5 ms·

Imagine selling bottled Europan water. Fiji, move over. That would help fund the mission, and no more battles with environmentalists over Nestle taking too much

Imagine selling bottled Europan water. Fiji, move over. That would help fund the mission, and no more battles with environmentalists over Nestle taking too much out of the aquifer etc. of course, that's assuming the Europans won't object.

wazoox 10y ago
At a probable price point around 20 million bucks a liter, I'm not sure that there'd be many customers.
- mcbits 10y ago
  I wonder what a water acquisition mission would cost. Under $10 billion? That would require 500 customers at $20 mil each. That's 500 out of several million people who could afford it. Or even more if people pool their resources and spring for a teaspoon of water each. It almost seems like it could be feasible.
  - mangeletti 10y ago
    That's only 498kg. Considering the Falcon Heavy's payload to Mars is 13,000kg (not sure what the return payload is), that would truly be a reasonable amount of water to bring back. And speaking of Fiji water, they could bring it back in Fiji bottles. Since those bottles have a special ability to make people pay $5 for $.001 of tap water, imagine what they could do with Europan water. Joking aside, something like this actually could be used to fund space missions. I suspect that some people with hundreds of millions would be willing to pay top dollar for something as exclusive as an item from Europa.
- cm3 10y ago
  Actually there are people who are looking exactly for items like that to buy. For them the price is more important than anything else. It wouldn't be many, that's true, but it would cover the costs and make a profit.
mtviewdave 10y ago
XKCD has a What If on this very topic: https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/
sandworm101 10y ago
Until someone turns on a geiger counter. Europa isn't somewhere you'd like to stand for very long. Jupiter isn't a health spa.

5 ms·

Imagine selling bottled Europan water. Fiji, move over. That would help fund the mission, and no more battles with environmentalists over Nestle taking too much

by blisterpeanuts 10y ago

wazoox 10y ago
At a probable price point around 20 million bucks a liter, I'm not sure that there'd be many customers.
- mcbits 10y ago
  I wonder what a water acquisition mission would cost. Under $10 billion? That would require 500 customers at $20 mil each. That's 500 out of several million people who could afford it. Or even more if people pool their resources and spring for a teaspoon of water each. It almost seems like it could be feasible.
  - mangeletti 10y ago
    That's only 498kg. Considering the Falcon Heavy's payload to Mars is 13,000kg (not sure what the return payload is), that would truly be a reasonable amount of water to bring back. And speaking of Fiji water, they could bring it back in Fiji bottles. Since those bottles have a special ability to make people pay $5 for $.001 of tap water, imagine what they could do with Europan water. Joking aside, something like this actually could be used to fund space missions. I suspect that some people with hundreds of millions would be willing to pay top dollar for something as exclusive as an item from Europa.
- cm3 10y ago
  Actually there are people who are looking exactly for items like that to buy. For them the price is more important than anything else. It wouldn't be many, that's true, but it would cover the costs and make a profit.
mtviewdave 10y ago
XKCD has a What If on this very topic: https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/143/
sandworm101 10y ago
Until someone turns on a geiger counter. Europa isn't somewhere you'd like to stand for very long. Jupiter isn't a health spa.