Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Perhaps the best test of whether a space company's truly entrepreneurial: would they support NASA's offering competitive prizes.

Your fixation on competitive prizes is pretty naive

NASA as a government bureaucracy has no incentive to offer competitive prizes. Doing so would undermine the prime directive of bureaucracy - to expand.

Boeing and Lockheed-Martin have no incentive to favor prizes, either. Why should they? If they can get the government or another corporation to pay the current prices for a space launch, why would they want to do something to encourage other companies to come into the market and undercut their prices? It'd be like a mom & pop grocery store lobbying for a Super Wal Mart to open next door. It isn't going to happen.

It's naive to believe that a bureaucracy or corporation should do something against their own interests just because you want them to.

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