same asteroid at about the same time.

've been watching SpaceDev, which is traded over
the Nasdaq Over The Counter (OTC) market as SPDV.
They've been hovering around 1 1/2 for a few weeks and
were once as high as 8. They plan to launch the first
mission to land on a near-earth asteroid in 2001. I think
they're a good long-term buy and I've recommended it to
some friends & relatives. (I'm waiting for the price
to come down a bit more to buy. It closed at 1.13
today)

esides the big players (Lockheed, Loral, Boeing,
etc.) does anyone know of any good stocks to watch in
the commercial space field? I know there's Orbital
Sciences Corp., but they haven't been performing all that
well lately. Any others I should watch?

ood move Mark Reiff.<br><br>Your friend, <br><br>Harry Dace<br>Civilian
Astronauts Corps<br>cac@...

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