Nippon News Agency: Have you determined which asteroids you will investigate?
Dan Randolph: Yes, but I’m not at liberty to reveal which they are. I don’t want anyone or anything to cloud our claim.
Several questioners simultaneously: What do you mean by that? What are you afraid of? Who would make a rival claim?
Dan Randolph: Whoa! Hey, one at a time. Basically, I fear that if I announce that we’re aiming for a certain asteroid, the IAA will find a reason to declare it off-limits to development, just as they’ve declared the Near-Earth Asteroids and the moons of Mars closed to development.
Network Iberia: But the NEAs have been closed to development because there is the chance that their orbits could be perturbed and they would crash into the Earth, isn’t that so?
Dan Randolph: That’s the IAA’s excuse for keeping the NEAs off-limits, right. Bureaucrats can always find a good excuse to prevent progress.
Network Iberia: Are you saying, then, that the IAA has other motives in this? A hidden agenda?
Dan Randolph: If they do, their agenda isn’t hidden terribly well. They’ve denied the resources of the NEAs to the needy people of Earth. If they could, they’d deny the resources of the Belt, as well. Why? Ask them, not me.
Lunar News: You seem to be implying that the IAA is working against the best interests of Earth.
Dan Randolph: I’m not implying it, I’m saying it loud and clear: The IAA is working against the best interests of Earth.
Lunar News: If that’s the case, who do you think they are working for?
Dan Randolph: The status quo, of course. That’s what bureaucrats always support. Their goal is to keep tomorrow exactly like today, or yesterday, even — no matter how lousy today or yesterday may have been.
Pan Asia Information: You cast yourself in the position of helping the needy people of Earth. Yet isn’t your true goal to make billions in profits for your corporation?
Dan Randolph: My true goal is to open up the resources of the Asteroid Belt. We are running this mission on a shoestring; we don’t intend to make a profit from this flight.
Pan Asia Information: But you hope to make profits from future missions, don’t you?
Dan Randolph: Certainly! But more important than that, we’ll have shown that the people of Earth can tap the enormous treasures of resources waiting for us in the Belt. We’ll be glad to see other companies coming out to the Belt to find and develop those resources.
Columbia Broadcasting: You’d be glad to see competitors going to the Belt, but only after you yourself have claimed the best asteroids.
Dan Randolph: That’s real flatland thinking. There are millions of asteroids in the Belt. Hundreds of millions, if you count the boulder-sized ones. We could claim a thousand of them and that wouldn’t even begin to put a dent into the total number available.
Columbia Broadcasting: You say “claim” an asteroid. But isn’t it illegal to claim any object in space?
Dan Randolph: It’s been illegal since 1967 to claim sovereignty over any body in space. But since the founding of Selene, it has been perfectly legal to claim use of the natural resources of a celestial body.
Euronews: Weren’t you accused of piracy at one time? Didn’t you hijack shipments of ore on their way from the Moon to factories in Earth orbit?
Dan Randolph: That was a long time ago, and all those legal issues have been resolved.
Euronews: But aren’t you doing the same thing now? Stealing a ship and going out to claim resources that rightfully belong to the entire human race?
Dan Randolph: Look, pal, I own this ship, One-third of it, at least. And those resources out in the Belt won’t do the entire human race one diddley-squat [DELETED] iota’s worth of good if somebody doesn’t go out there and start developing them.
Anzac Supernet: Is it true that Starpower 1 runs on fusion rockets?
Dan Randolph: Yes. For more about the Duncan Drive you should talk to Lyle Duncan, who headed the team that built this propulsion system. He’s at the university in Glasgow.
Anzac Supernet: Are you really going to be able to reach the Asteroid Belt in two weeks?