Lord British on Personal Spaceflight 132
FleaPlus writes "The Space Review has an interview with Richard Garriott (aka "Lord British"), best known as the creator of the genre-defining Ultima series of role playing games. In the interview he talks about his current work as the vice chairman of Space Adventures, and his thoughts on private-sector spaceflight in general. It includes an anecdote about how he funded the initial Russian studies which opened the door for Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, and Gregory Olsen's flights to the International Space Station, but was unable to go himself after the late-90s stock market bubble burst."
Private Sector is already hot on the ball (Score:5, Insightful)
His honor Lord British may not have been able to front the cash when the bubble burst, but the $200k pricetag is a cost that break the bank of most everyone. Relative to current launch costs (upwards of $500 million [spaceprojects.com] for STS), $200k is a hell of a bargain. Rutan and his Scaled Composites is merely one of many private space initiatives with an eye defiantly set on the future. Space offers extreme opportunities in manufacturing, research, power generation, medical studies, propulsion research, materials science, and a multitude of other investment possibilities. I fully expect R&D of today will within a decade become reality.
We're at the very very beginning of an explosion of space-based enterprise; private spaceflight will be fueled first by corporate interests, and then, with costs more manageable for all, and only then, will the dream of visiting space be realized.
I, for one, eagerly await that day.
Re:Inevitable Ultima Comments (Score:3, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Manor [wikipedia.org]
Long term business model for space tourism? (Score:4, Insightful)
Space tourism seems to me like it might end up being more of a fad than anything else unless we can make space an actual destination... in other words, space stations or bases on $celestial_body that can be used as resorts...
(or at least really expensive restaurants... heh).
Re:Not really. (Score:4, Insightful)
Then you're not "quite well off", are you? Let's not kid ourselves. Those who are really "quite well off" do not need to go into debt for this. The problem is merely one of justification, not financing.
Cars and houses are tangible assets (Score:2, Insightful)
There are many *many* more people who can qualify for a $200,000 mortgage than can afford to blow $200k in cash on a space vacation.
Re:200k (Score:2, Insightful)
Most of those millionaires already have set their priorities on extravagant socializing and keeping up with the Joneses. Dear god, we can't appear middle class.
Re:200k (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Long term business model for space tourism? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, what do Hawaii, Cancun, and Paris do now that everybody who wants to has already visited?