Private enterprise will never lead space exploration - no profit in it.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The benefit is too tangential to any corporation's interest to justify the cost of launching people into space. Things only balance out at the state level.

Even when - IF - the foolish US plan to privatize launches finally pans out, it will still be merely contractors working for big government payouts, not out there making money on anything resembling a market. It will be just like the bloated Pentagon budget, entitled companies making overpriced garbage to please corrupt politicians and bureaucrats at the treasury's expense.

Your strength is making ridiculous responses to threads, not starting them.

Thanks for letting us know!

Personal computers, or "a computer in every home," is a ridiculous idea. Computers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take up an entire room's worth of space, so it's completely impracticle and impossible to make a profit selling computers except to publicly funded universities.

Same thing with "auto-mobiles." You think poor people will one day be able to afford a personal auto-mobile, when they can't even afford a horse-drawn carriage nowadays? Stop drinking Henry Ford's koolaid.

C'mon, Capitalism doesn't work for every good and service.

Yeah, but Space Force, bro.

There is profit in dragging wealthy people up Mt Everest. There are a lot of people that will pay a lot of money for bragging rights or a unique experience. Instead of Antarctica, Bhutan, or a remote island in the Maldives, space will become the new, hot tourist destination.

Bad Wigins wrote:

The benefit is too tangential to any corporation's interest to justify the cost of launching people into space. Things only balance out at the state level.

Even when - IF - the foolish US plan to privatize launches finally pans out, it will still be merely contractors working for big government payouts, not out there making money on anything resembling a market. It will be just like the bloated Pentagon budget, entitled companies making overpriced garbage to please corrupt politicians and bureaucrats at the treasury's expense.

You have literally zero insight on what the potential benefit could be (ever seen Avatar?), zero insight on what privatization actually means, and zero awareness of the already existing private companies pursuing it.

0/10 on insight and intelligence.

Alvin Toffler wrote:

There is profit in dragging wealthy people up Mt Everest.

That's tourism and leisure, which is about disposing of wealth, not generating it. Nothing is produced, merely redistributed. It depends entirely on the ability of industrialized economies to generate this disposable wealth.

Likewise, manned space flight is the exclusive playground of those rich enough to WASTE tens of millions of dollars. You will not make your money back, ever, but you might have some fun and win prestige if that's worth tens of millions to you. But it's not worth tens of millions to investors, so the market cannot drive it. Only big-spending governments have the will to do this, and a "private" industry funded by public money is a dangerous illusion.

Lots of seething hate in the answers so far. Noone thinks they have reason on their side? Laughable.

A. What does this have to do with humans in space?

B. What does this have to do with space exploration?

2. Private enterprise already leads space flight development and launches by number of launches and economic standards. NASA is outdated and slow. Do you have any idea how many communications satellites there are floating around up there? How do you think they got there? No profit my @ss.

Imagine when we are capable of sending people to mars. There are some people who would pay out of their butt to own a world record.

Bad Wigins:

there will on be 2,600 cases in the US by April 1st

the outbreak has peaked March 27th and will decline from here on out

no ones is dying in Germany from COVID

we won't have a recession

let me know of virus ever kills even 1 in a million people.

ok....great!..... looks like we'll be living like the Jetsons any day now!!!

Kvothe wrote:

Imagine when we are capable of sending people to mars. There are some people who would pay out of their butt to own a world record.

We couldn't even do it on Earth -- twice -- with Biosphere 2. It's a pipedream.

Nutsack McGee wrote:

A. What does this have to do with humans in space?

B. What does this have to do with space exploration?

2. Private enterprise already leads space flight development and launches by number of launches and economic standards. NASA is outdated and slow. Do you have any idea how many communications satellites there are floating around up there? How do you think they got there? No profit my @ss.

what do communications satellites, or the development and launches thereof, have to do with space exploration? That part of space is already well known. LEO is not "exploration," don't make me laugh.

How many private missions to Mars have ever even been attempted? Don't waste your time fact checking because you know it's 0. Mars missions have about a 50% failure rate and they don't bring anything back. Too risky, no reward. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

They did manage one mission to the moon though. A company from Luxembourg managed 6 years ago to send a tiny probe on a flyby. Impressive!