Posted on 07/07/2007 1:38:46 PM PDT by KevinDavis
As an investment opportunity this plan is way out there. It’s questionable, too, in terms of the planet’s future well being.
An Associated Press article this week reported that a Boston-area investment group, Boston Harbor Angels, which consists of fat cats with money to spare, is teaming up with an outfit called XCOR Aerospace of Mojave to launch a space tourism venture.
According to the AP, XCOR is building a “reusable suborbital vehicle named Xerus” and if all goes as planned, travelers aboard the Xerus would “experience up to 3 minutes of weightlessness some 62 miles about Earth.”
The rocket company hopes to make big bucks by charging thousands of dollars per ride and its marketing undoubtedly would be pitched to the wealthy looking for yet another one-of-a-kind experience to relieve the tedium of their daily routine. There would be no group rates: the Xerus would accommodate only one passenger per ride.
Whether there would be enough people in the well-to-do class ready to risk life and limb for a brief space ride so that the bottom line would pay off for XCOR and the Boston Harbor Angels remains unknown. Other entrepreneurs working on their space tourism ventures include Virgin Group tycoon Richard Branson, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
There’s even a trade group dedicated to people interested in this type of far-out venture – the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs.
While these ventures have a futuristic outlook, what no one questions is whether the planet, already inundated with harmful emissions, needs yet more of them from space vehicles that serve no other purpose that to give rides for people with money to burn for a brief personal adventure.
Planes provide needed transportation and scientific rockets hopefully will benefit humankind. But do we really need to unload more fuel emissions into the skies with tourist rockets while we haven’t yet brought the Earth’s present overload of toxic gases under control? Just wondering.
Why doesn’t the author and all the others who are scared to death of the climate call Dr. Kervorkian? It would greatly lessen the stress on the planet.
“I was wondering why NASA doesn’t fund this...”
Funding to develop electromagnetic propulsion would be minimal. It is the stuff that powers the “saucers” affectionately referred to as UFO’s.
One of my friend’s engineers built a model “saucer” powered in this manner. He was flying it and it got away from him - crashed some miles away - created a bit of a stir.
These guys really are reaching, aren’t they? :p
Yes.
OK What issue is that?
First, let me ask this: Are you thinking of an electromagnetic catapult, or something more science-fictional?
I don’t understand why the author of this piece is upset. If wealthy people want to spend their own money to head out into sapce, why should anyone care?
“fat cats”?
IOW, the article was written by an unreconstructed hippie loser. :’)
Now, to put something in orbit you have to get it going at around 17,000 MPH, and it has to have that speed at an altitude of at least 100 miles.
This means that you have to get something going way over 17 KMPH by the the end of your catapult.
But the top end of your catapult is still deep within our atmosphere. Even if it's at the top of Mt. Everest, it's still deep within our atmosphere.
Nobody knows how to get anything up to 20+ KMPH deep within our atmosphere and have it survive. It's going to be a meteorite in reverse.
And of course, you'll have to give it accelerations of hundreds of G's, which means it will have to be mighty damn structurally sturdy, and of course living cargos are right out.
If, instead of a catapult, you're talking about any kind of non-chemical-rocket propulsion that can lift tons or more within the atmosphere, then you're still, unfortunately, talking science fiction.
Difficulties are worked around. We are humans, we cant help it.
The basic attitude of this article is if I can’t go into space no one else should....
If they stuffed him into the rocket motor before they fired it, I feel certain that the Earth would enjoy a net benefit from the pollution.
You mean Loftstrom’s Loop? As it appears on his webpage, the design still seems unworkable due to its size and complexity. Even if he did get the machine to work, the cost can’t possibly be worth it.
Thanks for these articles, Kevin. Mac, pinging you to these ‘cuz I said I would.
Gimme my flying car!
The only "progress" that interests a "progressive" is "progress" away from time-tested morality and any concept of accountability for choices.
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