[extropy-chat] Re: defending the Vision for Space Exploration

[Neil Halelamien]

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:05:53 -0700, extropy-chat-request at lists.extropy.org 
"Terry W. Colvin" <fortean1 at mindspring.com> wrote:
> I don't see how this could happen, for how is one supposed to make money
> out of space travel? There is a small market for firing very rich
> people, celebrities and the like, into space for fun. (This market is
> likely to shrink considerably the first time a well-known celebrity
> re-enters the earth's atmosphere shuttle-like as a collection of glowing
> embers. Just imagine the interplanetary law-suits that will follow. And
> of course, in a perfect world some celebrities ought to be fired into
> space. One-way....)

I don't see how Nepal can make money from people climbing Mt Everest,
for how is one supposed to make money out of mountain climbing? There
must be a small market for rich people willing to pay upwards of
$60,000 to climb a mountain for fun. This market is likely to shrink
considerably when others learn that people who climb Mt Everest have a
miserable time while doing so, and a great many of them die in the
process or lose body parts they'd rather keep.

(Quick note for those unaware: From what I've heard, they actually
have a very difficult time keeping up with the immense amount of
demand for climbing Mt Everest)

> One could imagine such people holidaying (uncomfortably) on a moon base,
> where one could sell them souvenirs, postcards, air, etc. But there is
> no money to be gained - at least in the short to medium term - from the
> pursuit of knowledge which underlies the sending of unmanned missions to
> Saturn, Titan and so on. What else could we get from these places? Even
> if they turned out to have interesting minerals, it wouldn't be
> cost-effective to ship them in bulk back to earth. (There go all those
> SF films about miners in space....)

The analogy isn't perfect, but you may wish to reflect for a little
bit on the ways in which research labs on the ground benefit from the
cheap transportation allowed for by having a readily-used network of
land and air transportation.

> At the risk of drifting towards the political, the pursuit of pure
> knowledge is one of those things that the free market doesn't do very
> well. (There are others, as anyone who has ridden on both Britain's
> privately-owned trains and France's state-owned trains can testify...)
> Handing over space to the private realm would lead to a concentration on
> those things that might make money - holidays in orbit etc - over those
> that clearly won't, e.g. can we land something on Pluto just to see if
> it has any atmosphere?

Two words: name recognition