So what ARE habitats good for anyway?

Mike,

Without a dramatic drop in cost to orbit, and a dramatic rise in the cost of fossil fuels, SPS will remain uneconomical.
I think that we will need to see a breakthrough in the cost of achieving orbit that then leads to a huge demand for tourists to travel to LEO as well as to the vicinity of the moon. Once that is possible, they won't want to go home and so space hotels will be in demand, especially if 1G environment can be provided. Once people can sit around a restaurant or bar in space discussing ideas, mining of asteroids can't be far behind.
Maintenance of satellites and launching to Mars will also be incentives, but minor when compared with the dollars tourists will bring.

This is how I see it today.

Tom
From: Combs, Mike
To: 'spacesettlers@egroups.com'
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 6:19 AM
Subject: RE: [spacesettlers] So what ARE habitats good for anyway?

This is a pretty good list. In my way of thinking, a massive SPS construction program, and its attendant space housing requirements, is probably the only primary justification for the building of orbital settlements. (Although I would have to allow that orbital tourism might also lead to space habitats, albeit in a much more evolutionary and drawn-out way.) In an major SPS construction program, there would be both the space mining and orbital infrastructure needed to build habitats, and (barring dramatic improvements in robotics) the requirement for doing so. The other items on this list, while valid advantages of orbital life, probably cannot stand as primary rationales for building space settlements. But once space settlements are built for other reasons, all these items become advantages to this approach.

I would see space settlers as arriving in 3 waves. The first would be composed of SPS and other space construction workers; those who will want to live in orbit because that's where their jobs are. Then, after subsequent habitats begin being built for immigrants from Earth, the next generation will probably be the wealthy, who will want to live in space not only for the prestige but for the ideal living conditions possible in a totally artificial environment. Then I would hope that as prices continue to drop, we would see a third wave of the less wealthy; those who may be leaving Earth because they don't feel they can live as freely there as in communities which they will make for themselves in space. This 3rd wave will be the biggest, and in the long run the most significant.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From: Ian Woollard [mailto:ian.woollard@...]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 8:27 PM
To: spacesettlers@egroups.com
Subject: [spacesettlers] So what ARE habitats good for anyway?

Ok here's my list:

- space tourism (hotels)
- space sports
- 'mobile homes' (want to go to mars?)
- space swimming pools (think low velocity water slides that go
upside-down)
- separating compounds
- repairing telecom satellites
- building telecoms satellites
- space theme parks
- building solar power satellites
- somewhere to live (especially workers for the above)
- really secure accomodation for rich people

Anything else?

Without a dramatic drop in cost to orbit, and a dramatic rise in the cost of fossil fuels, SPS will remain uneconomical.
I think that we will need to see a breakthrough in the cost of achieving orbit that then leads to a huge demand for tourists to travel to LEO as well as to the vicinity of the moon. Once that is possible, they won't want to go home and so space hotels will be in demand, especially if 1G environment can be provided. Once people can sit around a restaurant or bar in space discussing ideas, mining of asteroids can't be far behind.
Maintenance of satellites and launching to Mars will also be incentives, but minor when compared with the dollars tourists will bring.

This is how I see it today.

Tom
From:
Combs, Mike
To:
'spacesettlers@egroups.com'
Sent:
Thursday, December 07, 2000 6:19 AM
Subject:
RE: [spacesettlers] So what ARE habitats good for anyway?
This is a pretty good list. In my way of thinking, a massive SPS construction program, and its attendant space housing requirements, is probably the only primary justification for the building of orbital settlements. (Although I would have to allow that orbital tourism might also lead to space habitats, albeit in a much more evolutionary and drawn-out way.) In an major SPS construction program, there would be both the space mining and orbital infrastructure needed to build habitats, and (barring dramatic improvements in robotics) the requirement for doing so. The other items on this list, while valid advantages of orbital life, probably cannot stand as primary rationales for building space settlements. But once space settlements are built for other reasons, all these items become advantages to this approach.

I would see space settlers as arriving in 3 waves. The first would be composed of SPS and other space construction workers; those who will want to live in orbit because that's where their jobs are. Then, after subsequent habitats begin being built for immigrants from Earth, the next generation will probably be the wealthy, who will want to live in space not only for the prestige but for the ideal living conditions possible in a totally artificial environment. Then I would hope that as prices continue to drop, we would see a third wave of the less wealthy; those who may be leaving Earth because they don't feel they can live as freely there as in communities which they will make for themselves in space. This 3rd wave will be the biggest, and in the long run the most significant.

Regards,
Mike Combs
From:
Ian Woollard [mailto:ian.woollard@...]
Sent:
Wednesday, December 06, 2000 8:27 PM
To:
spacesettlers@egroups.com
Subject:
[spacesettlers] So what ARE habitats good for anyway?
Ok here's my list:
- space tourism (hotels)
- space sports
- 'mobile homes' (want to go to mars?)
- space swimming pools (think low velocity water slides that go
upside-down)
- separating compounds
- repairing telecom satellites
- building telecoms satellites
- space theme parks
- building solar power satellites
- somewhere to live (especially workers for the above)
- really secure accomodation for rich people
Anything else?