All we need to eat is a bucket and the will to go outside. 

Jerry Pornelle's "A Step Farther Out" shaped a lot of my worldview growing up. Not only did he nail what a world with DARPANET/Internet would look like, but he elquonetly and definitely laid out the case that the future of the human race lies in outer space. 

(He also takes apart the neoMalthusians of the modern environmental movement, but that's a topic for another post). 

And now it looks like the aerospace industry is coming around to the idea that mankind's future in space isn't tied to the government of man, but our innate desire to boldy go. 

(Ph.d and former Shuttle Missions Director Mary Lynne) Dittmar writes that she was initially “disinterested” in the idea: The space community had “moved on” from the Shuttle program and commercial shuttle program efforts were nothing new and generally financially unsustainable.  Dittmar outlined four prerequisites for a viable commercial space shuttle project:

1) No government money for development or operations

2) A real business without NASA as a customer

3) An ability to reimburse the government for any infrastructure costs involved

4) She would only support a serious effort and a team she trusted.

According to a lengthy report on NASA Spacelight.com, Dittmar not only became a revival supporter and a key liaison in the Shuttle revival plan, but also saw real benefits in the switch to commercial operations. 

"One of the advantages of our purely commercial approach is that it allowed our engineers to consider alternative suppliers and advances in manufacturing, materials, processing, and production across the globe and across several industries," Dittmar told nasaspaceflight.com.

The stars, our destination.