Ariolet OP t1_is4xjwt wrote on October 13, 2022 at 10:08 AM

As much as I want to go to space and fantasize about what it would be like all the time, I just don’t know if I could spend millions on it. I think I would feel guilty for spending all of that money that could have helped other people. I hope I get to live to see the day that middle class people could afford a trip like this though!

a_swarm_of_nuns t1_is4yo6i wrote on October 13, 2022 at 10:23 AM

Through future years of competition in a capitalist market, prices will cheapen over time

Ariolet OP t1_is4z7vf wrote on October 13, 2022 at 10:30 AM

Agreed, the price will definitely decrease, it’s just hard for me to see how they could ever get the price to a point where an average person could afford it. I hope it does, just seems very difficult to achieve.

a_swarm_of_nuns t1_is51n89 wrote on October 13, 2022 at 11:00 AM

Yea. Unless we figure out an alternative to rocket fuel, that is a large component of what drives the price.

I don’t think it will ever be cheap, but space tourism like what Branson did with virgin galactic (almost like a plane entering the upper atmospheres will be cheaper than sitting aboard a rocket ship)

CatastropheJohn t1_is52932 wrote on October 13, 2022 at 11:07 AM

I’m cycling to save the planet, while others are planning to ride rockets for fun.

Thisisfine.jpg

Adeldor t1_is5mapl wrote on October 13, 2022 at 1:59 PM

Propellant contributes very little to current launch expenses. Vehicle and infrastructure costs dwarf it. For example, it costs SpaceX less than $20 million to launch a Falcon 9, yet propellant is only ~$200,000 of that, or around 1%.

Via full reusability and simplified operation, SpaceX hopes with Starship to dramatically reduce expenses to the point where it'll cost only a few million to launch 100 t to LEO.

To illustrate, assume a full Starship will cost $10 million to launch (that's five times Musk's most quoted estimate, just to be conservative). Launching 200 kg then costs $20,000. Still high relative to air transport, but it's getting there.

CannaCosmonaut t1_is4z2fr wrote on October 13, 2022 at 10:28 AM

>I think I would feel guilty for spending all of that money that could have helped other people.

Developing the ability to become a spacefaring civilization helps untold trillions of people in the future. All industry should be removed from the surface of the planet and many people should move out of here to alleviate the burden on the biosphere as we take measures to clean up (e.g. carbon capture). Also, most (if not all) major problems in the world cannot be solved simply by throwing money at them.

>I hope I get to live to see the day that middle class people could afford a trip like this though!

A lot of work to be done building a better future. You may yet live in a world where your passage is secured in exchange for useful work. When I think of my future in space, I'm not imagining joyrides- I imagine all the things I might be able to do in space to be useful to the future and turn a small profit. As I said, all industry should be removed from the surface one way or another, sooner or later; we'd all do well to pick something (ideally something that has a net negative impact on life on Earth) and get it out of here.