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Confusing news about public interest in space tourism

05.06.07

Zogby International has released a new survey that offers conflicting news for space tourism companies and proponents. The survey, conducted online in mid-March and released late last week, indicates that about 30 percent of Americans “are interested” in space tourism, although what “interested” means isn’t defined (interested in general? interested enough to participate if the price is right?) in the Zogby press release. However, the press release goes on to add that 41 percent said that “if money weren’t an issue, they would personally travel to the moon”, while 32 percent said the same about a trip to Mars.

Does that make any sense? If 30 percent of the public are “interested” in space tourism, why would a larger number be interested in going to the Moon or Mars “if money were no object”? Unfortunately, the press release doesn’t offer any further details, not a look at the survey instrument used for this poll, so it’s hard to gauge the intent of the respondents. (Other parts of this survey, which touched on a wide range of space issues, also suffer from a similar degree of vagueness.) While proponents of space tourism may be heartened to see nearly a third of the American public “interested” in space tourism, without knowing more about the poll, it’s difficult to say whether that figure means much of anything.

Not just a travel agent but also a customer

05.06.07

Virgin Galactic announced this week that it has signed up its first customer from the United Arab Emirates, Ibrahim Sharaf. He will apparently be one of the Founders, the first 100 to fly on Virgin’s suborbital flights. Not only will Sharaf get to fly to space, his company, Sharaf Travel, will be the accredited travel agents for Virgin Galactic in the UAE. The reports don’t mention whether Sharaf will be paying full fare—about $200,000—for the trip, or if he’ll be getting a discount as part of the sales deal.