Seize the Dream

�Seize the Dream� � Name reserved because I am working on a book. Page two is going slowly �

Since it doesn�t look like you are going to have to wait for the super jumbo upgrade to the Micro-Space launch vehicle to go into space (I am presently flying 1 pound instrument payloads on my liquid fuel rockets), it is much more important to get busy building the hundred small things which will be essential.

I like historical parallels (even inaccurate ones). In 1802 Meriwether Lewis didn�t need to invent boots, tents, guns, ammunition, knives, water bottles, backpacks and a hundred other things for his expedition. He bought them. He did invent a folding boat, which he had specially made by the craftsmen in Harper�s Ferry. He also ordered his guns and much else from the craftsmen at this �gateway to the west�. Fifty miles up the Potomac river from Washington, DC - at the mouth of the Shenandoah valley � Harper�s Ferry was the beginning of the west. St. Louis existed, but was reached by a long hard trip.

You will need all these things to travel in space (even the guns, when the pirates show up), and you can�t buy any of them! NASA can, but their supplies aren�t cost effective.

Do you really want to buy an unreliable spacesuit for $2 million? Or will you settle for a highly reliable $1000 adaptation of a scuba system and dry suit?

Do you think you could design an manufacture an astronaut water bottle? Or a toolbox which kept tools from drifting off into space (as they do now).

The MMU (Man Maneuvering Unit) proved that very compact systems could provide all a person�s needs for hours in space. It did cost more than the SpaceShipOne development. The lack of a reliable upgrade for this system is costing NASA hundreds of millions, and untold worries, since mobility outside their �flying submarine� is so limited. Could you design one of these?

Note that Micro-Space�s currently unfunded focus on �Space Diving�, provides a low cost opportunity to flight test exactly this kind of system, and it will be needed during freefall before atmospheric reentry.

I expect that the economic threshold for a human landing on Mars will occur just after the Falcon 5 reaches orbit. (At about $100 Million total project cost). Human flight will be possible on the Falcon 1, but probably can�t be funded except as �piggyback cargo� flown with a small satellite.

Have your thoughts on this progessed in light of units like Orbital Outfitters and Flometrics?

How is page two going?