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from the what's-that-worth-in-Martian-zlonks? dept.
SpaceX tourist trips to space station reportedly to cost $55 million each:
A trio of space tourists will blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) in a SpaceX capsule, after Axiom Space made a deal with Elon Musk's company on Thursday. The first 10-day trip could happen in the latter half of next year, the company said in a release.
However, it won't be cheap -- a seat could set you back around $55 million, the New York Times reported, and one person has already signed up. Two days will be spent traveling to and from the space station, and eight on board. The tourists will be accompanied by an Axiom astronaut who'll make sure they don't distract the ISS crewmembers.
"This will be just the first of many missions to ISS to be completely crewed and managed by Axiom Space -- a first for a commercial entity," Axiom boss Michael T. Suffredini said in a statement. "Procuring the transportation marks significant progress toward that goal, and we're glad to be working with SpaceX in this effort."
Previously:
SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Four Tourists Into Deep Orbit
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday March 09 2020, @03:48PM (17 children)
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @07:32PM (13 children)
There was a time when having a horse for transportation was an extreme luxury reserved only for most elite of society. Today you can easily get a car or motorcycle on minimum wage. Roughly around the same time air conditioning or ice (which were near synonymous) were even more exclusive luxuries except now received for the elite of the elite. Not that long ago there were dramatic differences in nearly every sort of day-to-day experience based on class. Society will never be equal, because people are not equal. But the real difference in classes of society are today, by a very wide margin, smaller than they've ever been. Your average millionaire and your average middle class guy no longer live especially radically different lives, in spite of quite dramatic differences in wealth.
Point is new expensive technologies will always be initially limited to the top of society. Over time this will change. In my opinion it will change at an exponential rate on this field. Assuming SpaceX achieves their goal, interplanetary travel may well become something semi-normal (perhaps comparable to transatlantic travel some decades back) within our lives.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 09 2020, @08:09PM (11 children)
Maybe. If you don't need a place to live, food to eat, health care, clothing, fuel, utilities.
Nice try to conjure up a magical fantasy world where there is no big difference between rich and poor. Quite the contrary. Someone who makes $50,000 a year and $150,000 a year will live significantly different lives. Especially when it comes to concerns about how they can make ends meet for basic things. Your example of a milionaire and poor person doesn't even pass the laugh test.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @09:03PM (6 children)
My example is based on life experience have had the fortune of living from rags to something nicer than rags. People who idealize millionaires have no idea how millionaires live. Interestingly enough it's also the same in the other direction. Those born into money have little no clue about how 'the other side' lives, relying more on tropes and social media than reality.
Lease on a $10k car is about $125/month. $50k a year is netting around $3k a month. GMAFB. The only reason somebody would have any difficulties whatsoever on $50k is living above their means or living in a shitty place. No idea why anybody would, in a million years, ever want to live in a place like San Francisco. You can find interesting people and career opportunities everywhere. But living hand to mouth on $100k is something you truly have to seek far and wide to find.
But really I don't think I'm going to enter into this conversation. The one thing that the growing closeness of the classes in real terms has brought is entitlement which leads to irrational envy for what little differences remain. This entire thread being such a perfect example. 'Omg, millionaires can go take trips to the ISS? Why can't everybody!? SO UNFAIR!'
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday March 09 2020, @10:20PM (5 children)
Most of the time, quite frugally. That's why they've become millionaires - better money management, and thence an ability to get themselves a seat on the exponential-growth (until ooops) conveyer belt. Too many people in the US at least are in the twice-nothing-is-nothing version of that equation.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:09PM (4 children)
Oh, dear, should we get our son a Ferrari or a Porch for his 16th birthday?
Which private charter school should we send the kids to?
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:36PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:01PM
I could probably agree with you there, because a million isn't what it once was.
You and I may be talking about a different levels of wealth.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:12PM
That's, again, a stereotype - not reality.
