Comments on: Problems with Russia force private company to deemphasize ISS cameras

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 01:27:05 +0000

LocalFluff wrote: “Anything expensive in space MUST be done nationally in order to eliminate most of the corruption”

I’m not so sure that a national (governmental) effort would eliminate much corruption. Russia is prosecuting several people for corruption in at least one of its national efforts, the Vostochny Cosmodrome (spaceport).

The US has been spending far too much money on SLS and Orion, after spending a lot on Constellation, which was willy nilly cancelled due to a not-invented-here attitude of the president. This may not be corruption, but it is terribly wasteful. National efforts are “corrupted” by politics. Politicians have an incentive to reward friends and punish enemies. Many politicians succumb to this incentive.

Conversely companies have an incentive to do things efficiently and effectively.

Large space projects can be accomplished by cooperative efforts by multiple companies. Several aerospace contracts have been bid and won by teams of companies, each with its own expertise to contribute to the team.

Commercial projects are similar. Iridium originated as a consortium of three companies. OneWeb is a similar consortium.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 18:18:45 +0000

I see Bob’s point; to the extent that the ‘renegotiation’ was due to geopolitical tensions, it was (hopefully) premature to undermine an otherwise unrelated agreement. That said, “it’s all connected.”

By: wodun

wodun — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 17:53:48 +0000

Perhaps I missed it in the article but it didn’t say why these problems actually exist. How is Russia blocking the use of the cameras?

By: bob sykes

bob sykes — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 12:18:29 +0000

This has nothing to do with business; it’s all about international relations. This is simply tit-for-tat in response to the sanctions and troop movements. Our relations with Russia have deteriorated to the point where people are contemplating actual war with Russia. The neocons are actively pushing for war, and if Clinton had been elected we most certainly will have gotten it. If Trump can normalize relations, which seems likely, these issues will go away.

The degree of stupidity in the Obama foreign policy is astonishing. Six wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Openly hostile relations with both China and Russia, hostile to the point of driving China and Russia into an alliance. And the neocons want more of this.

By: LocalFluff

LocalFluff — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 11:07:28 +0000

That’s the big risk with international cooperation in space. The phenomena of international cooperation in space only exists because space is expensive and where there’s much money, the parasitic political flies gather. Similar problems don’t occur in pure business-to-business relationships across borders, as long as governments don’t get involved (which is rare). The problems don’t exist in the international scientific community, where no one cares about nationality (at least not in astronomy which is still a pretty unpolitical science).

Anything expensive in space MUST be done nationally in order to eliminate most of the corruption and this kind of risk of purposeful sabotage because of some completely unrelated issue. Risk managers of space investment projects cannot possibly preemptively take into account what some rebels do in Eastern Ukraine, not in any other way than to say:
-“Thank you, but no thank you, it isn’t worthwhile to get involved in this stuff.”
(Btw, I think that we will see ESA collapse within a few years, which will be a good thing since national space agencies will be more productive.)