
Space as a Service - judegomila
http://www.judegomila.com/2012/11/space-as-service.html
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TelmoMenezes
"X as a service" is HN's equivalent to the old "imagine a beowulf cluster of
these" Slashdot meme.

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TuringTest
You should check out "...in space!" at TV Tropes.
(<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RecycledINSPACE>)

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ekianjo
Fascinating stuff, maybe not too far away. I wonder, however, what is the
advantage of OffGlobe (providing a data center on the moon). You get extra
latency and maybe reliability issues. Or maybe the advantage is to be off
local jurisdictions and safe from FBI operations ?

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jacques_chester
You'd be safe from seizure of the actual SSDs, which sounds nice.

Until the FBI obtains a court order granting them root access to the OffGlobe
C&C infrastructure. Oops.

Or until the FBI obtains a court order freezing OffGlobe's bank accounts until
they suspend a particular user. Oops.

And so on.

Sovereign risk is difficult to cope with because the Crown or the People
always have multiple ways to obtain compliance. This is as it should be, but
it does mean that in riskier fields you need continuity plans that go beyond
the merely physical.

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brianbreslin
Do you remember Sealand? Offshore datacenter on an independent "principality"
off UK coast?

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jacques_chester
I do. I also recall that the venture was a failure.

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sethbannon
Another for the Data category: Silvia Terra (<http://www.silviaterra.com/>).
They count trees from space.

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pclark
Why is this useful? I'm asking because I am a tree counting noob, vs. trying
to be a dick

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akavi
If I remember correctly (One of the founders is an acquaintance), logging
companies frequently have large parcels of land of varying quality, size, and
even contiguity. Being able to cheaply determine the the composition of the
trees on these disparate parcels better allows them to determine which areas
would be most lucrative to develop logging operations (an enormous capital
investment) in, which is incredibly valuable.

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maaku
I'm not friends with any of the founders, but I'd imagine it'd be useful for
environmental groups too.

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consultutah
As I read these, my first thought was that I don't think big enough.

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brianbreslin
Agree (i thought the same thing about myself). Big ideas for a big space are
hard to come by.

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maaku
Nonsense; there's plenty of ideas. Just attend the Space Frontier Foundation's
NewSpace conference to see, or pick up any O'Neill-inspired hard sci-fi and
have a read.

What's missing is execution. Why do we all have a man-crush on Elon Musk?
Because for the past 30 years it's been the same pool of a dozen-odd failed
entrepreneurs suckering the next batch of investors to losing money on The
Next Variation Of The Same Old Idea That Will Really Make You Money This Time,
I Promise. Now SpaceX is actually pulling it off, and all it took was a little
execution. Kistler? Bell? Rotary rocket? They all tried the same business
model. What they lacked was the business know-how and straight-forward
execution to make it happen and get in the black.

I encourage every entrepreneur here with real world experience to give the
space sector a serious look. We could use your experience.

Remember, the first trillionaire will be made in space.

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cashe
Space Burial: <http://elysiumspaceflights.com/>

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noirman
now that's something new!

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trendspotter
This overview about 'space as a service' is good, but it should specifically
mention X Prize founder and Singularity University co-founder and now
Planetary Resources co-founder "Peter Diamandis" as somebody of interest in
this industry.

