Would you book online a travel to outer space?

[maxmaxus]

So...long story short: Would you pay online a travel in outer space - scheduled 5 years from now for a realistic price of below $10,000? Or...you would rather think that this is some sort of a total scam and a ponzi scheme? I am asking because a close friend of mine who is a lead engineer at the european space agency thinks that he can design the majority of work for a spacecraft and a spacestation to be used as the world's first "space hotel", in his words the total budget for such thing can be anywhere between $30 million and $70 million, which again in his words is a huge bargain...and i think he might be right - again i am no expert (computer programmer here...) but according to wikipedia the overall cost of the international space station is 1 billion USD. So...as the story goes - my friend contacted a few venture capitalists but they responded that the idea is unique but there's not enough commercial benefit at this time. And...finally a few days ago i saw the website of Sir Richard Branson (http://virgingalactic.com) which offers space flights in suborbit for $200,000 per person and they already have like hundreds of clients. Hence my idea is to create a website where people can pay some amount to book online and then use the money to initiate the spaceport building, equipment etc. in such case i think that if some people pay - then venture capital firms will be much more likely to give cash so we can start working on the real thing. Basically, at the moment i can help with no more than $15,000 of my own savings and my friend with even less... which won't be enough even for a painting of the spacecraft . What do you think? Is it too insane?

P.S.
I already asked this question in yahoo answers and...since the overall intelligence here is much better than "yahoo answers" i guess i don't have to clarify this...BUT just in case to mention it: Yes, I know we need a license and i don't care about SEC...because: 1. i am not American, 2. SEC do not deal with such things. I just need to clarify this because 2 guys on yahoo answers mentioned some nonsense related to such things. And...yes - insurance is a problem but i guess it's a matter of contract.

thanks and happy holidays!

 

[vish_al210]

Well don't know about insane...
Lots of things about 50 yrs ago deemed insane are the most sane today...
Well I guess it is more of a business oppurtunity question. What u need in case of good business is credibility.. One solution is go ahead and approach a venture capitalist with ur idea... but is only a business idea, don't run around about tryng to patent it...
But the problem is they may kick you out and then start a venture on their own.
Who knows many already read ur post and approached venture capitalists.

Well you need to chlk out your business plan and try approaching some firms..
But then again how much credit would you like them to give you//pay you or would a maiden flight suffice.
You could approach Reliance India...(They now have many international branches too.)
Or just read through their business history and try to implement their fathers initial strategy to sustain ur growth... BUt just don't become a "Harshad Mehta" ! ;)
Well the onus is on you... And why wldn't someone pay $10000 (I must be crazy.. that's 5 Lakh Indian rupees) to orbit the Earth or just go into outerspace..

 

[Astronuc]

A space hotel requires getting there, so in addition to an orbital station (one could buy or lease ISS at some point perhaps), one requires a vehicle to travel from surface to orbit and back again.

It costs on the order of $10 k per kg to put something into space with a reusable craft, and this assumes the supporting infrastructure is in place.

Don't underestimate the task.