Bootstrapping Hawaii

>
> Ballooning is profitable too- in fact, it's not a bad paradigm.
You
> don't exactly go anywhere, but people are quite willing to pay for
a
> trip anyway. You get a nice badge and everything. Same with
suborbital,
> except you get your astronaut wings.

I agree with you. Good points. My only rebuttal with respect to
disagreement centers on one word: Bootstrapping.

>
> > You get on a jet to go someplace in order to do something.
>
> Yes, but you can also get on a cruise ship and do nothing. Think
of
> orbit as doing a cruise around the world. Zero-g is thrown in at
no
> extra cost.

Where's the bootstrapping aspect? I hope it's a profitable business.
If it goes, and is proven safe, I'll be a customer if the price is
below a couple hundred thousand. I have no wish to risk my life but
I will be in their customer base. Nevertheless, I don't see any
bootstrapping potential for orbital development. I'm excluding from
this analysis, the sub-orbital routes between two locations of Earth
as a business model, because I think there will be a market there
that is probably larger than the tourist market.

> > Even if orbital tourism becomes tachnologically possible
>
> It already is.

Come on! Do you really think I don't know that people go to orbit,
and that Tito and Shuttlesworth were in space.

I know that the fault is mine for not being as specific as I
should've been in my statement, but really, what do you think I
could have meant?

Don't you think that tourism involving the general public has more
stringent safety requirements than professional activities? Can you
just strap a tourist into a deep-sea diver's suit and send him down
into a mixed gas zone with no training? Can you put tourists into
untested planes? Why does the FAA require years of certification?

Do there exist any spacecraft that are safe for tourists?

> > it still
> > needs a destination, otherwise it's just a new-fangled balloon.
>
> No, because orbit is a destination. People want to stay up for a
week or
> more ideally, and they are going to be prepared to pay.

So they'll stay in the space vehicle. Orbit is the destination, and
that's fine. My rebuttal once again, Bootstrapping. This doesn't
offer any help for subsequent endeavors.

That really
> needs a hotel.

Yes, that is a destination. Hopefully it is sufficient in scale to
support ancillary ventures. From this there is at least the
potential of future growth.

The point, from my perspective anyway, of this series of posts, was
how to bootstrap, not how to make a buck with some space themed
businesses.

TangoMan