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Re: Question for xigaM & Other Pilots
<span style="font-weight: bold">How the space tourism business could see orbital boom </span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Orbital space tourism is a niche industry at the moment, but business could really boom if costs come down by a couple of orders of magnitude, a new study asserts.
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To date, only seven people — beginning with multimillionaire businessman Dennis Tito in April 2001 — have paid to launch into Earth orbit, and they've reportedly plunked down between $20 million and $35 million for the experience.
Those are not the numbers of a thriving industry. But things could change dramatically if prices drop significantly — down to about $500,000 per seat or so. That reduced rate could lure in hundreds of thousands of customers for orbital tourist trips, potentially generating revenues in excess of $100 billion per year, according to the study.
"This is the first time in the theoretical realm that we are at a closed business case," said study lead author Ajay Kothari, president and CEO of the aerospace engineering firm Astrox Corporation. "So that, to me, is very exciting."
Kothari and his colleagues have also mapped out a rough plan for dropping the cost to $500,000 per seat or less — and it involves developing fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit spaceships.
If the price comes down to $1 million, the pool is about 9,000 people at the 1.5 percent threshold and 23,000 at 5 percent. That's better — but still not good enough to support a thriving industry, Kothari said.
But that changes if tickets go for $500,000. At that price, the global customer base is 14,000 in the conservative case, but nearly 225,000 in the optimistic scenario. With hundreds of thousands of people willing to fly, revenues could top $100 billion per year within a few decades, according to the study.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42756069/ns/...e-orbital-boom/
That is fly into space but not travel to travel around the world in orbit.
<span style="font-weight: bold">How the space tourism business could see orbital boom </span>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Orbital space tourism is a niche industry at the moment, but business could really boom if costs come down by a couple of orders of magnitude, a new study asserts.
.
To date, only seven people — beginning with multimillionaire businessman Dennis Tito in April 2001 — have paid to launch into Earth orbit, and they've reportedly plunked down between $20 million and $35 million for the experience.
Those are not the numbers of a thriving industry. But things could change dramatically if prices drop significantly — down to about $500,000 per seat or so. That reduced rate could lure in hundreds of thousands of customers for orbital tourist trips, potentially generating revenues in excess of $100 billion per year, according to the study.
"This is the first time in the theoretical realm that we are at a closed business case," said study lead author Ajay Kothari, president and CEO of the aerospace engineering firm Astrox Corporation. "So that, to me, is very exciting."
Kothari and his colleagues have also mapped out a rough plan for dropping the cost to $500,000 per seat or less — and it involves developing fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit spaceships.
If the price comes down to $1 million, the pool is about 9,000 people at the 1.5 percent threshold and 23,000 at 5 percent. That's better — but still not good enough to support a thriving industry, Kothari said.
But that changes if tickets go for $500,000. At that price, the global customer base is 14,000 in the conservative case, but nearly 225,000 in the optimistic scenario. With hundreds of thousands of people willing to fly, revenues could top $100 billion per year within a few decades, according to the study.
</div></div>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42756069/ns/...e-orbital-boom/
That is fly into space but not travel to travel around the world in orbit.
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, den yu jump on di subway ship and tek it to the another location's elevator (stopping at scheduled stops along the way) 
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