Spaceship One and the X- prize

[Torino10]

What do you think about the Ansari X prize ? (www.xprize.org)

Is it really safe or prudent to encourage private teams and industries to develop ICBM type technologies?

[singo]

What do you think about the Ansari X prize ? (www.xprize.org (http://www.xprize.org/))

Is it really safe or prudent to encourage private teams and industries to develop ICBM type technologies?
and its safe for GOVERNMENTS to do so?

[hammocksleeper]

Do ICBM's leave the atmosphere? I didn't know that.

[TheGreatBrain]

I think it should just be allowed to happen. Commercial space flight is an inevitable development, and it seems impossible to stop it. Addressing the topic more directly, I think that yes, launches can be dangerous, but as I said before I believe the process of development should be allowed to take its course as it did when the government's space program was started.

[Cygnus]

It's the beginning of the next era of space exploration hopefully. It seems to me that, atleast the putting humans into space part, has become stagnant. There's no real motivation for governments to do something like this (and let's pray that something like the Cold War never happens again) and that public enterprise is the next step in the process. Competition helps to create a better product, provided that the government atleast puts down rules and regulations for safety on top of that.

[Torino10]

I believe that there needs to be a truly international organisation to govern and police the space environment, probably not the UN but maybe a coalition of International trade unions. Space belongs to everyone and if the orbital environment becomes too cluttered it may be thousands of years before it may be possible to get through a cloud of junk travelling at mach 18+.
While I'm not a fan of regulation in this case it is a nescessary evil.

[GiaDragoness]

Well, to be honest, flying on commercial planes is pretty dangerous, yet people travel on those. I think space is just another fronteir that we would/should eventually cross over into. The only real foreseeable problem is if we take the dangers of space to lightly, or we waste all our resources on pointless efforts in space, like building colonies on planets, that have no viable resources or such, or we start to divide among each other in pety struggles (which we humans are just KNOWN for).

:smash: Smashy Smashy! :smash:

[singo]

Do ICBM's leave the atmosphere? I didn't know that.
i think they pass through the ionosphere, which is higher than is usually thought of as "the atmosphere" (ie the bit we breathe)

but everything else is comercially exploited, why not space?

its getting awfully crowded down here

or we waste all our resources on pointless efforts in space, like building colonies on planets, that have no viable resources or such, or we start to divide among each other in pety struggles (which we humans are just KNOWN for).

:smash: Smashy Smashy! :smash:
would colonies on the moon count as such?

[TheGreatBrain]

Well, to be honest, flying on commercial planes is pretty dangerous, yet people travel on those.Since when? Driving around on the highway in your car is far more dangerous than a flight on any commercial jet will ever be.

[Killphill]

It's all fine and good with me as long as the people know what they're doing and not using city sidewalks for landings...

[GrassDragon]

Well, to be honest, flying on commercial planes is pretty dangerous, yet people travel on those.
Not sure where you're getting this, I got a "forward" email not too long ago that said donkeys kill more people than plane crashes anually :P Don't know about the validity of that, but I think planes or pretty safe nowadays.

[Sheep_Have_Wool]

donkeys kill more people than plane crashes anually
But when was the last time a donkey you were riding plummeted several miles to the ground at high speed and exploded on impact? Granted, planes are pretty safe statistically, but if something goes wrong in space, it typically goes VERY wrong.

Commercial space flights will eventually become normal - there's no sense in fighting it, so we might as well start working out the technology and the business models now.

[Whiteknight]

Canada lost... :(

It's probably a good idea to start now. The sooner you start, the faster it will become safe and accesible by everyone.

[Valjean]

Canada lost... :(
Who did win?

[Seal]

Who did win?
someone / some people who is / are not canadian.

[Valjean]

I mean what country?

[Whiteknight]

I'm pretty sure some people from the US won by about a week or two. The Canadian guys still plan to launch theirs again, even though they never won.