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In New Space Race, Enter the Entrepreneurs

28 points by edw519 16y ago

davidmurphy 16y ago
I heard Robert Bigelow speak at a conference on Capitol Hill years back. Interesting guy. I really think that space entrepreneurship is insanely exciting and I'd love to see more people get into it. I think in our lifetimes we'll see some incredible progress in private space exploration -- if we all step up and use our entrepreneurial energies in this direction. Sure, I'm insanely excited about the iPhone's video chatting features, which Steve Jobs raved about today in the context of growing up watching Star Trek and seeing this sort of thing on TV. But if you're talking Star Trek, let's talk space travel! I spent a summer in college working for Space Adventures (http://www.spaceadventures.com http://www.spaceadventures.com), which at the time had very much a "startup" feel despite having arranged for "space tourist" Dennis Tito to fly to the International Space Station (and in more recent years, sending up people like Microsoft Word developer Charles Simonyi and signing up Sergey Brin as a future client). (Forbes has details about the early days here: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0509/058.html. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0509/058.html.) Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Paul Allen are dabbling in space ventures. And Richard Branson, with Virgin Galactic, has made space entrepreneurship sexy. But I'd love to see a lot more young entrepreneurs and investors focusing on space entrepreneurship. Sure, iPhone apps and websites can help improve people's lives. But do you really want to have an impact on the course of human history? Do something in space! Space Adventures was founded by a young entrepreneur in his 20s, Eric Anderson, just two years out of college, who dared to think big. It started in his basement. We should all think big, too.
iborian 16y ago
There was an article today in the WSJ about SpaceX needing $1B in public funding to achieve its goal of shuttling astronauts to the Space Station [1]. That is unfortunate and frankly a little unsettling. It is sad to see the space entrepreneurs who argue against costly government space programs rely on the same government/taxpayer funding to launch their own ventures [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704726104575290604217670696.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870472610457529...
- jurjenh 16y ago
  Until there is an alternative established market, realistically you are only looking at getting a slice of the government funds, as that IS the market. And if for that $1B you can achieve what currently would cost $15B and up (orion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft) ), then what other reason do you need? Government has deemed it necessary to spend this money, so its in your best interest (as it is your money) to make sure that this gets used most efficiently.
  - InclinedPlane 16y ago
    To date 8 individuals have flown to orbit as tourists, paying around $20 million each for the privilege. This despite the fact that no existing space program is set up for such tourism and much of the bureaucratic apparatus behind every existing governmental space program is more or less hostile to that sort of thing. And yet, somewhere around a sixth of a billion dollars has been spent on orbital tourism. What will the market look like when much less costly sub-orbital trips are available and when there are companies and space craft purpose built for tourism? Every indication is that there are billions of dollars to be had from tourism alone. And any company, such as SpaceX, with a vehicle that could also fly commercial satellite payloads is in an excellent position to bootstrap its way profitably from zero to a manned space program so robust that would make the Apollo engineers blush in jealousy.

28 points by edw519 16y ago

I heard Robert Bigelow speak at a conference on Capitol Hill years back. Interesting guy. I really think that space entrepreneurship is insanely exciting and I'd love to see more people get into it. I think in our lifetimes we'll see some incredible progress in private space exploration -- if we all step up and use our entrepreneurial energies in this direction. Sure, I'm insanely excited about the iPhone's video chatting features, which Steve Jobs raved about today in the context of growing up watching Star Trek and seeing this sort of thing on TV. But if you're talking Star Trek, let's talk space travel! I spent a summer in college working for Space Adventures (http://www.spaceadventures.com http://www.spaceadventures.com), which at the time had very much a "startup" feel despite having arranged for "space tourist" Dennis Tito to fly to the International Space Station (and in more recent years, sending up people like Microsoft Word developer Charles Simonyi and signing up Sergey Brin as a future client). (Forbes has details about the early days here: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0509/058.html. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0509/058.html.) Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Paul Allen are dabbling in space ventures. And Richard Branson, with Virgin Galactic, has made space entrepreneurship sexy. But I'd love to see a lot more young entrepreneurs and investors focusing on space entrepreneurship. Sure, iPhone apps and websites can help improve people's lives. But do you really want to have an impact on the course of human history? Do something in space! Space Adventures was founded by a young entrepreneur in his 20s, Eric Anderson, just two years out of college, who dared to think big. It started in his basement. We should all think big, too.

iborian 16y ago

There was an article today in the WSJ about SpaceX needing $1B in public funding to achieve its goal of shuttling astronauts to the Space Station [1]. That is unfortunate and frankly a little unsettling. It is sad to see the space entrepreneurs who argue against costly government space programs rely on the same government/taxpayer funding to launch their own ventures [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704726104575290604217670696.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870472610457529...

jurjenh 16y ago
Until there is an alternative established market, realistically you are only looking at getting a slice of the government funds, as that IS the market. And if for that $1B you can achieve what currently would cost $15B and up (orion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft) ), then what other reason do you need? Government has deemed it necessary to spend this money, so its in your best interest (as it is your money) to make sure that this gets used most efficiently.
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  To date 8 individuals have flown to orbit as tourists, paying around $20 million each for the privilege. This despite the fact that no existing space program is set up for such tourism and much of the bureaucratic apparatus behind every existing governmental space program is more or less hostile to that sort of thing. And yet, somewhere around a sixth of a billion dollars has been spent on orbital tourism. What will the market look like when much less costly sub-orbital trips are available and when there are companies and space craft purpose built for tourism? Every indication is that there are billions of dollars to be had from tourism alone. And any company, such as SpaceX, with a vehicle that could also fly commercial satellite payloads is in an excellent position to bootstrap its way profitably from zero to a manned space program so robust that would make the Apollo engineers blush in jealousy.