What can WE do to make Elon's Mars dream a reality?

[Jim]

If Elon wants to make his dream a reality, he should start playing the political game. It wouldn't hurt to put a factory on the Alabama coast and setup engineers in Huntsville.

SpaceX will assemble ITS at KSC, so he's got Florida covered.

He doesn't employ enough of the right people

[Fan Boi]

Some thoughts/ideas:

. Remember that this is an interplanetary transport. Maybe a bit too much focus on just Mars so far, more selling of the potential versatility.
. SpaceX issued credit card? I would sign up and use it. PayPal experience might pay off with this one too.
. Kickstarter is a great idea.
. Pre-sell tickets like Virgin did, but make good on it!
. Volunteer at SpaceX?
. Hold a raffle? Tickets should be expensive, like $100 or more. Winner gets two free tickets to Mars!
. Get sponsors to put their name and/or logo on the booster and/or the ship. (I keep seeing Viagra painted down the side of that monster and it makes me chuckle)
. At the supermarket checkout lanes we have those pull off scannable tags to donate $1, $3, or $5 to various things. How about a SpaceX one? I would put in $5 every time I purchase groceries.
. Ask the new PayPal owners if they would straight up donate a penny per transaction to the cause, for old-time sake and possibly the future of humanity.

The rest of the US would rather spend their money more wisely on other things.

But "wisely" is subjective, and I for one have spent money on far more wasteful things...

[ThereIWas3]

Total annual income to the US cosmetics industry is six times what it would cost to do ITS.

[Jim]

But "wisely" is subjective, and I for one have spent money on far more wasteful things...

And the rest of the US would rather waste their money on other things.  For example, state lotteries:  if you win, you can buy a ride and still have money left over.

[ZachF]

Total annual income to the US cosmetics industry is six times what it would cost to do ITS.

How many billions a year do people spend on Cigarettes? Junk Food? Gambling? Credit card debt? Botox?

The amount of money the US spends on objectively stupid/wasteful things is probably larger than the GDPs than all but the largest nations....

[Jim]

Total annual income to the US cosmetics industry is six times what it would cost to do ITS.

How many billions a year do people spend on Cigarettes? Junk Food? Gambling? Credit card debt? Botox?

The amount of money the US spends on objectively stupid/wasteful things is probably larger than the GDPs than all but the largest nations....

Women "need' cosmetics, they don't need ITS.  I know that is a sexist statement but I wanted to keep it short and not add all the other qualifiers.

and others "need" those things too.  It is well within their rights.  We don't need to dictate what is better for them.  The nanny state is large enough.  Like mined people on this forum are a small fraction of the population.   That is one of the reasons I don't believe the US gov't should be involved in space colonization.  It should be up to the market place and NGO's.

[ZachF]

Total annual income to the US cosmetics industry is six times what it would cost to do ITS.

How many billions a year do people spend on Cigarettes? Junk Food? Gambling? Credit card debt? Botox?

The amount of money the US spends on objectively stupid/wasteful things is probably larger than the GDPs than all but the largest nations....

Women "need' cosmetics, they don't need ITS.  I know that is a sexist statement but I wanted to keep it short and not add all the other qualifiers.

and others "need" those things too.  It is well within their rights.  We don't need to dictate what is better for them.  The nanny state is large enough.  Like mined people on this forum are a small fraction of the population.   That is one of the reasons I don't believe the US gov't should be involved in space colonization.  It should be up to the market place and NGO's.

Im not talking about nannyism or forcefully taking people's money at all... just providing a context.

But hell, total Government spending is ~38% GDP here in the US (~$7 Trillion dollars). It's 45-55% in most other western nations. Space exploration is about 0.1% of GDP.

[Fan Boi]

I am feeling a renewed interest in space from the general population, just my opinion of course. I think a lot of that comes from watching rockets land on ships in the ocean and back at the launch site. Inspirational to us rocket nerds of course, but also to the general population. But I agree with Jim about people rights to spend their money how they see fit of course. I was just trying to find ideas that match this thread title...

P.S. Adding a modified ThereIWas3's sig since it seems fitting:
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect carbon fiber and aluminum and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of space".

[Chris Bergin]

I think we can safely say this thread has run it's course!

Locked.