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Commercialization

CASIS Plans To Compete With The Private Sector Using NASA Funds

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 15, 2019
Filed under ,

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

6 responses to “CASIS Plans To Compete With The Private Sector Using NASA Funds”

  1. Tim Blaxland says:
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    Well, based on past performance they’d be hard pressed to attract private investment…

    What products/services are they planning to compete on?

  2. Bob Mahoney says:
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    Is it me, or does CASIS keep sounding like far too many Metropolitan Transportation Authorities seem to behave?

  3. Jeff2Space says:
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    If this isn’t illegal, it ought to be.

    • fcrary says:
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      Similar things have happened before, so I suspect it’s legal.

      Back in the 1990s, cable television companies were using just about anything for content, so they could advertise offering “over 100 channels” or something similar. That included things like 24-hour coverage of a camera pointed at an aquarium with tropical fish.

      Someone realized we hadn’t had actual, full-disk, full-color images of the Earth since Apollo. And that it wouldn’t be too expensive the fly an appropriate camera as an hosted payload on a communications satellite. If people were willing to pay for the fish tank channel, they’d almost certainly pay for a live view of the Earth from space.

      They had some trouble getting funding. After all, and even if it’s true, investors are a little leery of business plans based on “someone people will pay for just about any damn thing.” But what really killed the idea was Al Gore announcing that NASA should do more or less the same thing, and give away the coverage for free.

  4. Michael Spencer says:
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    This feels like the gasping for breath of a fish out of water.