Business, Economics, Law, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Mark Sundahl

32 Comments

He’s going to be on The Space Show in a few minutes (2 PM PDT), talking about space law and space property rights. I’ll be interested to hear what he has to say.

BTW, just turned in the proposal to NASA this morning, so I’m sort of decompressing.

[Update a few minutes later]

Welp, five minutes past, and so far he’s a no show.

[Update a couple minutes later]

OK, sounds like they’re about to start now.

[Update toward the end]

Nice to hear him endorse the multilat idea I’ve been (and will continue to be) promoting.

32 thoughts on “Mark Sundahl”

  2. Yeah, figure Rand will open a thread on that at some point.

    And what we all REALLY want to know: Will they use Army ranks or Navy ranks or BOTH!!!

    Brigadier Lt. Cmdr. Rear Commodore Maj. Col. Dave

  3. Why not Marine Corps ranks? But I think they might go with Air Force ranks. Is the Air Force ranks the same as the Armey? I know that they were a part of the Armey at one time, but not sure about the ranks.

      1. America’s first starbase will be commanded by a Brigadier General, and the Starship Enterprise will be commanded by a colonel.

          1. Oh absolutely we need that for a spacecraft name….
            Without question…. The Earth’s first ultra deadly super-dreadnought class plaid-warp capable super star destroyer. The USS Starshippy McStarshipface.

    2. Yeah Air Force is the same as the Army. Not surprising since the Air Force was carved out of the Army Air Corps. in 1947. Marines are the same as the Army, with the exception that Congress never allowed Marine Corps. to have a 5-star rank. Anyone know why? Was always curious. Talking O grades. W grades may vary. E grades as well…
      O=Officer W=Warrant Officer E=Enlisted

      1. The USMC is under the Navy Department, and I get the sense it’s not considered a co-equal branch like the others. The five-star ranks aren’t being awarded these days anyway — they started because we wanted Eisenhower to be on an equal footing with British field marshals who would have outranked him.

        That would have made it awkward considering Ike was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and all.

        Nowadays with the Joint Chiefs of Staff system, nobody needs more than four stars.

        1. You check that with Geo. S. Patton first? I think he was gunning for #5 by opening a new Russian front before he got his neck broke…. I mean after all, if Ike & George & Chester and Dougie all had 5….. 😉

          2. Well, MacArthur was SACPAC so he needed a fifth star too. The others probably griped because Ike wasn’t that senior.

            Nimitz got a fifth star too, and I think Bull Halsey. That got to be one damn popular gumball machine for a while there.

          3. Oh, and Hap Arnold, who was the first and only General of the Air Force.

            (My dad was an Air Corps officer candidate in WW2.)

          1. Damn no General of the Space Fleet!!! Was really hoping for that… So was Captain Garth…

          2. “Damn no General of the Space Fleet!!! Was really hoping for that… So was Captain Garth…”

            LORD GARTH!!!!!!!

            😉

      2. Main difference in E grades between Army and MC is a Marine PFC is an E-2 instead of E-3, and a Marine E-3 is called Lance Corporal.

        I think W grades are the same across Army, Marines and AF.

          1. See I *know* what’s important here. Also know how to totally derail a thread… Old USENET’er here…. lol….

          3. Oh for sure you are not aloe and for me, not the first time I’ve gotten on Rand’s nerves. I’m a major reason “why we can’t have nice things”…. 🙂

        2. The Air Force hasn’t had warrant officers for decades, which IMO is a mistake.

          The officer grades (O-1 through O-10) are the same for the Army, Air Force, and Marines. The enlisted grades (E-1 through E-9) are similar but not the same. The Navy officer ranks are quite different, and their enlisted ranks are a mystery that defy rational explanation. They appear to be a combination of job specialty (rating) and pay grade, e.g. Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class.

    1. And to get back on subject, why not have the robots fight it out over property rights? I would suggest sending a series of robotic Tesla coils that can be used to “stake out” an area on Mars’ surfaces that would be essentially other bot free. At least as far as rovers are concerned. A competing bot would have to be landed “within the square” to be safe, an engineering feat too complex except for the most advanced tech squatters. If the Tesla coil bots are rovers they can converge on the intruder like white-cells… Oops that’s another analogy and possible jacking material. Sorry Rand…. 🙂

      1. Aha I have the solution! And so does Elon! 🙂 You send a Boring Company digger to Mars! Have it bore out a square on Mars with a trench too deep to be crossed by a rover! Voila! My Space On Mars! You can legalize around all you want but a dry MOAT is 9/10th of possession!

    2. Another take on the Hadfield article and one quite familiar to Rand:
      “Space, or Mars in particular, is just not that important to risk human life over. We should await going there until we have the technology available that would render going there pointless anyway.”

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