Posted on 04/13/2010 9:19:35 PM PDT by NonZeroSum
Every spring, for over two decades, the Space Access Society has been sponsoring an annual conference in Phoenix, Ariz., providing a venue for those trying to reduce the cost of getting into space to meet, discuss, and plan prospects for achieving that to-date-unattainable goal. It's one of the most interesting space conferences of the year, and perhaps unique in its mix of mainstream industry professionals, representatives from the newer industry upstarts, amateur rocket builders, and interested lay people, in a casual atmosphere designed to promote interaction among all these communities.
In the early years, it primarily featured view graphs of all the wonderful things that people could do if only given sufficient funding, either by the government, investors, or both. In more recent years, the presentations have transitioned from promises of what people might do with money, to demonstrations and videos of what they've actually been doing. At the most recent one, which wrapped up on Saturday, April 10, this encouraging trend was more in evidence than ever, with videos from Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, Unreasonable Rocket and XCOR, showing rocket-powered vehicles in flight. Ironically, the view graphs of "what we might do, if we had money" came from the big players with ostensibly deeper pockets—Boeing and United Launch Alliance—with presentations on their concepts for orbital propellant depots.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
I’d say the first challenge of commercial human spaceflight is, “Why bother?”
I know, I have no spirit of adventure and I refuse to acknowledge that the Chicoms are going to take over the moon and launch giant rocks at The United States.
Seriously, for those wealthy enough to afford an extremely expensive joyride, recall that the Lockheed SR-71 flew high enough to observe the curvature of the earth. There is a model with twin cockpits, so somebody can hitch a ride. If I had the money, would I pay to be launched into orbit? I suppose so, if there was somewhere to go when I got there. The notion of having a beer while watching the Earth set has its appeal, although it also has some serious issues, too. And I confess that the novelty of it has worn off. Whoever goes will hardly be the first to see the view, not even the first commercial passenger.
My sense of purpose would find nothing to satisfy itself in such a trip. All I can see is an incredible waste of money.
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