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First off, will this happen within the next 20 years? Virgin Galactic says within 18 months but I doubt it. And even if they do get this space tourism thing off the ground in the next 18 months, when will prices be low enough for us common people that may want to go into space? 200,000$ is alot of money. But I guess the real question is WHY. Going into space is a dream for millions but why? So you can feel weightless? Is the worlds over weight people driving this? Or is this a simple case of rich people living boy/girl-hood dreams?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11453390

They're about to start space tourism and people are still dying from cancer. I guess that sounds normal.

First off, will this happen within the next 20 years? Virgin Galactic says within 18 months but I doubt it. And even if they do get this space tourism thing off the ground in the next 18 months, when will prices be low enough for us common people that may want to go into space? 200,000$ is alot of money. But I guess the real question is WHY. Going into space is a dream for millions but why? So you can feel weightless? Is the worlds over weight people driving this? Or is this a simple case of rich people living boy/girl-hood dreams?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11453390

Whereas the idea of Space Tourism is somewhat naive in itself, there is -I believe- a lot of good aspects about it. I have read somewhere that a habitable planet has been found in a galaxy 20.000 yL from our, Gisele III. Presently, we do not own the enough knowledge nor the technology to emigrate to said planet; and even before we can think about that, tests need to be ran, species cataloged and so on. What I am trying to say is, what seemed rather futile and unnecessary --Space Exploration and Money Investment-- is finally proving to be slightly worth.

Judging $200,000 to be a lot of money, knowing the subject at hand is the space and its virtuous human-made dreams, may be rather irreverent. Yes, $20,000 is a lot of money for me, but it means as much as peanuts to the High State community. For some, flying to the Universe might be as significant as it is, par example, for a poor old boy two extra cookies for his daily meal ratio. In a way, I believe the righteous judgement as to the balance between price vs. satisfaction level is up to the individual and the size of her/his pocket.

Why, why...why has humanity discovered how to reproduce fire? Why has humanity learned how to read and talk, and established teaching facilities so that this knowledge could be passed down to their yearned child? Why does humanity seek the unattainable, the unbearable, the unimaginable, the unthinkable? I believe it is because we, humans, live in a condition of overseeing what is real and thinkable of at present. Whether or not that is the right way to go about it, I am not sure. Likewise, we also seem to be largely co-moved by the subconscient and undesired notions of bliss, ignorance and disparity.

The rich want to live as luxurious a life as they can, and the prestige one can gain from this program is enough to fuel any narcissist's fire. On the other end of the spectrum, maybe a humble billionaire who wanted to be an astronaut when he was young can finally fulfill that dream. I think that for a long time this project will not be very successful from a financial standpoint, but in due time the prices will drop as technology advances and more and more people will be able to utilize it. I don't see this as a short-term success, but eventually this will become a reality and long after that it will become a huge part of the tourism industry.

I agree with most of what you said. The only thing I would like to add is that I think more extreme conditions will be necessary for space-tourism to catch on. After all, humanity has long proven that only the extreme has the power to turn around the tables, completely. Our lives -and the conditions thereof-  are, in my understanding, a reassured proof of that idealistic condition, that only the worst can compare to the best, that only the unacceptable can compare to the superfluous.


Lastly, I also do agree with what both Dennis and Nate stated. It is almost criminal, to convey so much investment towards an area that does so little to change our actual world. Comparatively, so is the immense money wasted on Football, on Website Domains, on Social Networks, on...all of these that are now so abundant in our world. Never has humanity produced so much and left so much to waste. Literally, we live in a over-blessed, materialistically speaking, world to which none can relate to --and thus, we affirmably decide that ignorance and insensitivity is but the righteous of the conditions to obtain a badly inherited notion of peace.



(I defy you, gentlemans, to make this one of the best discussions Headshot has ever had...)

PostQuote.

Honoured. Now off to the actual discussion...

Is that 20 lightyears or 20,000 lightyears or something I'm not understanding? That's an incredible distance and while I'm not gonna say it's impossible, it's certainly way out of reach and nothing that Virgin is going to do will help solve how to get there.

Wikipedia and the science journal says that Gliese 581 G is 20.5 years away from us.

Something quite irrelevant but also quite interesting:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/526167/random/interestingly%20random/space.jpg

I imagine the future to be somewhat similar to that, with colonies on other planets that we make habitable.

OMGZ LIKE MISSION TO MARS!

Anyway, I definitely see your point and it's a good one. I think over-population (or some other issue) is going to happen (if not already) before we start having regular and cost effective visits to space.