They won't go. Not enough short-term profit in it for me. Better to trade energy futures and speculate in real estate. To hell with creating or learning anything.
If space travel is sufficiently worthwhile, inspiring, or entertaining, it will happen because donors and investors will voluntarily pay for it.
Right on. "Entertainment Nation" strikes again. Better to stay home and pop the pills. Cheaper that way. I can keep more of my money in my decrepit, stoned-out hands.
During the industrial revolution, scientific research was funded by wealthy patrons. That is changing because our tax structure makes it increasingly difficult to make money as our income increases. If government weren't taking 40% of our wealth, most of space research would be funded by private investors.
I not only mentioned investors, I also mentioned private funding. Wealthy liberal "philanthropists" throw their private money at all kinds of things that make them feel good, whether or not those things benefit them financially. Witness Ted Turner giving $1 Billion to the U.N., for example.
So why wouldn't some well-heeled science buffs like Paul Allen, or space cadets in the mold of Timothy Leary, simply donate to further the cause of space travel ? Even if there's no personal return on investment, and they don't get to ride on the spaceship, they get a thrill and an ego boost out of the process.
Kinda like sports fans paying outrageous prices to see their team (oops, there goes that Entertainment angle again)
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