I'm back from Wyoming, but busy painting the house. But Clark has a lot a lot of good stuff over at his site. Just keep scrolling.

I will take this as an open thread (heh!)

Not politics (whew!) but rocket science stuff. Anyone know more about this?

http://www.juneaucounty.com/economic.asp

Apparently the plan is to radically lower the cost of fabricating LOX and methane fuel tanks by using the same employees who are now making Wisconsin dairy tanks:

Formed 10 years ago by former aerospace industry engineers, KT aims to tap private commercial manufacturers such as Walker to help it build the rocket at a much lower cost than the traditional aerospace industry.

Typically, the aerospace industry has high fixed costs that come with building factories and hiring employees 'whose sole purpose is to build a few rockets per year,' Sisk said. 'We eliminate all that portion of the business. Essentially, we're enabling quality vendors' to handle all the manufacturing.

Walker was selected after KT's studies found that the best material for its fuel tanks, which will be filled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen, is stainless steel.

Perhaps employees spend 3 weeks per month making dairy tanks and 1 week a month making stainless steel LOX and methane tanks for expendable rockets. In theory, total labor costs and capital equipment costs are greatly reduced.

Anyone know more?