automated refineries

No, I don't buy that argument. I can't see any government,
corporation, or consortium of private enterprises footing a bill for
hundreds of billions of dollars to create a space mining, refining
and fabrication infrastructure in order to create a tourist
facility. All of those costs would have to be amortized into a price
structure that tourists could afford. No, the risks would be
immense, I don't think that many people would venture out to the
habitat for a vacation. Consider, that in this group of 150 people
and in the SSI group of 180 people, only 21 would participate in a
lottery (from the poll that I have going) and only 3 people would
buy a lottery ticket if it cost more than $5.00. If the space
enthusiasts in these groups couldn't get excited about the chance to
go to space how likely is it that you're going to get millions
excited about spending hundreds of thousands to millions to go on a
vacation to L5?

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> From: "victoriatangoman"
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 4:54 PM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: automated refineries
>
> > I've always assumed that any space manufacturing would be more
> > automated than similar processes here on earth, but not
completely
> > automated. If the situation you describe in your post comes to
pass,
> > doesn't that beg the question of WHY even create a habitat. What
> > would those people do?
> >
> Perhaps nothing. What if the habitat is a space resort? Space
tourism has no
> other reason for existing beyond people's desire to travel to new
places.
>
> Or perhaps there will be people who will simply want to live
there. If you
> can build space hotels and space resorts, then you can also build
space real