>> Easy to build, not so easy to launch. It would be neat if someone could
>> get around the legal/political obstacles for allowing homemade launches.
>> Probably too difficult in the USA.
>
> As long as you're downwind of my house!

Yes, that's the real problem. There's always someone downwind who
doesn't want a rocket going through their window or putting a dent in
their wing, and the laws reflect that. Any time designs are influenced
more by the need to convince others that it will work than by the need
for them to actually work, the cost of innovation moves way out of my
price range. I have a hard time believing that a price tag of $50,000
to launch a 1kg object is driven primarily by the cost of electronics
and solid rocket boosters. These things just aren't that expensive.

I'm not saying I have a solution, but step 1 is identifying the
problem. Amateur rocketry would pass NASA's weak efforts in no time if
it were really deregulated, but I also don't want any rockets coming
through my window.

--
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the
other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious
deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

                    - C.A.R. Hoare -