Should we be concerned about the rich and space?

Winning_Stroke

We see it more and more, the rich planning for their escape from the planet and domination of space. Bezos, Musk, Branson, they're all at it. Setting up plans to get to space more easily. It won't be long til SpaceX are flinging people around the moon.

We need to think a few decades ahead, what is the end goal? Will the rich be living in the lap of luxury in space, free of governmental controls and laws, funnelling their wealth, truly "above us" in every sense of the word? They can escape the effects of climate change too and start (via increasing exploitation of space) to rule outer space, leaving us behind.

Does this concern you? What are your thoughts on it? If governments leave space to the rich, what of the rest of us?

Wibbs

No. Space is very badly named. It's incredibly cramped if you're human. Bugger all luxury. It's also extremely expensive even for bazillionaires. Most of all, outside of hollywood science fiction we are a very long way away from bases on the moon and Mars remains pretty much a pipe dream. The stars? Likely centuries away, if ever.

iamstop

Send them all out to the vacuum of space. We'll all be better off.

Zubeneschamali

There is nowhere in the Solar System that is as hospitable as the most hostile place on Earth.

A secret base in Antarctica or at the bottom of the ocean would be a better bet than Mars.

EmmetSpiceland

The only real reason any “rich” person should be looking to space is for mineral mining on asteroids and other, celestial, bodies.

Space “tourism” is small potatoes in comparison.

Winning_Stroke

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

There is nowhere in the Solar System that is as hospitable as the most hostile place on Earth.

A secret base in Antarctica or at the bottom of the ocean would be a better bet than Mars.

Yes, exactly. Except space offers something those places don't, freedom from the government.

Wibbs

Winning_Stroke wrote: »

Yes, exactly. Except space offers something those places don't, freedom from the government.

They'll almost certainly need some government to get up there in the first place. Never mind that if you're a billionaire governments tend to leave you alone or bring you into the fold.

And that's before we get to the health aspects. Near earth orbit is relatively "safe", but even then you're dealing with muscle wastage and bone density issues among other things. Get out beyond the magnetosphere and you're exposed to the full whack of solar radiation. OK enough for a few weeks, but not so good for an extended period of time and we don't have the tech to make shielding that will stop it. On the Apollo missions they flew the craft into the solar winds using the ship itself as a sheild and even then the astronauts noticed flashes of light from cosmic rays shooting through their eyeballs. They also suffered from cataracts in later life at a higher rate. And they were only out there for not much more than a week. Mars has no magnetosphere so the solar wind hits the surface unfiltered. You want to sterilise medical equipment? Lay it down on the surface of Mars for half an hour. Job done. And that's before we consider sun storms that can fire out much stronger bursts. Get caught out in that on Mars and it would make licking the Chernobyl core look healthy.

So you're mad rich and you end up in a capsule smaller than a bungalow, where going outside is deadly, your life expectancy is reduced and there's not a lot to fill your day if you're not a scientist. No hanging out in Aspen or Monaco banging tinder bints in the sun. Can't really see it catching on.

corner of hells

Wibbs wrote: »

They'll almost certainly need some government to get up there in the first place. Never mind that if you're a billionaire governments tend to leave you alone or bring you into the fold.

And that's before we get to the health aspects. Near earth orbit is relatively "safe", but even then you're dealing with muscle wastage and bone density issues among other things. Get out beyond the magnetosphere and you're exposed to the full whack of solar radiation. OK enough for a few weeks, but not so good for an extended period of time and we don't have the tech to make shielding that will stop it. On the Apollo missions they flew the craft into the solar winds using the ship itself as a sheild and even then the astronauts noticed flashes of light from cosmic rays shooting through their eyeballs. They also suffered from cataracts in later life at a higher rate. And they were only out there for not much more than a week. Mars has no magnetosphere so the solar wind hits the surface unfiltered. You want to sterilise medical equipment? Lay it down on the surface of Mars for half an hour. Job done. And that's before we consider sun storms that can fire out much stronger bursts. Get caught out in that on Mars and it would make licking the Chernobyl core look healthy.

So you're mad rich and you end up in a capsule smaller than a bungalow, where going outside is deadly, your life expectancy is reduced and there's not a lot to fill your day if you're not a scientist. No hanging out in Aspen or Monaco banging tinder bints in the sun. Can't really see it catching on.

Damn you.
Damn you to hell with your logic and reasoning.

pure.conya

Winning_Stroke wrote: »

We see it more and more, the rich planning for their escape from the planet and domination of space. Bezos, Musk, Branson, they're all at it. Setting up plans to get to space more easily. It won't be long til SpaceX are flinging people around the moon.

We need to think a few decades ahead, what is the end goal? Will the rich be living in the lap of luxury in space, free of governmental controls and laws, funnelling their wealth, truly "above us" in every sense of the word? They can escape the effects of climate change too and start (via increasing exploitation of space) to rule outer space, leaving us behind.

Does this concern you? What are your thoughts on it? If governments leave space to the rich, what of the rest of us?

whatever about space i think we should just continue to allow the mega rich keep amassing fortunes and paying little to no tax, while we chip in with our weekly taxes and other charges out of our €300/400/500 a week

sure whats the worst that can happen

Mefistofelino

Even if they managed to survive all the challenges Wibbs has highlighted, the sheer economics of a "civilian" space station are ridiculous. About 30 years ago, a paper looked at the feasibility of an artificial gravity space hotel in low earth orbit. It had a capacity of 64 guests and 20 staff and weighed about 7,500 tonnes. (By comparison, the ISS is only around 400 tonnes).

If you ask Elon Musk very nicely, he'll bring the construction materials to space on his Falcon heavy, which has a payload of about 64 tonnes for low-earth orbit. You'll need about 120 trips though, at $90+ million each. In other words, just to physically loft the structure into orbit will cost around $11 billion. Designing and building that hotel will cost many tens of billions more.

Why would the superwealthy bother with all that just to "escape" government? They can just stay on Earth and bend governments to their will, as they do. Far cheaper and easier, plus they can still spend their weekends on Jeffrey Epstein's island.

matchthis

That would be an ecumenical matter