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From: Millennium <mtwain@ihug.co.nz> Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 17:26:08 -0700 |
Space Tourism's Boosters Start Countdown
Joel Glenn Brenner, Special to The Washington Post; 07-25-1999
Like many who witnessed the glory and spectacle of the Cold War
space race, Robert Bigelow grew up devouring sci-fi novels, sketching
rockets in his schoolbooks and wondering when it would be his turn to
fly to the moon. Now, at 55, the Las Vegas multimillionaire still has
dreams of blasting into orbit--only he's going to do it in style.
The owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain is
investing as much as $500 million of his real estate fortune to design
and build a 100-passenger luxury cruise ship that will permanently
orbit the moon, giving vacationers a week-long excursion they'll never
forget. For Americans waxing nostalgic about Apollo on the 30th
anniversary of the first moon landing, Bigelow may be the best chance,
however remote, of seeing lunar dreams fulfilled.
"It's up to private enterprise to get the general public into
space in our lifetimes," Bigelow said in a weighty tone, as though he
alone were carrying this burden. "It is imperative that we create
user-friendly, market-driven projects like this one or it will never
happen."
The Las Vegas native, who made his fortune developing apartment
complexes and mid-priced hotels throughout the Southwest, said he
realizes his vision is "highly experimental." But he also firmly
believes that he can succeed where NASA and other aerospace companies
have failed. "I know a lot more about aerospace than NASA knows about
business," he said, his voice brimming with confidence. "The
government's launch costs are outrageous; I can do it for
one-twentieth of what they're spending."
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's shuttle
program costs about $10,000 per pound and private launch companies
spend about $8,000 per pound to get their payloads into orbit, experts
said. At that price, Bigelow's $500 million is mere pocket change. But
if launch companies are able to develop less-expensive means of
orbital transportation, that per-pound cost could drop
dramatically--something Bigelow is counting on.
More than a dozen private firms are currently trying to develop
reusable rockets that could potentially cut the payload cost to $1,000
per pound, maybe less. But so far, none of these rockets exists.
"We're getting close, but we're still not there," said Thomas
Rogers, chief scientist for the Space Transportation Association. "If
the commercialization of space is ever going to take off, we're going
to have to overcome this barrier."
Bigelow hopes the lure of his "cruise ship" idea will provide a
crucial incentive to reusable-rocket makers, which have been
struggling because of lack of capital. "I expect to provide [these
companies] with a market for their product," Bigelow said. "That, in
turn, should help them raise money to finish their plans."
GARY C. HUDSON, president of Rotary Rocket Co., which is
developing a reusable single-stage rocket that is undergoing tests in
the Mojave Desert, called Bigelow "an angel" and likened him to the
royalty of the 1700s who privately sponsored seafaring voyages to the
Far East and the New World. "This is just the kind of boost we've been
waiting for," said Hudson, who plans to have his vehicle in commercial
service next year.
Bigelow shrugs off such accolades. The extremely private real
estate mogul has always been interested in outer space and the
paranormal. He donated millions of dollars to the University of Nevada
at Las Vegas to fund a "consciousness studies" program and he
bankrolls the nonprofit National Institute for Discovery Science,
which researches such out-of-the-box concepts as creating interstellar
"wormholes" using nuclear explosions.
But his new project, privately funded Bigelow Aerospace Co., is
about more than cosmic curiosity: It's about being at the vanguard of
the "dawning age of space tourism," as he puts it. It also reflects
these flush economic times. Vacationers are already paying tens of
thousands of dollars to climb Mount Everest or explore the Antarctic,
Bigelow points out.
A journey into space would represent the ultimate tourist
destination, easily worth a few hundred thousand dollars per ticket.
Recent surveys on behalf of adventure travel companies have shown as
many as 10,000 people say they are willing to spend $1 million or more
for an experience in space.
"This is the beginning of the future," he said matter-of-factly.
"It's people like me that are going to get the public into space --
not NASA, not some internationally sponsored space station."
This assessment was echoed last week at a symposium in Houston
where more than 100 scientists, researchers and engineers--and even a
few former Apollo astronauts--met to discuss the future of the moon.
Virtually everyone at the conference agreed with Bigelow, saying it is
time to take the moon out of the government's hands and place it
squarely with the private sector. The idea of a lunar cruise ship was
met not with snickers but with a hearty "it's about time" sense of
relief.
