Author Topic: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?  (Read 15119 times)

Offline sanman

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #40 on: 10/12/2017 04:45 pm »
Alright, fair enough - sports is just one aspect of human cultural life - but it could be part of a greater effort to extend cultural attractions and events to the Moon, beyond just a scientific presence. Not everyone who wants to go to the Moon should have to be a scientist. Maybe people will go to the Moon just for inspiration, too.

Festivals on the Moon?
Pilgrimages to the Moon?
Weddings, Burials and other ceremonies on the Moon?
Filmmaking on the Moon?

How about placing the United Nations on the Moon? It can be a neutral ground, after all - and symbolically reinforce of the fact that petty Earthly differences disappear when mankind ventures beyond the bounds of Earth.
<insert joke about sending all politicians to space here>
« Last Edit: 10/12/2017 04:47 pm by sanman »

Offline mikelepage

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #41 on: 10/14/2017 06:43 am »
Zero g sports.

Those immensely popular spectator sports, football, soccer, basketball, ect, usually depends on certain section of the population being able to practice that sport. Generations of kids play after school, aspiring to be good enough to join the league, to be elite ahletes, to be heroes. They will watch their heroes play. When they grow older and fatter, unable to play, they will still watch because of heroism via proxy. Zero-g sports implies they are only made possible in Zero-g environment and hence excluding most people, on the ground, from practicing those sports.

Another kind of sport only a few people can play, like Motorsport, but can still be popular. I am not sure why. Maybe there is some connection between those expensive activities and the everyday life. Most people have no chance to drive a Formula One car, but they can aspire to own a McLaren, maybe that is so out-of-reach, at least they can buy a Toyota. That can be useful as means of advertising and making loads of money.

I think should any Zero-g sport materialized, it'd likely fall into the second kind. Solar sail yacht racing? However, suppose it is as big as NFL, so many players, games, stadiums, spectators, a tradition almost a century old, the most valuable sport league in the world? NFL's season revenue is about $14 billion USD, actually not that big comparing to its size. Does that justify the cost?

This is why I think every zero-g sport will have an Earth analog at first (ie zero-g table tennis, zero-g MMA, etc), rather than inventing entirely new sports.  As long as it doesn't take up that much room, and can be tied into an existing franchise that people already understand, I think it could be the killer app for humans in LEO.

Alright, fair enough - sports is just one aspect of human cultural life - but it could be part of a greater effort to extend cultural attractions and events to the Moon, beyond just a scientific presence. Not everyone who wants to go to the Moon should have to be a scientist. Maybe people will go to the Moon just for inspiration, too.

Festivals on the Moon?
Pilgrimages to the Moon?
Weddings, Burials and other ceremonies on the Moon?
Filmmaking on the Moon?

How about placing the United Nations on the Moon? It can be a neutral ground, after all - and symbolically reinforce of the fact that petty Earthly differences disappear when mankind ventures beyond the bounds of Earth.
<insert joke about sending all politicians to space here>

You forgot to mention the possibility of having a literal "honeymoon"  ;)

I think the number of people who actually want to settle deep space or go to Mars etc is minuscule compared to the number of people who just want to have an amazing holiday/experience that will stay with them for the rest of their (earthly) lives.  Once people are comfortable that all of cis-lunar space is relatively safe and means just a few days to get back home, I think the explosion of tourism will happen quickly.  Going beyond cis-lunar space will be what the "crazy" people do, because that means years away.

Offline sanman

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #42 on: 10/14/2017 07:20 am »
And the main prerequisite for all this is infrastructure. There needs to be a clear plan for building up infrastructure on the Moon. It's great that Gwynne Shotwell in her latest remarks pointed out that The Boring Company is a means to the end of creating habitable space on Mars - hopefully they'll be able to try this on the Moon first, since it's the nearer and more accessible location.
« Last Edit: 10/14/2017 11:27 am by sanman »

Offline A_M_Swallow

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #43 on: 10/15/2017 12:43 am »
Zero g sports.

Those immensely popular spectator sports, football, soccer, basketball, ect, usually depends on certain section of the population being able to practice that sport. Generations of kids play after school, aspiring to be good enough to join the league, to be elite ahletes, to be heroes. They will watch their heroes play. When they grow older and fatter, unable to play, they will still watch because of heroism via proxy. Zero-g sports implies they are only made possible in Zero-g environment and hence excluding most people, on the ground, from practicing those sports.

Another kind of sport only a few people can play, like Motorsport, but can still be popular. I am not sure why. Maybe there is some connection between those expensive activities and the everyday life. Most people have no chance to drive a Formula One car, but they can aspire to own a McLaren, maybe that is so out-of-reach, at least they can buy a Toyota. That can be useful as means of advertising and making loads of money.

I think should any Zero-g sport materialized, it'd likely fall into the second kind. Solar sail yacht racing? However, suppose it is as big as NFL, so many players, games, stadiums, spectators, a tradition almost a century old, the most valuable sport league in the world? NFL's season revenue is about $14 billion USD, actually not that big comparing to its size. Does that justify the cost?


Kicking a ball twice in space will be difficult. Try 3D tennis, air polo (based on water polo) and air swimming. The players may need gigantic flippers.

edit:spelling
« Last Edit: 10/15/2017 09:10 am by A_M_Swallow »

Offline sanman

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #44 on: 10/15/2017 02:49 am »
How about Reality TV on the Moon - at least during the early novelty phase? You could cover a team trying to accomplish some mission and its objectives - like trying to assemble and deploy a hab, for example. I think Mars One had said they would finance their effort through a Reality TV show - but the Moon seems a much safer bet than Mars.

Offline speedevil

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #45 on: 10/15/2017 04:14 pm »
There is also porn.
(nsfw) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_II:_Stagnetti%27s_Revenge

Is one of the highest budget porn films ever made - $8M.

It seems unlikely to be a more than several-off niche though.

Offline sanman

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Re: After Rockets, Next Bottlenecks?
« Reply #46 on: 10/25/2017 01:59 am »
A video on Muskonomics once again brings up the challenge of Market Elasticity:


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