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Lord British on Personal Spaceflight
FleaPlus writes "The Space Review has an interview with Richard Garriott (aka "Lord British"), best known as the creator of the genre-defining Ultima series of role playing games. In the interview he talks about his current work as the vice chairman of Space Adventures, and his thoughts on private-sector spaceflight in general. It includes an anecdote about how he funded the initial Russian studies which opened the door for Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, and Gregory Olsen's flights to the International Space Station, but was unable to go himself after the late-90s stock market bubble burst."
His honor Lord British may not have been able to front the cash when the bubble burst, but the $200k pricetag is a cost that break the bank of most everyone. Relative to current launch costs (upwards of $500 million for STS), $200k is a hell of a bargain. Rutan and his Scaled Composites is merely one of many private space initiatives with an eye defiantly set on the future. Space offers extreme opportunities in manufacturing, research, power generation, medical studies, propulsion research, materials science, and a multitude of other investment possibilities. I fully expect R&D of today will within a decade become reality.
We're at the very very beginning of an explosion of space-based enterprise; private spaceflight will be fueled first by corporate interests, and then, with costs more manageable for all, and only then, will the dream of visiting space be realized.
I, for one, eagerly await that day.
Maybe not cars, but he does have a sweet house:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Manor
Space tourism seems to me like it might end up being more of a fad than anything else unless we can make space an actual destination... in other words, space stations or bases on $celestial_body that can be used as resorts...
(or at least really expensive restaurants... heh).
but i'm quite well off and even i would have to go well into hooky to pay for a $200k space flight, and it would mostly be a debt that would take the rest of my life to pay off.
Then you're not "quite well off", are you? Let's not kid ourselves. Those who are really "quite well off" do not need to go into debt for this. The problem is merely one of justification, not financing.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
$200k is within so many people's reach for a house because banks will lend people money to buy one. It's a tangible asset they can take ownership of if the buyer stops making mortgage payments. Space flight isn't something that can be taken back and resold to pay off bad debt, it will be very hard to convince a bank to give you a loan for it.
There are many *many* more people who can qualify for a $200,000 mortgage than can afford to blow $200k in cash on a space vacation.
0 1 - just my two bits
A millionaire doesn't necessarily have US$1,000,000 of disposable income. After taxes, tending to his/her beach house, going to Europe, paying kids' tuitions and maintaining 3 SUV's, probably no person whose worth is below $2 million can afford a trip to space. The high life costs a lot, especially for those who can spare the cash.
Most of those millionaires already have set their priorities on extravagant socializing and keeping up with the Joneses. Dear god, we can't appear middle class.
World Socialist News probably didn't mention that most of America's millionaires aren't rich, just comfortable -- they own their own house in a good neighborhood and have a retirement nest egg (honestly, if you have two professional incomes coming in its hard not to hit a million in assets sooner or later). That doesn't compute with "And now we can empty Suzy's college fund to blow $200,000 on a weeklong vacation for one in space! Whee!"
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.