How long before unmanned craft take to the U.S. freight market?
The Dragon capsule carried only around 1,000 lbs. of cargo made up of “food, clothing and scientific equipment,” reported the Christian Science Monitor, in addition to such humorous items as the ashes of the actor who played “Scotty” on Star Trek. But the SpaceX company has a reported $1.6 billion in federal contracts to deliver cargo to the space station. Imagine if we put that much money into a truck or aircraft company to develop a driverless sky-borne freight hauler — or better yet, right into the pockets of American drivers. It might only amount to about $500 apiece, but still, a happy hauler is a safe one, right?
Given a choice between millions of taxpayer dollars funding a 1,000-lb. haul and enough cash for a tank of fuel, I might have myself a nice, profitable Atlanta to Chicago run.
In any case, it’s not that I think you have big reasons to worry. We’re still spending a lot more at the taxpayer level on surface transport than we are on space flight — for fiscal year 2012, the DOT budget is around 129 billion, almost seven times that of NASA. At once, ff we measured that by the amount of freight hauled, though, I think we’d get a lopsided per-pound ratio, eh?
Pretty cool vid of the launch here, regardless. Enjoy!
[youtube cNeev7dkdWw nolink]