"This is not a pie-in-the-sky fantasy," insisted rocket
scientist Greg Bennett, who presented Bigelow's plans. "The technology
is there; the know-how is there. It's always been a matter of money
and now Bigelow is closing that gap."
To be sure, Bigelow's $500 million investment will cover just a
fraction of the project's ultimate cost, even if launch costs drop
dramatically. But it is a serious enough commitment to make people
stand up and take notice, and Bigelow himself speaks as if money is
his last concern.
"I'm not in this for the profit," he said. "I don't expect to
see any return for at least 15 years--if ever. This is all a big
experiment."
But it's one the Las Vegas native is taking very much to heart.
"I'll put in more than [$500 million] if that's what it takes," he
said. "My only hope is that this company can be a catalyst for change,
that we can alter the way people view space and make everyone realize
that it's up to the private sector to make things happen."
Just how much capital Bigelow can afford to invest is unclear.
The developer owns all of his companies outright--including the Budget
Suites hotel chain, which analysts estimate is worth about $600
million, and a number of large apartment complexes and other real
estate assets around Las Vegas worth about $400 million, according to
other Las Vegas developers.
Further obscuring the picture, Bigelow has generally kept
himself out of the public spotlight; he has never been profiled by the
media or granted a face-to-face interview, and he declined to be
photographed for this story. He said he is only talking about his
aerospace plans because "there is a general need to educate the
public," not because he's seeking personal glory.
But these are reasons, too, that he believes he'll be
successful. "The only shareholder I have to answer to is Mrs.
Bigelow," he said, only half joking. "There isn't a public company in
America that could take the risks I'm taking--I have no investors
breathing down my neck, no need for short-term profits," he continued.
"And if I say I'm going to do something, I do it."
Evidence of "Mr. B's" commitment is everywhere, said Bennett, a
30-year aerospace veteran who left his job at Houston's Johnson Space
Center in April to become Bigelow's vice president of spacecraft
development. The company is already running full-page advertisements
in Space News and other publications to hire the researchers,
industrial engineers, architects and scientists who will try to turn
Bigelow's vision into reality.
The company plans to break ground next year on its new Las
Vegas headquarters--a rocket-shaped building surrounded by a moat, "to
give it the impression of being on a launch pad," said Bennett. With
60,000 square feet set aside for building models and developing the
space ship, the production facility will rival those of aerospace
giants such as Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
The cruise ship itself will be just as impressive. Though there
are no artist renderings yet, Bennett said he is designing a craft
equipped with artificial gravity and appointed with all the amenities
of an opulent ocean liner, complete with private bathrooms, bedrooms
and individual portal windows for viewing the earth, moon and planets.
Like a scene straight out of "The Jetsons," the cruise ship will also
contain an observation deck and gymnasium, a dining room with "real"
food and possibly even a means of allowing passengers to take a brief
walk in the cosmos.
It all sounds a bit wacky, Bigelow admits. But Apollo astronaut
Buzz Aldrin, an ardent supporter of Bigelow's idea, gushes: "This is
completely within the realm of possibility. For 30 years we've been
waiting for a chance to go back to the moon. But it's never been a
matter of technology, only desire."
"We need more Bob Bigelows," seconded Alan Binder, chief
scientist for NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, which last year
discovered evidence of water frozen in the moon's polar craters. "His
project alone could jump-start an entire lunar industry."
A lunar orbiting cruise ship would undoubtedly be a ferociously
hungry beast, requiring thousands of rocket launches annually just to
keep it supplied with food, crew members and passengers--not to
mention clean linens and toilet paper. A commercial lunar base could
provide supplies such as fuel and water, said Binder. And while there
are bound to be many skeptics, Bennett, who has only been on the job
for two months, said he has absolutely no doubt that Bigelow's dreams
will come to fruition.
Asked how he can be so certain, he smiled wryly and said, "This
isn't NASA," referring to the agency's endless bureaucracy. "We've got
the know-how, and he's got the money. It's a beautiful combination."
Besides, Bennett quipped, "Robert Bigelow is the only man in
the world with his own pet rocket scientist."
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RELEVANCE OF THIS MESSAGE: UFO personalities
Index: Robert Bigelow (#24)
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Created: Sep 30, 1999