Guest: Dr. Patrick Collins was our very special guest for this 1,000th Space Show program! Dr. Collins joined us from Japan as he was also the very first Space Show guest on June 13, 2001. We started our discussion with a type of report card for space tourism in 2001 and now in 2008. We both went through a list of milestones, accomplishments, events, and developments in order to ascertain the level of progress made in developing space tourism over the past seven years. Dr. Collins made the case for economic development with space tourism as the driver, not just for space development, but for our terrestrial economy as well. He received lots of listener questions expanding on the economic potential of space tourism as well as challenging the validity of it as a space development driver. Dr. Collins suggested starting small and supporting the suborbital tourism market in order to position the industry to expand to orbital. We also talked about government support for the industry and compared it to the way government supports other industries or even bails them out when they get into trouble. Dr. Collins also spoke about both the educational and inspirational factors associated with space tourism and how important it was for people around the world since most want to go to space. He bases this on the studies he cited on air. During the show, we digressed to discussions about space solar power in Japan, the US, and also along the equatorial zones. You will want to hear what he has to say about the business case for space solar power. As a result of a listener question, we explored the topic of opportunity cost for a space investment and also the quality and maturity level of possible space tourism investment opportunities. You will definitely want to hear this memorable Space Show 1,000th program. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Collins, you can email them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward the comments to him.
Guest
The Space Show
