Talk-Polywell.org

I'd be curious to see this $500k to the Moon estimate of Musks. You're sure that's not urban legend? Right now he's hoping to get $50M/ 7-man flight to LEO, or $700k@, just to go round trip to ISS or Bigelow's Space Bed 'n Breakfast. I can't see how he'll ever get the savings to go to Mars for less...

Like I said, people need to stop pretending. If you want the average Joe to ever have a chance to get off this rock, it has to be using something vastly cheaper, safer, more convenient and more efficient than a reaction engine. I'm all for SpaceX and SeaLaunch lowering launch costs, but that sort o...

I see that you didn't read and understand the full NASA spaceflight forum thread. The gist of the thread includes advances expected and efficiencies obtained from SpaceX, VASIMR and lunar derived fuel which could result in sweeping changes in space transportation costs. Also, remember, it is a lot ...

THere's trillions of dollars of metals in the asteroid belt. Likely after space mining is established there would be analysis to find the new "precious" metals, and specie values would adjust accordingly. And when that happens...the advantage of being able to trade with Mars. No taxes few regulatio...

While you may be right, the catch it getting to Mars in the first place. Once you get there, set up your bank. Unfortunately for your bank, "The First Lunar Bank" may offer stiff competition. If your bank were "The Mars Branch of The First Lunar Bank" you wouldn't mind the competition so much. Yes,...

I'm suggesting gold as a reason to go to the moon, and lunar gold as a way to finance Mars. Yes and I am sure there is gold/platinum group metals/rare earths because of meteor strikes on Mars too. But I am thinking of something that would almost immediately be a money maker for Mars. It would take ...

http://www.examiner.com/space-news-in-h ... e-humanity

Sure Elon Musk would agree...gee if only there was a way to pay for them, say some way that would make money almost right away.

A bank without recognized existence is going to have difficulty getting depositors' money in and out. Any colonization scheme dependent on ongoing financial relations with Earth is subject to the limits of whoever is willing to do business. Thinking that initially the "bank" would be known by a sel...

Of course, all that said, and some lawyer will pull out an interpretation of some tax code and tort that allows sovereign claim to the money chain that got them there...and thus derive some sort of soverign claim to the presence... :? He would have to first be able to trace the money to mars and to...

It does beg an interesting question. If a private group pulls enough resources together and gets themselves to Mars and subsequently claims themselves as the "Republic of Mars". Hmmm. Given that there are probably 1.5 states with the resources to argue the point...they may actually pull it off. Onc...

I think that once we have cheap access to LEO, we should first focus on establishing a space infrastructure with stations and bases in LEO, L- point and on the moon. Then make plans on how to terraform mars. I have had some ideas about that (for a scifi novel I would love to write one day). Or do b...

Yeah but Mars is 6months to a year away...not hours away like a inflatable bigelow space station in earth orbit. Or two days away like the moon. By the time some gov decides to act there could be thousands of Mars colonists, good luck finding the server/cpu with the encrypted data on the depositors...

Wouldn't have to follow any Earth side laws, until some government decided a military operation was worth the trouble. An independent operator can't afford to make too big a nuisance of themselves. Expect governments to find ways to tax investments grown outside their jurisdiction when they're brou...

Elon Musk said elsewhere that he thinks that 500K a ticket is the price for being able to send people to Mars privately at a profit. He said that he thinks that there are at least 8000 and probably very many more willing/able to pay. Let assume he is right. How would the colony make money? How about...

An earlier poster mentioned that cigarette smoking has been on the decline. Probably mostly because of the massive propaganda campaign against the dangers of smoking, even though cigarettes are still cheap(like alcohol) and legal. Consumption of hard liquor is similarly down, with beer and wine maki...