An astronaut travels on his stomach (and lungs)...

[tomnackid]

I remember once reading about the history of the gold rush in the American west. I was struck by the fact that for the most part the vast majority of would-be gold miners never made a profit. Even those who did "strike it rich" saw their money dribble away due to the massive inflation that the gold rush induced, or simply lost due to poor business sense. The people who DID become rich from the gold rush were the grocers and general store owners (not to mention the saloon and bordello owners!).<br /><br />Could a would-be space entrepreneur make money by setting up caches of water, air, basic foodstuffs in strategic locations around the solar system? For example how much would it be worth to NASA to know that food and water will already be waiting at locations on the lunar surface that are slated for exploration, or on Mars? Caches could also be left in orbit around the moon and Mars for resupplying return journeys. Yes, I know the Russians have Progress and NASA is working on a cargo version of the CEV, but why waste a man-rated booster for a milk run? Existing launch vehicles and soon to be private launch vehicles will be more than capable of launching bulk supplies like this. It will be even easier than launching satellites and probes since the cargo will be much less fragile. You will need sensors to insure the cargo is intact. Soft landing systems only need to consist of solid breaking rockets and airbags for the moon or parachutes and airbags for Mars. Not trivial, but orders of magnitude easier than landing humans or sophisticated instruments. <br /><br />It could be fertile ground for investment and speculation. Set up caches were you think future explorers and researchers--even miners and developers--might be likely to go and charge them and arm and a leg for your goods. Hey, its still cheaper than if they had to lug the stuff along themselves! I suppose it could also be fertile ground for piracy. Others might try to profit from stealing and reselling your cach

 

[vmiguy]

Could make a good plot for a science fiction story! <br /><br />Actually, I know of at least one SF movie that had this as a plot complication (not the main story), and some other things where it is alluded to. I refer to a movie titled "Life Pod." It is a SF homage (or rip-off, if you prefer) of the Alfred Hitchcock "Life Boat."<br /><br />After a space cruise ship explodes, several varied survivors find themselves in a life pod and try to find a way to be rescued. The pilot of the pod has found on her charts a stationary supply drone; they are left in the space lanes for just such an emergency. Of course, when they get there, they find the drone has been ripped open by a meteor or something.<br /><br />In the book "Walking Across Mars," the astronauts arrive on Mars to find their prefabricated base has preceded them as planned, supplied with everything they could possibly need. Of course, over the year the base has been self-operating, a big tank has been collecting gases to use as fuel and the valve has become corroded and explodes when they try to hook it up to their land vehicle. With no fuel to power the space ship on the return voyage, they must now walk across Mars to get to the landing site of the ill-fated Brazilian mission from the previous year, where a perfectly good space ship is sitting waiting for them because the astronauts had mysteriously died (I'll spoil the ending; the Brazilians had incorrectly set their breathing apparatus, and slowly died of CO2 poisoning)<br /><br />This is actually very much like the reason why many tropical islands have populations of European pigs living on them. In the early days of exploration, the Spanish would release pigs on the islands they would discover so they would have a ready supply of meat waiting when future ships would arrive.<br /><br />So, yes, it is a good idea for science fiction, and while it has been somewhat explored in the past, it certainly has not been used to its full potential.<br /><br />"Hey, Mack, could