Page Mé June 13, 1990. This Week FUTURE WATCH Look for low-orbit space flights at $5,000 a pop by the year 2025 f business on Planet Earth appears competitive, stick around. With U.S. space shuttle policy currently con- cerned only with military operations, private companies in various countries are entering the race to operate “where no corporation has gone before.” They intend to follow the new trade route to the stars: low-earth orbit, the moon and Mars. Then . . . What's the advantage in having the private sector moving business to outer space? Less money to get and stay there and more concentration on creating wealth rather than spending it. (FREE 59 POINT STEERING INSPECTION Steering and suspension problems often appear gradually and go unnoticed. Left long enough, seemingly innocent symptoms like pulling to one side, steering wheel shimmy and excessive vibration can seriously compromise your driving safety. Not to mention your wallet. That's why you shouldn't hesitate to take advantage of Midas’ Free 59-Point Steering and Suspension Inspection. Good on most cars and light trucks, it’s thorough, and it’s free. And if there's a problem, we'll fix it right the first time. There's just one commitment, and that's to ensuring every Midas customer's safety. See a participating Midas dealer. Nobody tops the Top Guns. 2700 Government St. Victoria 386-8345 1830 Island Highway Colwood 474-2148 Dr. Tomorrow By FRANK OGDEN A new book Space Enter- - prise — Beyond NASA by David P. Gump, space con- sultant and publisher of Space Business News says private enterprise can carry out the space station project for a fraction of the cost pro- posed by NASA. Thomas Rog- ers, former deputy-director of research and engineering at the Pentagon, says “govern- ment projects will never lead to a space-faring civilization.” Gump points out that the U.S. Department of Com- merce has located their unde- rwater habitat Aquarius on the Caribbean seabed — at a cost of $10 million. Although it has the same volume as the proposed U.S. Space Station Freedom and it is in a strange environment, relative costs are spectacular. The space station, at today’s estimates of $50 billion is 5,000 times higher! The space station is more complex and farther away and should cost more, maybe a hundred times more, but 5,000 times as much? That makes crew time work out to around $17,000 per hour! Will the public or Congress contin- ue to buy that or will that cost, which could easily dou- ble by the time it becomes operational, be too much of a burden to bear by a country bedeviled with problems of drugs, failing education, a rotting transportation infra- structure and a horrendous national debt? Some are al- ready seeing a balky Con- gress asking “Do we really need all this?” What is the alternative? The External Tanks Corpora- tion (ETC) of Boulder, Colora- do may have a better idea — to recycle those huge external tanks (one is 96 feet long and well over 25 feet wide) you watch on TV being jettisoned from the Space Shuttle. only to be lost, damaged or dest- royed as they plunge back to earth. ETC would have the Space Shuttle continue carry- ing them on their voyage to a low earth orbit (250 to 400 miles altitude) — and then parking them there. Studies apparently have shown that by retaining those tanks the Space Shuttle itself can take a route to space (called “di- rect-injection trajectory”) that iS easier and more efficient than the shallow path usually flown. ETC would then re- trieve and couple the tanks together to assemble their own space station. It would have the same volume capaci- ty as the NASA Space Station for 1/ 166th of the NASA cost — $300 million tops, less than a cent for ETC versus a dollar by NASA. What a great topic for a national referendum. British Aerospace, the self- appointed flag carrier for an English “spaceplane,” has been developing their concept for some time. Their problems have been more political and financial than technical. Try- ing to convince Europeans to join their consortium hasn’t been easy. The British gov- ernment refused to back it. Controversial financier Alan Bond formed a consortium which promised to fund the $250 million development project called HOTOL (Hori- zontal Take Off and Landing), a single stage operation. It would take off from a stan- ( dard airport runway and op- @ | erate in the Mach 5 range (3,500 mph). They believe they can put payloads in low- earth orbit for $300 a pound compared to the $6,000 a pound cost by the U.S. Space Shuttle. A German competitor MBB-Erno is supporting a two-stage development called Sanger. Its first stage will follow Concord technology. Stage Two will follow Hermes, the new Ariane rock- et concept. Last year the Ger- man government supported the Sanger with a $300 mil- lion development fund. It will be designed to fly at Mach 6. For five years now I have been watching, both here and in Japan, the energy and ex- pertise the Japanese are de- voting to space. Initially they used the Delta rocket made by McDonnell Douglas. They developed their own second | stage, a more powerful unit made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Now McDonnell Douglas wants to put the Ja- panese rocket into their Delta to get more lift. The Japanese Space Activities Commission reportedly has recommended a $14 billion expenditure to get their spaceplane in orbit. A Japanese space station has also been supported with a suggested year 2000 opera- tional date. Look for your kids to be blowing $5,000 for low-orbit space flights by 2025. More information: Space Enterprise — Beyond NASA by David P Gump. Praeger Publishers, One Madison Av- enue, New York, NY 10010. This Week | An Island Publishers Newsmagazine #30-727 Johnson Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 1M9 381-3484 Jim Cunningham, Publisher Tony Kant, Editor _ This Week wants to help you plan Next Week, and the week after... 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