Plan B Post-script: I started this project 5 years earlier. The planets’ depiction ideas were weak; guesses really. And there were flaws in the scientific notes. I tried networking with mainstream astronomers, astrophysicists, and officials for feedback. It was an uphill battle. While some were simply busy, others showed a stunning lack of generosity and graciousness—and sometimes, thankfully rarely, outright disdain.

The most memorable a institutional science lobbyist who slagged the policy idea because of science flaws in the draft that he would not help correct. Red herring! He claimed that public sector scientists alone are responsible for taking civilization to space; that it would be on their timeline; that private space enterprise has no immediate future; and that I ought to direct my energies to serving their timeline. It was weird, the siloed imagination of someone in a bubble. Inspiring me to create Astro Herring. And then, not being one to give up, kept digging. Eventually finding gracious, helpful public and private space scientists, engineers, and policymakers who appreciate imaginative thinking, no matter where it originates. And that got the Plan-B video to publication. And publication got a space lawyer asking for the 1-pager write-up to hand to his EU colleagues.

Happily, the proof is in the commercial pudding: Now there is proof of career advancement sequences across the Public-Scientific-Commercial NewSpace Alliance = the rewards that come from becoming commercially-minded; using modular design and supply chain management to systematically advance the dual-scientific mission: faster and adaptable and imaginative. Let’s encourage this, so we can all work together to rapidly become a space-faring civilization.