61% [forbes.com] of households earning > $250k per year drive Hondas, Toyas, and Fords. The most common preference being Hondas. Great quality and great price. Those are the sort of decisions that attract the rich. That also misses some nuance. A friend's preferred vehicle is Audi and he tends to always have a ride that's at most 1-2 years old. But there's a catch. He is probably the most frugal man I know. If he can get a tax refund on a single paper clip, he'll certainly be grabbing that receipt and claiming that $0.01. With cars he discovered a little 'trick'. He buys the latest model - 1 year. A year later he trades it in, for the next latest model - 1 year. Turns out that the depreciation in price after the first year is *extremely* low, so his 'lease' (in terms of the value lost per month) ends up being less than what you'd pay for e.g. a Honda Civic.
So optically it looks like he's spending a lot - in practice he's probably spending less than the guy with a 4 year old accord in the driveway! Obviously not a 'trick' most could afford to do, but it emphasizes that people don't get rich (let alone stay that way) by living anything like the stereotypes. If you live in a middle class neighborhood, there's a pretty decent chance one or more of your neighbors is a millionaire. There's about 12 million [nypost.com] millionaire households in the US, and that number is skyrocketing as more people are finding their way to riches.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @05:02PM
Front Porch or Back Porch?
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday March 09 2020, @10:16PM (2 children)
> Your example of a milionaire and poor person doesn't even pass the laugh test.
Au contraire, I'm laughing at your attempt to turn "average middle class" into "poor".
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:07PM (1 child)
A good portion of the average middle class struggles for everything they get. I personally know some.
What we once considered the average middle class has largely disappeared and been replaced by what we once called poor.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:53PM
AC here who mentioned earlier that only 39% [forbes.com] of households earning $250k+ per year choose to purchase luxury cars, while 8% of those earning less than $250k do so. This datum, alone, also explains the "struggling" middle class. Don't see why? Around 2% [politifact.com] of all American households earn > $250k+ per year, so 98% do not.
This means that the $100k 'market share' = (0.08 * 98) / ( (0.08 * 98) + (0.39 * 2)) * 100 = ~91%. In other words, 91% of luxury cars are sold to people living in households earning less than $100k per year. That is *insanely* stupid, but such is the nature of people. Things such as this are the one and only reason somebody would "struggle" in a middle class life now a days. People need to live below their means. Most people instead choose to live at and above them. And then complain that life is hard.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:22AM
Considering people making minimum wage are making ~22k a year in the US, and still have to worry about copays on hospital visits, etc., the car will be a used clunker that doubles as their home. Just look in Amazon parking lots. The company has actually normalized this practice.
Also, the NIH has just issued guidance to avoid all cruises. The space station is even worse than a cruise ship - you can't open a window.
And it's going to be impossible to isolate someone unless you stick them in a space suit and shove them out the airlock. Or you can skip the space suit.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:36AM
What a bunch of white male privileged bullshit.
Inequality has been increasing. 60% of the population has not had an increase in real income in 30 years, and 20% have had a decrease.
Because of global heating, air conditioning is becoming a necessity in cities, but electricity is not getting cheaper last time I looked.
We've been issuing guidance to check on neighbours who don't have AC because we've had too many deaths from heat. Older people who keep the windows closed "to keep the heat out" but don't have them money for AC and for some reason think that a fan blowing humid hot air around will cool them "because don't fans cool you?"
Older people and those with chronic health conditions don't really have a choice with AC or the added expenses. So all things being equal, that's less money for other essentials.
Class? Try being a member of a minority group. Or a woman. Less pay, less opportunity for advancement, even if you're better qualified. Class is ingrained into society. Only someone who hasn't experienced discrimination, someone with white male privilege, would claim it doesn't exist.
Even if spacex achieves its' goal, that won't happen. Humans do really bad in zero g. And the peroxides in the dust of Mars mean that seals won't seal over even the medium term. So the only option is to live under the surface and NEVER GO OUT. Kind of pointless, isn't it?
Interplanetary exploration is for robots. So is any permanent colony.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday March 09 2020, @10:13PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:11PM (1 child)
We could diminish the disparity by taxing some of the money that the richest might never be able to spend in one lifetime. I'm not talking about making the rich poor. Or even impacting their wealthy lifestyle.
The people who rely on government handouts and refuse to work should be kicked out of congress.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:30PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves