Space Tourism

At one time, a trip to Europe was only for the wealthiest Americans.
Now it is easily within reach of the middle class (i.e., most of us).
At one time, a vacation in Hawaii was only for the rich, it's now well
within reach of the middle class. Today, a vacation in space is only
available to the very rich, but the market they create is ESSENTIAL to
lowering costs to the point where the middle class can take a vacation
in orbit tomorrow.

Theodore Knab wrote:
>
> I think that Dennis Tito is just one of many Rich people to come that
> will to travel to space. Just like every other aspect of our
> life, the rich will dominate space. Tito may just have unwittingly started
> a trend.
>
> NASA tried to stop Tito, but NASA couldn't. Tito had padded too many
> pockets. NASA and the international space community may not allow other
> rich people to use the International Space station as a playground, but
> the box is open. They let one. Others with the economic means will
> surely be launching themselves into orbit. I am sure there is more than
> one "Rocket-man" building an orbital vehicle in a garage.
> Even if there is a no trespassing sign on the space station, it is the
> only place to go.
>
> If the international community wants to control space tourism or make
> it safer, the community should make a tiny space hotel next to the
> international space station. With a tiny fare of $5,000,000 USD -
> $20,000,000, for a one week journey, the international community could
> then finance other space projects.
>
> I would rather have money go in space than have it corrupt normally honest
> Russian officials. For every Tito, there are 10,000 more Tito-like rich
> that now are thinking that space will be a future holiday. Why not take the
> money from these future space tourists and build better things.
> If somebody doesn't, Russian officials will be simply watching their
> off-shore accounts get bigger and bigger.
>

--
Al Globus
aglobus@..., (650) 604-4404
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html

The dinosaurs weren't spacefaring. We are. I don't think that's an
accident.
Maybe we are life's taxi to the stars.

I think we should:

1. Devote half of NASA's budget ($7 billion) to reaching NASA's 2020
goal of
reducing launch costs to Low-Earth-Orbit to $220/kg with a 0.01% failure
rate.
This should enable space tourism. The resulting orbital hotels will need
to
develop efficient orbital life support and other necessary technologies.

2. Build orbital space colonies. The materials in the largest asteroid
are
sufficient for orbital colonies with a combined surface area about 500
times
greater than Earth's. Eros alone could make over ten thousand space
colonies,
each with about about 10 square kilometers of 1g living area.

3. After a few generations of orbital living, people won't need their
colony
to be near Sol. Then small groups of colonies with populations in the
tens-of-thousands can set out on multi-decade journeys to nearby stars.

Except the launch goals, none of this is even a little bit official.