Hi gb

I work in a customer service role - a long story - but I meet a lot of interesting people as fellow employees. Lots of people from high pressure industries end up working in my company - just today I discovered that an older guy I work with was an industrial chemist in a former life. We had an interesting discussion about our little argument over hydrogen versus water, plus a mutual bit of scepticism about the much touted "hydrogen economy".

And on the train to work this morning I sat across from a guy who works for Boeing - we'd been talking about ridiculous modifications to cars. I had recently met a young fellow who had installed the ultimate precooler on his car - pressurised carbon dioxide for chilling his intake air down to -10 C. His fuel efficiency went way up - he could do 1100 km on one tank - but the car now cost about the same as his house. Fortunately he sells the precooler system to other young and financially naive motoring enthusiasts.

My fellow passenger and I got into a conversation about physics and thermodynamics - which are the least problematic aspect of current spaceflight efforts. We know the relevant physics quite well, but can't make a cheap, ready-to-launch satellite system.

What's wrong with this picture?