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Comment by DerekBickerton | Hacker News Reader

Don't forget, this is not just billionaires and their toys, it's about Democratizing Space Tourism[0]. You have to admire the billionaires who act as guinea pigs in these endeavors. Soon people with a lot less money than Branson/Bezos will be able to fly to space and see the curvature of the globe, all thanks to the initial experiments by explorers like Branson/Bezos.

[0] http://www.parabolicarc.com/2021/05/08/democratizing-space-o...

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Nice stats from the link:

Cost of ISS Crew time: 130k USD per hour

[This is if you bother them for their time I guess]

> You have to admire the billionaires who act as guinea pigs in these endeavors

Or they could, you know, stop exploiting the working class to build their massive amounts of wealth and instead pay their workers properly, prevent wealth inequality, do something about climate change etc. etc.

I honestly find it so egregious that anyone could support this crap because "ooooh space!"

It’s a brand new industry that was created today. Sure, there are lots of problems to be solved in the world, but new industries are exciting and who knows what will come next.

I can tell you what comes next: yet more billionaires and wealth hoarding and still more problems in the world.

I guess my point is does the average person struggling to put food on the table really care that a new industry was 'created'? Is there a place in this industry for those people?

I think this touches a nerve though with the HN crowd, as this kind of argument tends to make them rankle

Anytime a new industry is created, jobs for average people are created. Many people say they are angry that average people are struggling to secure a tiny slice of a finite pie, while most of the pie is hoarded by billionaires. I prefer to believe that when a new industry is created, a new pie is created, and some average people will wind up earning a slice of that new pie. Since average people are struggling to get by, you can't expect them to create a new industry. While some rich people play golf all day, I'm glad to see that some on HN are cheering a billionaire who instead decided to put forth the effort to create a new industry.

Does the average person care? The New Mexico desert now has an employment center, one likely to grow substantially because of this achievement. The average people in that area are sure to see some benefits.

Your kids can have the opportunity to be wealthy rocket scientists. This industry comes with a lot of pride and dignity.

It's a completely useless endeavour that only an unenlightened civilization would find attractive.

> it's about Democratizing Space Tourism[0].

Sorry to be a party pooper, but why should space tourism be promoted and developed in the first place? Given the ongoing climate crisis is this responsible? I mean, what's the end game here? Having near space infested with tourists taking selfies and over-consuming like in pre-covid Venice [0]?

[0] https://veneziaautentica.com/impact-tourism-venice/

Do your concerns extend to regular tourism as well? Is tourism between the US and Europe or Asia responsible?

What's the point?

Astronauts and cosmonauts who have been on the ISS's famous globe window...it's not like they were overwhelmed or collapsed onto the ground crying because of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSXi9PTh96w

What makes our jaw drop is wired into our brain for evolutionary purposes.

A wonderful wheat field = means abundant food

An amazing lake/river = means abundant drinking water

An incredibly attractive woman = means possibility to pass down genes

If travelling at 600mph and 40000ft gets old so fast, I think so will the trip at 50 km or 100 or even 200.

Bezos and Branson are happy and pumped because they are the people behind the effort and managed to allocate raw materials, human resources, goodwill, money...in a way which made them succeed at something so hard as space travel.

But it's not unlike what the CEO of BioNtech and Moderna felt, or even Zuckerberg , Brin or Gates for their endevours.

> It's not like they were overwhelmed or collapsed onto the ground crying because of it.

Being able to see the curvature of the very planet you live on shouldn't have to be a a rare and expensive privilege. After all, you were born on this planet, and it would be nice to see roughly half of it in one glance from space. You don't know what that feels like if you haven't experienced it.

> rare and expensive privilege

Rare and expensive privileges give us satisfaction.

Besides the things we are wired to like for evolutionary purposes, the more expensive and exclusive a thing is, the more we are satisfied with it.

It's not the thing in itself, but the validation we get because it's something done by few.

As soon as you step into a commercial plane you look down for like 1 hour and then go straight to the movies.

As soon as you get in a private jet it seems amazing for like 5 hours before you realize that you are in an RV which is capable of flying.

The half life of non evolutionary driven experiences is very short.

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