SINE

I think since we are at the launch site, we should celebrate with potatoes for lunch.

CORONADO

This is your idea. If you’re buying, I’m eating.

SINE

And when we met that first time, remember I told you that in 2019, the Chinese sent a rocket to the moon to plant potatoes?

CORONADO

What was the point of that ?

SINE

Well if anybody is going to camp on the moon, they will have to eat. Sweet potatoes are on menu in Chinese space missions and get served in soup.

AURA

So there are potatoes growing on the moon ?

SINE

No. They freeze dried. They need liquid water.

AURA

I guess China wants to be the new Columbus. Nobody ever heard of potatoes outside of America until Columbus brought them back to Europe. They preserve white potatoes in Peru by freezing them. But sweet potatoes started in Yucatan and Venezuela where there’s no freezing.

SINE

China eats half of world’s sweet potatoes in winter for street food. Tong sui, sweet potato soup, in restaurants, so Chinese taikonauts have it pretty good.

CORONADO

Yeah. I remember you telling us about freeze dried borscht and potatoes on the Russian and American spacecraft. If we're doing this show in a flying saucer, we may as well stay true to the program, huh?

AURA

Sounds like a plan.

SINE

Is amazing how many people aiming for space. Bezos, Musk, Branson, even more using Spaceport in Truth or, or

AURA

Consequences.

SINE

And government backing many.

CORONADO

The government gets ahead when they get ahead. Like communications satellites. How many would there be if government was the only one doing it. It’s like Columbus. Sailing under the flag of Spain gave him protection from rivals, and look at everything Spain got out of the deal: whole countries, lots of gold.

AURA

Only now it’s whole planets. It’s like the wild west all over again.

SINE

You talk as if this happening fast.

AURA

Well Trump talked about a space force. Anybody that sets up shop on the moon, they’re going to be king of the hill, aren’t they ?

SINE

The moon. Little itty bitty. Now Venus, Mars.

AURA

You said yourself NASA made a map of most of Venus in a year and a half. Those places might as well be itty bitty.

SINE

It's not as if everything is done. Many would be happy just to get a steady place to put telescope outside of the air. Not one that wiggles like on the Hubble satellite.

AURA

Got to look even farther out. Never satisfied. I almost hope they find the little green men they probably won’t be able to understand any better than the fish they can’t translate either in spite of having had lifetimes to figure out what they’re saying.

SINE

If they’re fish, so what. We have better things to do like: make things we can’t make on earth because they need absolute purity.

CORONADO

So private enterprise is motivated to try now. When NASA was the only thing going, anything anybody could think of would end up being public property. So now it’s worth somebody’s effort.

SINE

And many efforts. Dozen companies at Spaceport. There are even rockets starting from Australia. NASA is like a city wanting industry. So it provides infrastructure like transport to orbit, crew for space station maintenance, and so on. All you have to do is read your newspaper to see. Maybe you should buy their stock and maybe then you be happy.

CORONADO

It might be a little too early for that. - But somewhere I read your buddy Elon saw an asteroid made of diamonds he wants to haul back here. That's gotta' be a winner if there's anything happening.

NASA goes private

Space law

C'mon up for a swim sometime . . .   (lyrics)