[OT]: More on the Canadian Spaceport front (Was: How to help a Canadian Spaceport?)

[Scott Elcomb]

I came across a story in the Sun today which reminded me of the
conversation we had on-list a couple years ago...

"Cape Breton may become a Canadian version of Florida’s historic Cape
Canaveral where astronauts and rockets have been launched into outer
space for decades.

The Canadian Space Agency is looking at the Nova Scotia island as one
of two possible sites to blast small satellites into orbit using an
indigenous rocket launch system.

The other possible micro-satellite launch site is Fort Churchill in
Manitoba, near Hudson Bay, where hundreds of small research rockets
have been launched in the past."

For those who were/are interested, this latest story can be found at:
<http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/03/28/13385886.html>

The focus no longer appears to be on tourism although it is mentioned
in the article.  Monitoring Arctic sovereignty is also listed as a
potential reason for having a spaceport.

Cheers,
- Scott.

PS - Some context from the ~2.5 year old conversation:


On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 at 5:41 PM, Colin McGregor <colinmc151-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> --- 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

-- 
  Scott Elcomb
  http://www.psema4.com/   @psema4

  Member of the Pirate Party of Canada
  http://www.pirateparty.ca/
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