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Re: Space questions...

At 10:16 AM 7/23/96, Kevin C Houston wrote:
>On Tue, 23 Jul 1996, Kelly Starks x7066 MS 10-39 wrote:
>> >>Kelly, I'm not sure that Socalist leanings are the real reason for the
>>third
>> >>world nations' wanting the space treaty.  It seems to me that the more
>> >important
>> >>reason, is that they are currently unable to participate in any commercial
>> >>exploitation, and want to stall the more developed countries from
>>gaining an
>> >>unbreakable foothold.  At least until they (the third world) can be in a
>> >position
>> >>to catch up.
>>
>> No, in the interviews I saw, the U.S. reps said the third world reps
>> honestly didn't understand where the U.S. was coming from.  They had all
>> agreed on the idea that space and oceans were the common heratige of
>> mankind and everyone should get equal access rights.  They just didn't
>> understand why the U.S. would think that didn't imply an equal share of the
>> profits.
>>
>> Eiather way, its not like the first guy out there could claim all the best
>> planets.  Much less that the third world could get out their on their own
>> in the next century.
>>
>So, the US goes to the moon, mines ore, and charges a fortune for it.
>This pays back the high developement cost, and since there is no
>competiton, they make back the startup cost.  after a few years, some
>smaller country decides they want  a piece of the pie.  So they send
>their own mining contingent to the moon, but find that the US can always
>undercharge for the ore, because the startup cost has been paid back.
>This is what I was talking about.
>Kevin

Thats possible.  But the R&D cost of the equipment would also be paid for
international who wanted to buy the equip.  (assuming we'ld sell.)  Sort of
how the current B-2 bombers cost $1 billion dollars, but any more would
cost about $400 million.  <Overhead kills you.>

Kelly


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Kelly Starks                       Internet: kgstar@most.fw.hac.com
Sr. Systems Engineer
Magnavox Electronic Systems Company
(Magnavox URL: http://www.fw.hac.com/external.html)

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