Vastly Expanded X-Prize. Billions for orbit and return

[douglas_clark]

OK. The X-Prize is going to be won sometime soon. Great. But not great enough.<br /><br />What everyone on this forum wants, I suspect, is a launch and return capability to NEO or HEO as a first step to exploring or colonising the Galaxy. <br /><br />My modest proposal is to impose a Tobin Tax and divert it into a X-Prize plus. If you get to orbital velocity and return on a regular and relatively safe basis, you scoop the pool. (BTW a Tobin Tax is worth trillions). Next step, same rules. The Moon settled, etc, etc. We go to the stars on the basis of introducing a minor tax ammendment.<br /><br />Huh! Too damn simple.<br /><br />Douglas

 

[flynn]

An X-prize fund on its own is not enough to attract competitors, It also needs a viable financial benefit. The X-Prize has succeded because the people involved are interested in the (far more lucritive) tourism market. Burt Rotan has already talked about scaling up to take tourists. <br /><br />The next prize should be in the region of 6-8 people to />100km for 1 day and as before the prize isn't the main goal (just an incentive), the goal is to tap into the tourism market.<br /><br />Following that prizes for launching dockable habitats that will last for />12 months and even trips around the moon, then who knows? Astroid mining? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[douglas_clark]

Cheers,<br /><br />What you do not know is how much filthy lucre you can get out of a Tobin Tax. It is huge. You could create a panel to judge and then give all the succesful applicants anounts of money they had never dreamed of. The point here is trying to realise a tax source to fund our extraterrestrial ambitions. I give you the money, you give me the dream. Please?

 

[kelle]

The X-prize in itself is not big enough to attract competitors by itself no, but a far bigger prize might be. Perhaps if everyone on this forum donate... let's say $10 each we could make our own prize? The SDC-prize, given to those who can first get past 50.000 posts!! Total prize money: $ 50! Though that prize would not benefit mankind very much.

 

[douglas_clark]

<br /><br />Hi kelle,<br /><br />You and I don't have to contribute anything much to this idea. If we decide to get foreign currency, we might have a 0.25% premium on the transaction. But that fades to nothing compared to the currency transactions, which are just speculations, that go on every day. That 0.25% tax pulls in billions.<br /><br />Onwards and upwards!<br /><br />Douglas

 

[crowing]

Wouldn't that be fantastic,real space tourism up and running.<br />To one day take the pressure off funding from the public to the private purse for space missions,in the end the only way to get us out there on mass is by private means!!

 

[flynn]

Your correct, I don't understand what you mean by Tobin tax and how much it could generate (can you explain it more?) However I'm not sure massive prizes and funds is a great idea becasue you could end up with a situation like NASA has now with its major contractors. By having the prize as an incentive, but the real prize being the business your left with afterwards companies will have to perform for the money, This way they have to develope affordable hardware because it will be them running it and not NASA.<br /><br />NASA could well find it easier in future to book a taxi ride with Rotan to deliver its Astronauts to the ISS and concentrate on Launching its own heavy stuff, science and Deep space exploration.<br /><br />I will admit that this method may not (probably not in all circumstances) be the fasted way of bringing private enterprise into the mix, but I think it is probably the best. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[flynn]

Would be great wouldn't it. I do think that perhaps the time is right for NASA to pass on the batton of delivering people to Orbit. Its timr for them to concentrate on the rest of the solar system and deep space. Think what they could do with the money saved (if they keep it) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[douglas_clark]

flynn,<br /><br />Sorry, I should have put a reference in my first post! Here's one that will give you the basic idea. http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/factsheet.htm<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Douglas

 

[earth_bound_misfit]

Sounds like a good idea to me Douglas. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------- </p><p>Wanna see this site looking like the old SDC uplink?</p><p>Go here to see how: <strong>SDC Eye saver </strong>  </p> </div>

 

[crowing]

For quite a while yet there will still be a place for the public purse in space, as like you said this is needed for the solar system and leaving it one day.<br /><br />They promote plane flights over the antartica here as being flights of a life-time,and actually I would probably enjoy the hours flight or so over it,but imagine a five minute flight in low orbit and back(or obviously the longer the better),I get goose bumps even trying to imagine looking out the window at space,and down at a blue ball!

 

[douglas_clark]

That is truly excellent news. Let's see how it pans out.<br /><br />Anyway, I probably brought you all in here on a false premise, sorry! Basically all the concepts for reaching LEO have governmental price tags attached. A universal tax of around 0.25% on all currency transactions can pull in billions of $ annually. In the UK, where I live, there is a lottery that disburses quite a proportion of it's funds for projects that cheer us up, allegedly. What would really cheer me up is if it was used to give UK industry a presence in space. So to my mind that was a wasted opportunity.<br /><br />What I am trying to argue is that it is quite likely a Tobin Tax will be imposed and that it will be disbursed for good causes. As the amounts of money are massive, I would like to see a big proportion of that money allocated to helping get humankind into space.<br /><br />I would like to see private enterprise bidding for funds to build, for example, space elevators for real because the R&D money is there, and on a continuous basis year on year. I would like to see ideas fleshed out with a real chance of funding and success.<br /><br />What I'd hoped to start here was a debate. Given huge resources, how would you spend them efficiently? There is a real prospect that a Tobin Tax will be imposed. Given that it is new, there will be many competing views as to how it would be spent. Given the difficulties that traditional capitalism has with long term returns on capital I think this is a potential revenue stream that could continue for a very long time and could be used to fund all sorts of scientific endevour. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm trying to be something other than the only one.....<br /><br />That was the debate I meant to start. Sorry if any of you feel cheated.<br /><br />Onwards and Upwards!<br /><br />Douglas