Bob Durtschi sent me a link to How to succeed or fail on a frontier. Nick Szabo, of Unenumerated, starts off comparing two countries which explored the Indian Ocean in the 1600s.
The first was China. They had huge ships, huge fleets, but ultimately they pulled back and demanded that even the privately own ships stop trading.
The second country was Portugal. They started off small, and stayed fairly small for a long time, while they learned how to travel long distances in their tiny ships. They built up trading posts and over time came to dominate.
Nick makes that point that in the exploration of space NASA is the equivalent of China. They have gone in for the big, expensive, and prestigious programs, which have contributed little to the fundamental efforts of moving into space.
If this sounds interest, read Nick's complete post, for he does a great job in making his post.
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Technorati tags: China, Portugal, Space
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