"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down ? That's not my department."
- Werner Von Braun

Alright, I'm still not quite ready to just show this hand, because the answer to the question that keeps me up at night just seems too darned obvious to be possible.  But I have to dump this on you or I'll be pacing all night...

This afternoon I signed for the delivery of NASA report SP-509.  Interesting to find yet another page in Dr. Chris McKay's life .. but even more interesting that still with all of the documents and plans and learned elite meetings and conferences STILL the mention of the elephant in the room of Space industries *STILL* is never mentioned.

Admittedly, I've only just finished the Overview book but even in that there are several mentions of Launch costs needing to come down and those all point to the same launch technologies.  So if they, like all of the rest, do indeed only focus on that in the Overview then I have some doubts that the remaining real-meat four books are going to mention the Elephant in the room - the big end-all problem.

Relatedly, I went back into some previously-read books to see if I just missed the Elephant before because I hadn't become aware of it a few weeks back. 

Nope. 

Zubrin's "The Case For Mars", Lewis's "Mining the Sky", O'Neil's "The Hiigh Frontier" and Schmitt's org-chart and footnote laden "Return to the Moon" all ones you'd think would be all over this issue just skirt it completely.  Hundreds of pages of hard core tech and persuasive business plans .. except for where it really counts.

I honestly don't get it.  I feel like those 18th century school children who cut the continents out of maps and put them together and said "Hey, these all fit together" only to be told by Those Who Are Trained To Know that it was just coincidence.  Remember that story?  

Are you Trained to Know... or are you just a Train on a fixed rail, like those dead guys who now look mighty silly?

Going back over 20 years we still see launch costs being touted as "$10,000 per pound"... you'd think that in that time someone would have looked around and said. "Hey!  If we really are too stupid to cut this cost, has anyone ever considered another way altogether?" You'd think that someone would have called the Emporer naked ... after over 20 years, for god's sake.  But while that is shameful at least it's acknowledged. 

After 30+ years of having the names and orbit locations of individual asteroids each supposedly with hudreds of trillions (*T*rillions) of dollars worth of rare "Earths" you'd think that someone would have put some thought into that other Elephant.  I mean, some little miltary dictatorship or jim-jonesy religious mind-controller like Iran or VietNam or North Korea with no concern over how you get to the end result, just that they get it, would be perfect for proving to the big guys that they can't get out of their own ways.  Gosh, such a country could realistically take over.  But what do they do?  Korea and Iran just emulate the big boys that they envy so much... they stick to dual use Military technologies.  Loving things that go boom instead of loving being in control of resouirces and having everyone else over an economic barrel. 

C'mon Japan, we all know that you get it.  You know that it's the money that makes you a player.  And from your publicized mission plans we know that the Sun is really into Rising on those platinum oozing asteroids... so start thinking about the real question, the real thing that, once solved, means world power beyond a luck-money sheik's dreams... here's a hint:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization

Here's another: "What goes up, must  ..."

And now that you've got the question... there appears to be a bunch of guys in Texas who are the only ones I can find who have anything at all related to an answer.  In fact, I'll go as far as playing 18th century school kid and say that by default they have THE answer; And I don't think that even they know how important it is.  But you have to start thinking like a businessperson instead of like a rocket scientist - or a big gun cowboy. 

Barnstorming was romantic and fun, but now we just need our products to get delivered, right?  So why are all of the most smart people so happy to keep patting themselves on the back and aging through yet another generation of ignoring the Elephant?

Someone has to have written about this.. tomorrow I'll see if the JBIS has something.  If  not then it's really just those crazy guys in Texas.