Alain Fournier wrote:

[note follow-ups]

Fred J. McCall wrote:

(Henry Spencer) wrote:

:In article ,
:Gene DiGennaro wrote:
:...If only the general public better understood Apollo's
accomplishments...
:
:Wouldn't really make a lot of difference. The general public already
:thinks spaceflight is neat; they just don't think it's worth a whole
lot
f money. This is fundamental, and will not change.
:
:Turning the general populace into space enthusiasts *will not
happen*, and
lans which assume that it will are pointless fantasies. The only
way to
:get to (say) Mars is to lower the cost to the point that overwhelming
ublic enthusiasm is not required.
Which essentially says that it will never happen, Henry, since you
have to start going there before there is an incentive to lower the
cost of going there.

It is, after all, always cheaper to not go than to go.

Personally, I hope you're wrong.


No. There isn't an overwhelming public support for suborbital flights.
Yet suborbital flights have recently become an existing business.
The same can happen for Mars travel. More likely, it will be the
suborbital flights business that will slowly evolve into a broader
space flight business.

Alain Fournier

After Columbus discovered America, most Spanish explorers
were motivated by the search of gold. If there were something
extremely valuable in outer space (I think there is) then space
travel is only a question of time.