The Zeitgeist

Google is offering a US$30MM prize to any private group that successfully lands a probe on the lunar surface and returns high-resolution video imagery. Personally I think it would be great, anything that opens up space and helps expand our horizons is great… sadly, I think the minute that really starts to (pardon the pun) take off, it’s going to run right into this little bit of craziness: Bush Administration Declares Right to Control Access to Space.

On the other hand, given the amount of money in the hands of space enthusiasts (for example: Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, to name the obvious ones), and all the places in the world that are perfect launch sites, unless the administration is going to declare war on every possible launch site, I don’t see what they can do to stop it: I mean, you can’t embargo physics books, or electric components, computers, kerosene and peroxide (the ingredients in rocket fuel), etc. (This sort of runs right into this post on the eventual dissolution of nations-states). Another technological genie that’s just about out of the bottle… this will be fun to watch!