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Copenhagen Suborbitals joins KSP

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TMS

TMS

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Sad to see what's been happening with this group over the last month.

With the relationship between the two founders disintegrating, leading to von Bengtson departing earlier in the year and joining Mars One (really???) and Madsen leaving last month to pursue his own rocketry company, the acrimony and bitterness on the Ingenioeren forums is quite something to behold.

Best of luck for all parties.

Ad Astra?

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100ideas

100ideas

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Wow! Copenhagen Suborbitals is such an amazing project and a huge inspiration. I love the rocket shop Wired blog. I can't think of a better example of the power of "peer production" than Copenhagen Suborbitals.

As far as I know, the spaceflight industry hasn't been examined by contemporary peer production scholars. Some research so far has focused on the Alternative Energy, Biotechnology, Educational Materials, and Telecommunications industries, and I think there is a fair amount of prior work on early aviation and aerospace innovation, since innovations in both often required substantial public investment, and public funders (sometimes) have the power and incentive to make subsequent innovations more "shareable."

For instance, in the early 1900's, a rapid development of many innovations for powered flight had lead to "patent thicket" that made it difficult to impossible for any one aircraft manufacturer to successfully license and integrate all the inventions into one aircraft. This was a big problem because the country was about to enter World War 1 and we needed the most cutting-edge aircraft available. So, amazingly, the government actually "stepped-in" and insisted that everyone share their patents with their competitors. Better planes were made and arguable the industry was advanced faster than if the patent thicket had remained. From the Wright Brothers Patent War Wikipedia article:

In 1917, the two major patent holders, the Wright Company and the Curtiss Company, had effectively blocked the building of new airplanes, which were desperately needed as the United States was entering World War I. The U.S. government, as a result of a recommendation of a committee formed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization (in other terms a Patent pool), the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association.

All aircraft manufacturers were required to join the association, and each member was required to pay a comparatively small blanket fee (for the use of aviation patents) for each airplane manufactured;of that the major part would go to the Wright-Martin and Curtiss companies, until their respective patents expire. This arrangement was designed to last only for the duration of the war, but in 1918, the litigation was never renewed.

Perhaps it's time for these Peer Production scholars to look at Copenhagen Suborbitals, the Rocket Madsen Space Lab, Kerbal Space Program, and the communities supporting and innovating with and around them! :)

Welcome to Kerbal!

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Hunting.Targ

Hunting.Targ

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Very interesting piece of commercial history. Of course, such a situation comes about when an industry explodes and inventors and engineers are driving pell-mell to get their ideas protected against intellectual plagiarism. When companies hold ideas selfishly instead of co-operatively licensing them, it serves to stifle rather than stimulate growth, as you pointed out. Thank you for the insightful commentary.

If the automotive industry hasn't solved this problem, where patents abound, I rather doubt that the aerospace industry will. And since there's no war to fight, it seems unlikely and unnecessary for the gov't. to start mandating certain behaviors. Sooner or later a few heads will decide that competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive, and at least some sharing will take place.

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Majorjim!

Majorjim!

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Hi, and welcome RandomRyan! Okay, you really sound like a nice guy (you are someone I haven't seen before, actually), but Copenhagen joined on May 1.

Of 2013.

Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm just saying this.

Yeah what gives? They didn't post anything of note in two years. Also not being a jerk, I'm just saying this.

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