Digest Number 377

I agree with Andrew. To push the argument a little more. Have you ever
been to Las Vegas? The fastest growing city in the USA. One could argue it
is built to over-indulge the rich. I am sure there are other cities on
Earth which would fit into the same mold. Why not have some on low orbit
and others on the Moon. What ever the market justifies, maybe even on Mars,
though I don't see how that could work. But I could have foreseen Las
Vegas?
Sincerely, Jay Huebner

> Thanks for the comment. I think we are on the same page. Cheap booster,
not
> merely fire-sale Russian technology, require a economicly justifiable
> mission. I also agree space tourism is not it. Personally, I think it is
> insulting. All the effort reduced to 'fantasy camp' for the over-indulged.

I couldn't disagree more. Tourism provides revenue, and does it in an
incremental manner. Any plan that requires an up-front investment of
billions of dollars for high risk of zero return is dead on arrival.
Your personal distaste for the wealthy is irrelevant to the question -
if they can pay they should be allowed to go. In doing so they increase
launch rates, which drops costs, which makes it cheaper and less risky
to pursue other money-making ventures. Those other money-making ventures
will be pursued by people who want to (gasp!) get rich. Greed is a
powerful force, and harnessing it is the best way to create a spacefaring
civilization. Idealistic dreams of socialist utopias are all well and
good, but in the end of the day central planning is extraordinarily
inefficient and virtually guarantees failure. The only exceptions are
in war or in war-proxy situations like the space race.

Every frontier that has been opened up has been opened by people
who are ambitious and willing to take risks in order to create wealth
for themselves and their descendants. There is no reason to believe
that the high frontier will be opened in any other way.

If a few rich people get to have a little fun along the way, so what?
The side effects are enormously helpful in opening the high frontier.
Tourism by the "over-indulged" has helped preserve huge tracts of African
savannah, while putting money into the pockets of the local people and
providing tax revenues for the local governments. This is a 100% good
thing, and the fact that a few rich guys have good time isn't an argument
against it any more than it's an argument against orbital or sub-orbital
tourism. Would the world be better off if those rich people spent
their money on overpriced clothes or cars?

......Andrew

Andrew Case
acase@...