launch

On Wednesday, December 4, 2002, at 12:00 PM, Ryan Zelnio wrote:

> Just look at how few tourists go below 1000
> ft in the ocean. There are commercial companies that
> will take you down there as a tourist, but the market
> just is not there to support such a niche tourist
> industry. I personally believe this is analogous to
> the same crowd that will venture into space.

You may have a point, but I think space will be a lot more interesting
and fun than deep ocean. In particular, the view and zero-g play
should be much better.

The materials in one asteroid (the largest ) are sufficient to make
orbital space colonies with ~500 times the surface area of the Earth in
usable real estate. See http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/
for details.

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