[OT]: How to help a Canadian Spaceport?

[Colin McGregor]

--- Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 at 05:35:01PM +0000,
> Christopher Browne wrote:
> > Let me take a contrary view on this, and not from
> the perspective of
> > "oh, I don't want any space stuff happening"...
> 
> Ehm, last I checked Canada was pretty far north, and
> not very close to
> an optimal launch point for anything going into
> space.  No point making
> space ports here.

Yes and no. Putting a spacecraft launch centre in Nova
Scotia makes about as much sense as putting one in
Alaska, which has been done:

   www.akaerospace.com

Painfully broadly speaking there are two kinds of
orbits, equatorial and polar. Equatorial orbits are
the vast bulk of space launches as you can pick up
"free" energy from Earth's rotation. Further there are
a number of very interesting equatorial orbits, like
geostationary orbit (used by the big TV satellites).

Problem is there are some situations where you want
one spacecraft to be able to see everything from North
Pole to South Pole. Into this class you find some
surveillance (both earth resources and military spy)
spacecraft. You also find some specialized
communications spacecraft in polar orbit (the Iridium
phone system being an example). 

For a polar launch facility you want LOTS of water to
the south (so that when something goes wrong, the
chances of hitting people or valuable property is VERY
low). In addition you want good nearby port facilities
and/or good rail and/or good road connections to the
rest of the world as you bring in tons of hardware. 

So, could Nova Scotia make a decent polar launch
facility? Maybe, you could clearly do a lot worse.
Nova Scotia would likely be a better location than say
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, which is
where most US polar launches happen. But what concerns
me here is the article is talking about doing space
tourism, which is something that can be done cheaper
into a equatorial orbit (an area Nova Scotia falls
down on).

Further there is a clear, proven, modest market for
polar launches as governments / industry attempt to
make or save money off better communications, and/or
better Earth observations. What isn't proven is a way
to make cash from space tourism. Further, unlike say
government money that was used in the 19th century for
railway building there doesn't seem to be a big useful
infrastructure that will be reusable even if the main
venture dies. So, we are talking an expensive, high
risk, unproven market where it appears the government
assumes most risk and a private firm will get the
benefits if by some miracle it all works... 

In other words I like space flight, I would love to
see a Canadian spaceport, BUT I want to see a solid
business case for such an effort. Unless there is a
very compelling national defense case or a VERY clear
road to profits I want very little if any government
cash in the mix....

Colin McGregor

> > Why should the Federal Government spend a lot of
> money to subsidize tourists?
> > 
> > If they cannot or will not pay enough to attract
> the infrastructure,
> > why should the government take on the risk?
> > 
> > This would expressly be a case of "corporate
> welfare," of subsidizing
> > a specific set of companies, and not for any value
> I can really see.
> > 
> > When I lived in the US, I did see some of this
> sort of thing happening
> > in the sports industry, where professional teams
> have gotten into the
> > habit of moving to whichever city offers to spend
> the most on giving
> > them a "free" stadium.  It was (and is) a corrupt
> practice.  The
> > cities would then pass on the cost by imposing
> surtaxes on hotels and
> > rental cars, and the fact that this would be paid
> almost exclusively
> > by non-voters made the practice palatable to city
> councils and their
> > voters.
> > 
> > To be consistent with that practice, we might set
> up a "Canadian Space
> > Tourism Program" where all foreigners visiting the
> country would be
> > charged $10/day during their visit to help
> subsidize our space
> > program.
> > 
> > Better still:  Impose an extra 1% GST on all
> foreigners in the
> > country.  They don't vote, so they can't
> meaningfully oppose it.
> 
> And the government would spend twice that much just
> to administrate the
> GST difference (never mind what it would cost the
> poor stores to deal
> with the crap).  We could stop letting tourists get
> GST/PST refunds when
> they leave.  That might actually make money and save
> money since you
> wouldn't have to administrate that silly system
> anymore. :)
> 
> > It's all just a way of making it work...
> 
> --
> Len Sorensen
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