you mean like go where no one has gone before, like Europa?

not really. borders drawn by cartographers in Europe resulted in lots of messy stuff we've been dealing for decades.

Unless you are running for congress, senate, or president then your opponents will use this against you. If you are not a millionaire then this career choice is not an option.

Hey, what if years from now someone running for election at state or federal level gets some dirt uncovered from when they did mischievous things when they were a child. i.e. recovered Facebook, Twitter, Instagram shenanigans.

Reminds me a discussion about difficulty remodeling The Pentagon that was built in 1941. "It took them 18 months to build, and it takes us 18 years to remodel" quoted a building contractor working on upgrading Pentagon walls, floors, etc. One major obstacle are so many cables strung throughout the complex. Cables from 1940s to 2000, many undocumented, which really slows down construction. There may be some old cable with that paper type insulation, may not look important but for all you know it may be the single hotline for Joint Chiefs of Staff to NORAD commander.

Some years ago there was an article about some town in India or China where utility poles had jumbled masses of cables, mayor was fed up of these horrible mess so visible downtown and not able to find who owns these to clean them up. So he ordered city crews to tear them all down which put the whole town into the 6th century and population screaming.

I heard NTIA runs a "tight ship" and very diligent on coordination and authorization, unlike FCC which is mostly a political organization which doesn't stop sellers from offering things like 10watt 1.2GHz video transmitters that operate in the 950 to 1200 MHz aeronautical navigation (transponders) band. I was talking with a presenter at IWCE some years ago who has worked with both NTIA and FCC, he said compared to FCC the NTIA is horribly bureaucratic.

back in 1990s (I heard various versions, too lazy to spend time trying figure out the real story, but here goes) when easily modified scanners can pick up cellphone calls, someone picked up a conversation of Newt Gingrich and someone else. He recorded the conversation and sent tape to a reporter. Shortly after a congressman introduced legislation that would make receiving any freq except broadcast illegal. Obviously that law was not implemented (I think result is scanners had to be designed so they could not easily be modified). Usenet forums were screaming at the time about this, one was "it's that liberal from Los Angeles who wrote this stupid law" which someone pointed out that LA suffix behind name is for Louisiana and congressman is a republican.

The last mile... yes that's what holds me back. I hear all this great stuff about Netflix, youtube vids, Hulu, etc. but at times may be fast but spotty. I was talking with someone describing how they watch fantastic movies, shows, etc. on their highspeed internet. I didn't get the details but way she described it is something that can impress most techies (I think her and her husband are IT specialists so they know how to game the system). Generally I don't pay much attention to all this whizbang high speed internet stuff, like tech systems for helicopters, I'm not in those leagues.

military, like other federal agencies are "licensed" and freq coordinated by the NTIA and there databases are not publicly available like FCC general menu reports. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/Gener...

Nothing. Like a tree falling in a forest with nobody around to hear it. Besides being factious that FCC no longer does enforcement but probably get attention from OSHA or local planning dept that issues permits.

reminds me of "free Comcast" of leaky cable boxes. Some years ago when Comcast had analog, and when watching amateur television on 421.25 MHz and 427.25 MHz I find certain parts of town being able to see Fox CNN on cable these freq (which are CATV Ch 57 and 58). Though all digital now but there are still lots of leaky boxes around though not sure if stations worth watching.

I still have comcast but only watch a few channels (I pay for hundreds I don't watch which is like paying monthly payments for a car I only drive 3 days a month). Talking with a friend who said there is about 100 OTA TV channels here in SF bay area. Not that all those channels interest me, but when he said OTA HD looks much better than Comcast which compresses the video (gotta fit all those channels through the coax pipe). He further described watching KQED OTA HD channel on oceanic life on a big screen (it was spectacular), then switched to same channel from Comcast. It was not as good. Then my comcast bill is a few dollars more (it seems to keep going up and promoting more football which I don't watch at all. was it the Cleveland Lakers that won the Superbowl?).

Maybe it's time to cut the cord from Comcast, my last month!

I probably jumped discussion too much, it refers to some people advocating commercial space that "it is easy" just like airplanes, emphasizing it's just a little harder. Actually it is difficult getting to LEO, SpaceX has made it lower cost when compared to "Arsenal Space" but still there is no cheap. So don't expect in 10 years from now going to LEO will be as straight forward as driving to Pittsburg.

We will have to see what next 10 years will bring, 10 years ago nobody expected us to be in a situation like we are now.

oh man, that is a good one. perfect to troll and make people mad.

Of course they would use it, like they used Sputnik and Gagarin to show superiority of communism and those were countered with NASA and Apollo. When these were successful, they were reduced (we abandoned going beyond LEO, and NASA struggles). Look at current "threats" which are not from USSR so the agency with one less A than NASA gets unlimited budget and authority, and can skirt the US Constitution.

Apollo succeeded because the politicos (those in power) realized if Soviets land on the moon first, they will plant the Hammer and Sickle flag on the surface that will enslave the world in Communism (not really but that's what they thought). So with that in mind, do whatever necessary to prevent that from happening otherwise their goose is cooked (strong motivator like 25 years before when threatened by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan).

Then after what next? Shuttle was left over from more ambitious missions of orbiting stations, lunar bases, mission to Mars, etc. And it could have easily not happened. see Dale Myers on MIT OCW video in 2005 when he said at time it looked like last HSF by US would have been the Skylab missions, Apollo-Soyuz was not scheduled at that time (sorry too lazy to get link but it's on youtube). Nixon realizing many people laid off in states with lots of electoral votes (CA and FL) so give them a big program to continue, in 1972 he said to OMB stop objecting to NASA plans for Shuttle and approve it.

Fast forward to 21st century and progress made by SpaceX and others is result of wealth inequality. Few billionaires have some billions they can put into to what they want rather than meeting political objectives (war, votes, whatever).

Argue all you want, you still have to deal with the tyranny of the Rocket Equation.