Keith's note: You can watch Newspace 2010 live at Spacevidcast. You can follow it on here on Twitter as well. One interesting comment this morning from NASA HQ's Charles Miller: "NASA admits that it is not a reliable customer".

Alas, these panels are almost exclusively composed of white males in their late 40's/early 50's. No females and rarely a darker shade of skin are to be found. I know these folks, so this is most certainly not a matter of discrimination by any means. Rather, it is evidence of a total lack of imagination in terms of outreach, mentoring, and trying to embrace the real world within which space commerce is but a miniscule part. I have watched/attended these Space Frontier Foundation things year after year. Without fail, its always the same people talking about the same stuff. Lots of arm waving - but rarely any concrete solutions.

NASA is always cast as simultaneously being the enemy and the source of funds for everyone's pet project. Same thing goes for Congress. No attempt is made to get outside the box and try and be relevant to the real world and the economic, societal, and political forces that make things work. The Space Frontier Foundation used to have some radical thinking. Now it has all evaporated away. All that's left is what you see on these panels - old thinking.

If your new business idea depends on government handouts and/or favoritism then you don't have the right product or the right business plan. You are just chasing after a new flavor of pork.