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#1 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 22:33:30

Here is what he replied to your comment Euler.

Hi Rob,
     
Your friend knows absolutely NOTHING about space travel or its cost or how to do it.  I have researched everything and it is all written down in my book (which is on the website).   Your friend simply guesses wildly
with no justification for any of his numbers.
     
I wonder if you have ever heard of Robert Zubrin?  He is a Mars enthusiast who has been trying to get funding for his "Mars Direct" manned mission to Mars for about 15 years.  His plan has received lots of news coverage over the years.   When he first proposed it about 1990, the cost was estimated at $125 billion.  After I published my book in 1992, I sent him a copy (my manned mission to Mars costs less than $10 billion).  The next time his plan was covered, the cost had dropped to $50 billion.  The last time I saw his plan covered by the media, the cost was down to a paltry $25 billion.
         
Below I have answered your friends ABSURD comments.
The cheapest way of getting into space right now is Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, cost $20 million per ticket.$20 million per ticket is obviously far more than the cost.  If you check section 4.1 of my book "JOBS for the 21st Century" you will see actual figures for the cost of putting stuff in LEO (and HEO).  The cheapest is the Energia which can lift 220 MT per flight. Since each flight costs about $1 billion, the cost is about $2066 per pound.  For a 250 pound load (person plus baggage), it would be about $1/2 million.As his website says, the cheapest that anyone has ever been able to send people to the Moon for is $10 billion per ticket. That $10 billion price was what NASA paid when converted into 1991 dollars. The thing is that nobody in their right mind would pay that much
commercially because the cost isn't anywhere near that.  Only NASA and the DOD pay that much for anything.
         
If you use the moon as a stop on the way to Mars, then the cost of getting to Mars will have to be more expensive than going to the moon.I agree that the cost of going to the Moon and then Mars is morethan the cost of goingto Mars without going to the Moon (which is what we plan to do by the way).  However, this does NOT mean the cost would be greater than $10 billion per ticket (see above). So he will probably need to raise the price by around 4 orders of magnitude in order to pay for the trip.Why would it cost 10,000 times more?   There is no
justification for this number - it is unsubstantiated BULLSHIT!    What is his justification?

Solar power is somewhat expensive on the Earth.Actually the current cost of solar power is about $4.50 per watt
where as common power costs about $2 per watt.It would be many times more expensive on the moon, not free.
Wrong!   Read my book to see how I can do it for FREE! Hmm...  the more I read about the plan, the more impractical it looks.

This guy obviously knows little to nothing about space development. Even assuming that he has all the technology to implement his plan (which he certainly does not) the infrastructure that he wants to build would cost at least $1
trillion.Why would it cost $1 trillion?   This is just his TOTALLY UNINFORMED GUESS.Ask the guy to show some figures to justify his numbers.

The cost of my plan is 1% of the cost of NASA's plan. I would like to get this guy's name and address so that when we leave for Mars, we can send him a GOOD BY SUCKER message.

#2 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 16:16:36

I emailed your last comment Euler to chris willis to see what his reply is.

#4 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 15:37:59

He says that that his androids will be doing the building in space.

#5 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 15:24:53

True, but NASA isn't behind this is because they didn't think of it first. I think that it will happen because he explains how he will build his facilities and other things on the moon. On the moon power is free bercause he will use the sun(solar cells). Also the labor to build everything is supplied by androids which he is building. I'm emailing him again for some more information.

#6 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 14:58:25

I emailed him before and he said that he might raise the price to 20 million. He says that 2 million is way to low. But there hasn't been any price changes on the site so that's good.

#7 Re: Other space advocacy organizations » Chris Willis » 2004-04-09 14:53:03

Has anyone heard of this guy's website. Chris willis selling tickets to mars and his offer is genuine. He's apparently using electromagnetic Propulsion System. Check it out if you haven't the directory to his ticket selling page.

[http://www.androidpubs.com/serv01.htm]http://www.androidpubs.com/serv01.htm

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