It's important to note that ex-employees are hardly ever members of their old boss's fan club, so some of this has to be taken with a grain of salt. I personally found Lowther's web page amusing more than anything else, and highly recommend his other sites. I really miss his modeling work.

I don't know Zubrin. I've met him a few times at conferences, and yes, he is overbearing to say the least. This may make him difficult to work with, but it may be an essential trait for someone who needs to raise money and get projects going. As one who has been in the rocket entrepreneur business for many years, I have learned that there is a hell of a lot more to getting a project off the ground than an engineering degree. Sometimes the "engineering" approach is not the right one after various factors like finances, PR, customer and investor input are taken into account. It ain't easy, and sometimes the entrepreneur can be somewhat eccentric. Heck, I work with one, and sometimes I think we're both nuts.

Of course, a good entrepreneur knows his own limitations, and defers where he must to superior knowledge. Maybe Zubrin doesn't do this very well. Again, I only know what I have been reading from many viewpoints.

As I have pointed out elsewhere, I have no problem supporting Zubrin's flashy projects, although I disagree with some of his viewpoints. Will they get us to Mars by themselves? Of course not. But without someone like Zubrin constantly banging the drums (loudly), we may never get there at all.