Saturday, March 24, 2007

Space Access ‘07 - Saturday early evening - Rick Tumlinson

This is the last post I'll be able to put up. I need to leave to catch a plane.

Rick Tumlinson is a Co-founder of Space Frontier Foundation. Rick opened with a quote by T. E. Lawrence:

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

He said that all of us at the conference are dangerous men, we dream with open eyes.

Rick explained that he has been in the space business for twenty years, in the non-profit side, and that finally after twenty years he realized why they call it non-profit. He recently decided to start up a business which is a holding companies. The first start up is Orbital Outfitters. They will lease space suits. There is a second business, involved in space medicine. There is a third business, he can’t mention it now. There are a couple other companies he is working on.

They entered this business with a small amount of money. They are planning to go straight to a revenue stream, hoping avoiding venture capitalists.


He moved on to public policy commentary. He said the best hope for humanity is for the US private industry to led the effort into space. He said the worse hope for humanity is US bureaucracy. He explored some of the problems with NASA issues and how NASA is killing US Space.

Rick is tired of Jerry Pournelle saying the same thing every year about we needing an effort to have something like NACA. Rick is proposing setting up a Wiki effort with a proposal he is calling the NASA reformation act. He had a list of things to fix NASA.

He would like to talk about more than business in space, he wants colonization in space. He issues a call to action.

He ended with a from Goethe:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."


Rand’s report

First: Introduction
Overview: the agenda
Previous: Panel on the New Space Investment Climate


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