Virgin Galactic Unveils Design For SpaceShipTwo

techcrunch.com

5 points·jmorin007··8 comments

the ability to launch low-earth satellites that could literally take some of the heat out of the planet, by serving as a repository for information technology.

Reminds me of a very hypothetical idea I heard about a few years ago. Some hackers wanted to create a hybrid communications satellite/web server that could host content outside of any legal juristiction. Could you imagine the RIAA trying to shut down that BitTorrent Tracker?

While this is great for free speech etc, how can something that is out of legal jurisdictions be defended? What if RIAA decides to point a high power laser at it?

The RIAA has high powered lasers? I somehow doubt that line item would be approved by the member companies.

You are taking my example rather literally :-) My original question stands: How do you defend something that is not protected by governments?

Quite simply, you can't. You only get the benefits of no law and government alongside the downsides of no infrastructure and protection.

I guess with your laser example other satellite owners, including governments would be peeved due to the debris. This would likely lead to stricter rules about space being drawn up.

Governments might start claiming space like they claimed coasts in the 50s.

No... but I can imagine them shutting down the earthside receiving station...

It's interesting how much more captivating this is compared to anything NASA is doing currently. The rovers are cool, the fly-bys neat, hubble upgrades, etc. But this (and similar ventures) put real, albeit rich and crazy, people into space and that's so... cool. It's tangible.

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