automated refineries

From: "victoriatangoman"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 6:27 PM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: 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?
(...)

A space mining,refining and fabrication infrastructure would pay itself by
selling the refined products of space mining to Earth and by selling the
manufactured products to other space facilities being
constructed/maintained. Incidentally, however, it would made the price of
space manufactured goods drop to very affordable prices, so I much doubt
that the cost of a habitat constructed with the space manufactured building
pieces would be "hundreds of billions of dollars". Instead, I would expect
its price to be that of a very large structure on Earth, like an
international airport or a super-building - let say, some hundreds of
*millions* of dollars. A structure with a cost in that scale is perfectly
affordable for a big company wanting to sell space tourism or space real
state.

As for your poll, have you ever wondered that perhaps you have asked the
wrong questions? True, we are space enthusiasts but, since we tend to have a
more scientific and logic background, we also tend to be very skeptic on
anything depending on luck, like lotteries. Or at least that is my personal
perception: I *never* bought lottery tickets of any kind because I always
reason that my chances of loosing my money far outpasses my chances of
gaining something that I want.

On the other hand, if you had asked the classical question "Would you expend
$100,000 in order to spend a two-week vacation in space?" I would have
answered "Perhaps.". And had you asked "Would you buy an apartment in a
space habitat for $100,000?" I would had answered a sound "OH, YESSSS!!!"...

Lucio Coelho