Bootstrapping - In 60 Easy Steps - (Long Post)

On Wednesday, October 2, 2002, at 01:17 PM, victoriatangoman wrote:

> Here's how I would like to see things develop in the space
> industrialization process.
>
> 1.) Launch a LEO worker housing station. We're situated near the
> space hotels which preceded us and lowered launch costs sufficiently
> to make industrialization possible.

There's another possible step before going to SPS and large scale
colonies: low-g retirement homes. Basically, some old folks (I'm 50 and
getting there fast myself) have lots of money and have trouble with
gravity (walkers, wheel chairs, falls that break hips). Unlike the
tourist hotels, you probably want some acceleration (but not much) and
require first class medical facilities. However, at the right price the
market is huge.

The International Space Station (ISS) most important legacy may be
jump-starting space tourism. Consider: the first space tourist, Dennis
Tito, was supposed to go to the Soviet era Mir space station. Under
pressure from NASA, Russia de-orbited the Mir which resulted in Mr. Tito
going to the ISS instead. Now the Mir was old, smelly, crowded and
probably not all that nice. The ISS was brand new, shinny, much more
roomy, etc. Mr. Tito came back to Earth with glowing accounts of how
great space is. Would his experience have been as good on Mir?

Al Globus
CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html