Tim51
Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="wclaybaugh2, post: 2455070,
I’m less certain that just spending a pile of money means it is not amateur: if I spend $1000 per month on rocketry than after 10 years I’ve spent six figures…does that mean I am not an amateur?
Or consider a large University with a billionaire sponsor…do those facts mean their activity is not amateur despite their staffing being entirely students?
[/QUOTE]
I read the point by @Conway Stevens as being it's not how much is spent, but who is spending. If, as @Antares JS stated, the root of the word 'amateur' is doing it solely for the love, someone personally spending six figure sums (or whatever) would just evidence his/her extreme love of rocketry. However, someone who 'produces' a rocket for others (whether they build it themselves or front up a project for investors, students, or a corporation) is involved in a financial transaction or contractual commitment of some kind as part and parcel of that project, so that makes them (at least for the duration of that contractual arrangement) a professional.
I’m less certain that just spending a pile of money means it is not amateur: if I spend $1000 per month on rocketry than after 10 years I’ve spent six figures…does that mean I am not an amateur?
Or consider a large University with a billionaire sponsor…do those facts mean their activity is not amateur despite their staffing being entirely students?
[/QUOTE]
I read the point by @Conway Stevens as being it's not how much is spent, but who is spending. If, as @Antares JS stated, the root of the word 'amateur' is doing it solely for the love, someone personally spending six figure sums (or whatever) would just evidence his/her extreme love of rocketry. However, someone who 'produces' a rocket for others (whether they build it themselves or front up a project for investors, students, or a corporation) is involved in a financial transaction or contractual commitment of some kind as part and parcel of that project, so that makes them (at least for the duration of that contractual arrangement) a professional.
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