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Nascar and Nextel have a new premium service called http://products.digitalorchid.com/nasca … ]TrackPass.
A few minutes ago, I was driving home from Starbucks with coffee and heard a radio ad for TrackPass at $9.99 per month.
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What if NASA actually went someplace (Moon, Mars, L1, whatever) and sold live on-line feeds of all radio traffic and selected telemetry for $9.99 per month?
Space advocates could subscribe and their money flows straight to NASA.
10 million subscribers is more than $1 billion dollars per year.
Charge more for video. :;):
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A snip from the link:
NASCAR.com TO GO Application Demo
This demo will show you how to use the NASCAR.com TO GO application on a web-ready phone.
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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Thats exactly what those guys who want to send a private probe to Luna want to do...
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Well, trouble is that most space telemetry is pretty boring and there really aren't that many people interested in the technical aspects of spaceflight. They'll watch launch, landing, and the occasional taped crew/mission control interview on the news. You could maybe get a few thousand or even tens of thousands of subscribers for a few dollars a month maybe, but I don't see this idea as raking in much money compared to its expenses.
[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]
[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]
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Well, trouble is that most space telemetry is pretty boring and there really aren't that many people interested in the technical aspects of spaceflight. They'll watch launch, landing, and the occasional taped crew/mission control interview on the news. You could maybe get a few thousand or even tens of thousands of subscribers for a few dollars a month maybe, but I don't see this idea as raking in much money compared to its expenses.
On one hand I agree, but on the other The Aldridge Commission did say that enlarging the presence of spaceflight within our culture is a "mission critical" task for keeping any program sustainable.
People are strange.
Give them something for free and they de-value it. Charge them even a nominal amount and they value it more highly.
No one will listen to the boring chats (I agree completely) BUT daily "highlights" might be more interesting and if you subscribe you are guaranteed to be able to tune in if something exciting does happen. $9.99 a month guarantees you can tune in - - instantly - - if you chose to and once a week you can get a succinct update on the highlights of the last week.
Subscribers can also be given the privilege of priority delivery of e-mail requests to the crew(s) and first acccess to photos and data before public release.
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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It would be worth something if they could guarantee you live streaming of the highlights of a mission....
Countless are the times I tried to watch live streams of spacewalks...
Countless are the times the streams died seconds before the airlock opened... Because everyone and his cat loggd into the stream, sigh... And the servers died.
I cannot complain, given horse and mouth etc. But it is sooooo frustrating!
If you had a subscription channel, they would know how many people they will serve at max, so being able to assure service...
OTOH... I watched the first SS1 flight online (not the X Prizeflight) and it didn't go down (the server, heehee) though the quality was pretty marginal... so you can always gamble you're lucky freeloading...
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I would imagine that a bidding war among the major networks, foriegn and domestic, would net NASA several billion dollars for a long term lunar or Mars mission. The revenu for ad space in an hour-long once a week show would be quite high.
As for telemetry, or a webcam style service, I bet they could make money on that too. Esspecially if they have like a daily mission agenda sort of thing. I'd certainly pay for it.
"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane
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You could create a program called Mars the adventure or something like that and as it has the only rights to info from the mission you could sell the program to the highest bidder and this could be done across the world. Any telemetry that news organisations use would have to be paid for. This program would have a daily spot while going out to mars and other missions could be plugged and then the special of course the actual landing.
Chan eil mi aig a bheil ùidh ann an gleidheadh an status quo; Tha mi airson cur às e.
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Great concept for inventive supplemental financing, with gradual upgrades to the service one could even charge more for what is recieved.
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