Rymdturism

Läsvärd artikel om rymdturism. Fastän skriven ur ett slags socialliberalt perspektiv så har den några bra poänger.

• Dennis Tito demonstrated in April 2001 that, despite having spent $1 trillion of taxpayers' money over the past 40 years, the space agencies of the USA, Europe and Japan have not reduced the cost of getting to space by a single cent. ...it proves that space agencies have not been trying to reduce the cost of access to space. The truth is that they have no interest in doing so.
• ...thanks to the efforts of Burt Rutan and his competitors in the X-Prize, it is being demonstrated that sub-orbital space flights in the near future will cost 1/1,000 of what it cost to launch Alan Shepard to space in 1961. That is, by applying some of the engineering knowledge that has accumulated since 1961 we can reduce sub-orbital transportation costs by some 99.9%.
• Space agency staff claim that their activities developing space technology are more valuable than "ordinary people buying tickets to fly to space". However, without engaging popular consumer demand, space activities cannot grow except on the backs of taxpayers.

Iom Virgin Galactic och Galactic Suite mf kanske det inte dröjer särskilt länge innan LEO-hotell (low Earth orbit) är lönsamt, och därefter kanske inte steget bort från jorden är så stort.