Jim Benson passes away ...

Tom Ligon · Post by **Tom Ligon** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:03 am

I just noticed a story from Space.com. Jim Benson founded SpaceDev. He knew Dr. Bussard, and when EMC2's San Diego operation had to shut down, was able to take over the Navy-owned equipment (SpaceDev had government contracts that allowed this.) When EMC2 started back up, I believe they were able to get some of the old equipment back.

Benson made an offer to Dr. Bussard to fund the Polywell effort privately. While Dr. Bussard did not like the terms enough to accept the deal, I'm taking off my hat in a moment of tribute to a space and fusion visionary who has had an impact on the EMC2 effort.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081011/ ... ondiesat63;

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:26 pm

Yes, very sad indeed.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:27 am

Ahh gee.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:56 am

derg · Post by **derg** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:00 am

I recall trying to convince my father to buy spacedev stock back in the 90's- before they got the contract to build the Spaceship One engine- and he was convinced it was just an ad hoc effort with little more than him and his secretary. Benson could have rode the dotcom curve and made a lot more money than he did, but he gave that up to pursue a far more difficult dream of mining asteroids and private space exploration. That's balls, man.

scareduck · Post by **scareduck** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:02 am

derg wrote:I recall trying to convince my father to buy spacedev stock back in the 90's- before they got the contract to build the Spaceship One engine- and he was convinced it was just an ad hoc effort with little more than him and his secretary. Benson could have rode the dotcom curve and made a lot more money than he did, but he gave that up to pursue a far more difficult dream of mining asteroids and private space exploration. That's balls, man.

Not to mention a lot more capital intensive...

Jboily · Post by **Jboily** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:48 pm

Very sad indeed.

I have met Jim many times. He struck me as a very smart follow with a long term view on things.

He was a little ahead of his time with asteroid mining. It is sad that he did not see it happen in his life time, I am sure this will be a major step forward of the humanity evolution, along with the moon landing and a working BFR.

gblaze42 · Post by **gblaze42** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:43 pm

Now's the perfect time to buy stock in spacedev, currently it's at 40 cents a share. Unfortunately it means it's traded on on the OTC:BB and not any of big stock exchanges.

rj40 · Post by **rj40** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:42 pm

Interesting.

http://www.space.com/common/media/video ... 016_benson

Who is out there that can take his place?