You pays your money and you takes your ride
By Madsen on Miscellaneous - Adam Smith blog
The era of space tourism drawn nearer with yesterday's X-prize win by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne. For those prepared to put up money for a short trip into space there are already waiting lists. I signed up some years ago.
Some people ask if the price, which is likely to be $100,000, and maybe $200,000, is too high. It may be to start with, but it will come down. When colour TV sets first came out, only the well-to-do could afford them. Since there was good business to be done, however, other producers came in with economies of scale and newer technology, and the price came right down.
It will be the same with private spaceflight. In the meantime, since money is pretty democratic, it is already available to those who value it enough to make the sacrifices. Yesterday's TV coverage featured a youngster aged 14. He has signed up and paid a $1,000 deposit, which he made "by mowing lawns, delivering papers and doing odd jobs." He is determined to raise the rest and be among the first to ride into space. I was already rooting for him before his name appeared at the foot of the screen. He is called Adam Smith.
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