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