Excerpts from an interview with Robert Bigelow & Elon Musk

[Boris_Badenov]

From the LA Times;<br /><br /> An Outer Space Inn: Can He Manage It?<br />Budget Suites mogul Robert Bigelow plans an inflatable outer space hotel. Among many things, he needs rich clients and a launch pad.<br />By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer<br />August 30, 2006 <br /><br />NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The biggest gambler around these parts is not a high roller going all in with a pair of deuces. He's a real estate magnate who's betting $500 million that he can open the first inflatable motel in outer space.<br /><br />As far out as the idea sounds, multimillionaire Robert Bigelow has already launched a one-third scale model of his inflatable space module called Genesis I. The spacecraft was launched in July atop a Russian rocket.<br />"I'm on cloud nine," Bigelow said at his production facility in North Las Vegas, where his team of engineers was tracking the spacecraft after it inflated and entered an orbit 348 miles above Earth.<br /><br />A second launch is in the works, Bigelow said. A full-scale module is scheduled for orbit within five years and in less than a decade, paying guests could be checking in.<br /><br />By Earth standards, they won't be getting much for their estimated $8-million weeklong vacation package: no Jacuzzi, no room service, no mints on the pillow.<br /><br />But then, the best hotel in Paris can't match the view of Earth spinning below as the sun rises and sets every 90 minutes.<br /><br />Bigelow, a trim 62 with swept-back salt-and-pepper hair, is part of a new breed of entrepreneurs out to break the government monopoly on space exploration. Along with aerospace entrepreneurs Burt Rutan, Elon Musk and others, Bigelow believes there's no reason capitalism can't work in zero gravity.<br /><br />Though Rutan and Musk are building rockets and space planes, Bigelow believes his inflatable space modules could serve as hotels, conference centers, even sporting complexes where hang-time would be measured in minutes instead of seconds.<br /><br />Bigelow, who mad <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[spacefire]

thanks for posting this...I didn't know Bigelow was such an eccentric fellow <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

The thing I found most interesting was the 20 ton figure for weight. I have always seen the weight at 27 tons, that’s a big difference & could mean a wider range of potential launchers. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[j05h]

I am extremely disappointed in Louis Friedman's quotes int he clip. At the ISDC he and several other Planetary Society folks had a public meeting. The 15-ish minutes I was in there was several long-time members getting up and asking "Why is the Planetary Society against human spaceflight?" Friedman and the others repeatedly said "we aren't against it, whatever gave you that idea?" These were questions from other long-term PS members and they dodged and said they'd work on it. I really like what the PS does but Louis Friedman is working against human spaceflight here. <br /><br />He could have said "Good luck to them. I hope they develop their customer base." or similiar. This is the kind of in-fighting that the community does not need. We don't get kilometer-scale telescopes on the Far Side etc unless the same cheaper, safe commercial access is available.<br /><br />Josh <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div align="center"><em>We need a first generation of pioneers.</em><br /></div> </div>