RE: The good ship Extro 1

From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net)
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 06:45:58 MDT

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    Because of my long experience in various aspects of the maritime
    industry, it seems to be my fate to rain on this parade here from time
    to time. Mr. Van Sickle's comment about chipping and painting points to
    the reason: The maritime environment on this planet, at least, is very
    harsh. You're trying to operate in an environment of a highly
    corrosive, highly dynamic fluid. Except for how much energy it takes to
    get there and the pesky high-velocity passage through a gas envelope,
    space is positively benign in comparison.

    There's a REASON that these vessels are for sale cheap! The capital
    cost of the actual steel and static physical systems is small compared
    to the cost of operating and maintaining them. You have to have a VERY
    profitable reason to maintain an ocean-based facility, such as carrying
    valuable stuff from one place to another or getting some valuable stuff
    out of the ocean environment to the land where people live.

    Greg Burch
    Vice-President, Extropy Institute
    My Bog: http://gregburch.net/burchismo.html



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