its really "space barnstorming" not "space tourism"

[tomnackid]

Well isn't it? Nobody is "touring" space. People are going for the experience of space flight itself. Branson et al. are like the barnstormers of the early 20s. They gave ordinary people a taste of flight and kept the idea of air travel alive during a time when it was not yet practical or economical. What really led to modern air travel was air mail contracts. What will be analogous for space travel? Ultra-fast package delivery via sub orbital rockets? (When it absolutely, positively has to be there in and hour!) Satellite maintenance companies? All those comsats launched in the 90s are going to start failing in the coming years. What else?

 

[spacester]

The last time this subject came up, we (I?) coined the term<br /><br />Blackstorming<br /><br />For sub-orbital adventures<br /><br />The point is well taken on sub-orbital. I would contend that the Killer App to be compared with air mail is the development of Orbital Hotels, and that the folks staying there will be the first true 'Space Tourists'<br /><br />Ultra-Fast Delivery by suborbital vehicles appears to me to be a non-starter due to the security concerns. It amounts to a hugely significant military capability, and so will not be allowed by the PTB (Powers That Be).<br /><br />Orbital flights, while faster, are an activity that can be more easily monitored, controlled, and neutralized.<br /><br />What else? Space Hotel Capability is very closely akin to Orbital Science Capability - Bigelow's inflatables are being marketed to private companies as science labs. It is entirely possible that the next follow-on after that will be satellite repair, but that requires space tugs and orbital refueling. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[tomnackid]

Ultra-Fast Delivery by suborbital vehicles appears to me to be a non-starter due to the security concerns. It amounts to a hugely significant military capability, and so will not be allowed by the PTB (Powers That Be). <br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Yes, I often point out to fellow space advocates that "cheap access to space" is also "cheap access to ICBMs!" Anything that can put a payload into orbit can also drop a payload anywhere on Earth within 45 minutes.

 

[Peter the Dane]

cheap access to space are at the moment old ICBMs.....<br /><br />fear of space cababillity used for terror or war are to me nonsens.<br />I have neer heard of anny kind of easy and fast to use space vehicles....<br />it takes days and weeks to prepare a launch and it will be of no secret to anny intelligence agency to know what it is that are being done.<br /><br />surely in some decades of private space travel it meigth become like todays airplanes, complex but fairly easy to handel.<br /><br />the real danger in cheap access to space are not as weapons, but the knowledge gained....<br /><br />the only thing I really dont understand are why goverments not sell their old ICBMs to privat compagnies...<br />making scrap of them are insane waste of possibillities and resources.<br />the launch cost are very low, the success rate fairly high and the only restiction for the sattelites meigth be that they have to be non comercial. <br />in that way a lot of companies can get access to knowledge they otherwise never will be abel to obtain.<br />the private rocket companieswill not suffer from competition as they will be those who will launch the satttelites that will evolve from the experimental ones.<br /><br />