Quote:I envision it as a joint USAF/DARPA/NASA project, actually. And yeah, a lot of the Gloval types are military. They get along with the Sinclairs pretty well, and both of them politely tolerate the Picards. (Some Fen who are less discerning about 'danes tend to lump the Glovals and Sinclairs together as "Kirks", but that's considered a mild insult in Fenspace, and my avatar's more polite than that.)
Minor quibble: Glovals sound more like regular Air Force & Navy types than NASA. (Case in point, ex-SDIO chief Gen. Pete "Darth" Worden, lord of the DC-X program.) Despite pulling much of the astronaut corps from the armed services, NASA's pretty well devoted to peaceful operations.
It might make more sense to make TSAB a straight Pentagon arm like DARPA or SDIO, just because a military research op would have more money to spend on asteroid collecting than NASA. YMMV, though.
That said, TSAB's a neat idea (logical, too, considering) & I look forward to seeing their antics in the future.
(Another random thought. A minor fen fraction made up of fans/supporters/disciples of Jerry Pournelle, "Jerry's Kids" to the ignorant masses, who're some of the few fen with patriotic feelings toward the 'danelaw. Big supporters of the USAF ops at L4. Feasible?)
As for TSAB's location in the 'danecrat organizational chart, well, NASA asked first... and had the contacts with people (like me) to provide them with a Rock to play around in. The head of the TSAB is technically a civilian, he's actually a (formerly retired) Air Force astronaut. (I was briefly tempted to have this be Sam Carter, but I'm not sure how many SG-1 riffs I want to toss into this.)--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.