
Virgin birth: what private spaceflight may lead to - zoltz
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10566717
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marvin
Right. Private spaceflight.

Anything less than orbit is a hack. And we won't have that until we build
something better than chemical rockets. This venture has no more in common
with spaceflight than a catapult has with atmospheric flight.

    
    
      It is the launch cost ($20m a time) that restricts their use. A successor to the SpaceShip/White Knight combination could deal with that.
    

The reporter obviously doesn't understand the problems at hand.

"It's just a matter of incremental improvement to get into orbit, after all
the lower bound for LEO is 160 kilometers. 160km-110km=50km, so we just need a
bit short of 50% improvement in the technology. In fact, we just need to spend
50% more to get into orbit."

Find 3 errors in that line of reasoning.

    
    
      It is famously difficult to predict the market for disruptive technologies, whether they be computers, muskets, jet engines or digital cameras. *But cheap access to space, and to the other side of the Earth, is likely to be revolutionary.*
    

Well, _yes_...but it won't be Virgin or Bigelow that make access to space
cheap. Virgin will make 5-minute access to space cheap _er_. This development
won't bring anything. If it is weightlessness you're after, going up in a jet
flying parabolas is a much better option. Cheaper, plus you can move around
the cabin and do acrobatics.

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ALee
A friend recently told me the key is a Casino on the Moon!

No one will ever pay enough for space tourism unless it becomes a destination
like Vegas.

