Yes, I find this concept troubling Pen. When I learned that they're close to cracking the launch problem, the idea came to me immediately. I can remember some of the Boeing research specialists saying how important they thought it was for a private group of people to beat the governments out in establishing a permanent presence in space during an interview about fifteen years ago. That may be what they're up to. Trying to beat the governments out at that. I wonder who it was that alerted them to this issue that many years ago?

However, they may be a giant corporation, but they are still just one corporation. They don't have the resources of a government, and a host of corporations. So you can't count on them for a safeguard. And then there's the point about how much longer the civic minded attitude of old Bill Boeing will stick with the company. So far, so good, but anything can happen. It's very much a possibility. Anybody like Soros, the Wahl family ........... anybody like that has the type of mindset to pull something like this. We need to hammer out a set of laws regarding diplomacy in space. The sooner, the better. It wouldn't be much, but it would be a start. If others still suffered the current launch issue. Somebody could sit out there lobbing semi sized stones this way, and everybody would be helpless. They've decided that meteor over Russia was probably under eighty feet in diameter now, and look at how much damage it did. Now, imagine a nickel iron version, as opposed to those stony ones ....... and ..... say 100 feet across? Imagine somebody sitting up there with a bunch of those piled up, like a kid in their fort. It wouldn't take much to do a lot of damage.

Worst case scenario would be a huge one nudged into the ocean. I wonder how large an object a drive system like I'm talking about could move? Vaporize enough sea water, and the weather system would make environmentalists forget all about global warming. I tend to doubt that very many people realize the possibilities here. And there are plenty of rich folks who are sick enough puppies to run with something like this. Just use the way some treat their employees as a guide, then take a guess. How many are that twisted?

Tim