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LuckyGuy's avatar

How much would you pay to for a short flight into space?

Asked by LuckyGuy (43691points) October 15th, 2021
39 responses
“Great Question” (3points)

I’m talking about an up and down flight, not orbital.
If you can’t come up with a number immediately try thinking: “what is too much?” Then think: “would you do it for free?” “Would I do it for $1?” If the answer is Yes then the price is somewhere in between those. Now move the numbers down and up respectively.
I came up with a number – that I won’t mention yet.
What is your number?

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Answers

Zaku's avatar

If I thought it were as safe as a commercial flight, and not a waste of resources and so a problematic environmental impact, I’d be willing to pay $300… maybe $500.

mazingerz88's avatar

1K and only if I can add 500 for insurance of 1 million if I die.

product's avatar

I wouldn’t do it – even for free.

LuckyGuy's avatar

These are great answers. I had not figured the insurance angle.

Inspired_2write's avatar

You might have to factor in the cost of travel to get to the area first and that includes transportations, overnight stay,food,and so on before you actually get on that flight into orbit.
Not to mention the training involved which takes time, your time as well which means more costs to stay at a motel and so on.
I guess I would have to have at least $2000 to cover all costs involved in arriving, sheltering,and feeding.

chyna's avatar

I’m afraid of heights, but I think if I was able to see where I was going, but not when I was coming back, I would do it.
I think my highest price would be $1,000.
Oh, and I would get to choose who was going with me. Total strangers would be fine, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck with trump or mitch McConnell.
Edited to add: I paid $10.00 to go up in a hot air balloon that was tethered to the ground. I think I was up there for about 3 minutes.

gorillapaws's avatar

Are we talking current technology? or in a future where this kind of thing is commonplace and has a safety equivalent to commercial air travel?

zenvelo's avatar

$750 to $1,000. It’s a short joy ride, so doesnt warrant more. They don’t even have food service or refreshments.

Even budgt airlines will get you something to drink on a flight an hour long.

@Inspired_2write What training? Do you need training to fly from Alberta to Vancouver?

rebbel's avatar

€2500 for up and down (a minute up would be nice).
€10000 for an orbit (like ISS, 1.5 hour)

Zaku's avatar

I’d actually do up to $1000 with the current tech, if I can get at least a rock-solid $10,000,000 insurance payout if I die.

janbb's avatar

@Zaku What would a $10,000,000 payout do for you if you die?

chyna's avatar

PM me if any of you need a beneficiary for your insurance and I can give you all my information.

mazingerz88's avatar

@LuckyGuy Maybe in 25 years fares will go down to 1K. No snacks. Lol

Forever_Free's avatar

Of course I would go up. I however would want to orbit.

Price – I’ll get back to you on that but I suspect it is a function of my expendable funds for such a joy ride. Maybe 10K USD

Dutchess_III's avatar

Take me @chyna!

janbb's avatar

@Dutchess_III I do not think she meant what you think she meant.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

Probably about 5–10k in today’s dollars. I really can’t afford to do it but what a life changing experience it would be

Kardamom's avatar

Zero. I would not voluntarily leave the Earth unless it was to save myself. I don’t fly on planes either. I don’t support space tourism at this time. Leave the space flights to the trained astronauts.

flutherother's avatar

I would pay a sizeable amount to avoid being shot into space. It has all the glamour of a carnival ride and is probably more dangerous.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

Not much sense of adventure here I guess.

product's avatar

^ Fascinating use of the word “adventure”.

rebbel's avatar

^ Intriguing use of the word “fascinating”.

smudges's avatar

If I had to, I’d pay up to $5,000 for an up and down, but would rather get it cheaper. What I really want is an orbit, and for that I’d pay up to $50,000. Beam me up, Scotty!

Blackwater_Park's avatar

@product well you’re a bundle of joy.

Zaku's avatar

@janbb It would do my family and charities of choice a lot of good.

janbb's avatar

^^ True dat.

Caravanfan's avatar

I’m with @rebbel although I’d go a bit higher than that. Same order of magnitude, though.

Kropotkin's avatar

Maybe if I were 90 years old, I’d do go for free.

If Bezos was coming with me, you’d have to pay me to do it.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Thank you for your answers! I have given this a lot of thought. I’d go as high as $5,000 for an up and down. I’d pay $15,000 for an orbital flight – maybe $20,000 if there was some kind of fancy insurance attached.
In no case does the market cover the expense. Right now the rates are about $10,000 per kilogram to put something in low earth orbit. For a 70 kg person that comes to $700,000 for a flight for which I am only willing to pay $20,000.
With customers like the folks on this site , it does not appear that “space tourism” is going to be profitable in the near future.

gorillapaws's avatar

@LuckyGuy I would guess the demand is not sensitive to the price at the currently available supply. If you’re a billionaire who wants to go to space for the adventure of it, you don’t care if it’s $700k, or $10m. That kind of once-in-a-lifetime, extremely exclusive experience is essentially priceless for those who want it—especially to someone who can have whatever they want.

JLeslie's avatar

I wouldn’t do it, but the newest one I heard about you float up into the atmosphere slowly to the edge of space. That sounds more interesting to me than a rocket launch.

If I wanted to do it, and it was the slow ride that takes hours, I think I’d pay as much as $5,000. I think the insurance is a great point. When my husband does a race car weekend it’s $2,000—$5,000 and includes insurance on the car, but injury or life insurance makes sense too. Life insurance actually asks if you race cars, i hope they would cover my husband if he died in a crash? He does it as a hobby not professionally, and originally when we got the insurance he didn’t race at all so we answered he doesn’t race cars.

The big negative about the slow ride is what if you feel like crap the entire time? Do they do a couple of weightless dives before going up?

Inspired_2write's avatar

@Shatner said the return to Earth was more jolting than his training led him to expect and made him wonder whether he was going to make it back alive.

“Everything is much more powerful,” he said. “Bang, this thing hits.

That wasn’t anything like the simulator. … Am I going to be able to survive the G-forces?”

Passengers are subjected to nearly 6 G’s, or six times the force of Earth’s gravity, as the capsule descends.

Blue Origin said Shatner and the rest of the crew met all the medical and physical requirements, including the ability to hustle up and down several flights of steps at the launch tower.

Source:
https://globalnews.ca/news/8261985/canada-william-shatner-space-blue-origin/zenvelo

JLeslie's avatar

Here’s the space balloon information. https://www.spaceperspective.com/spaceship-neptune

Kropotkin's avatar

Honestly, the reason I wouldn’t go even for free is there same reason I don’t go on rollercoasters.

Basically motion sickness.

I get very queasy and wouldn’t really focus on my surroundings anyway.

LuckyGuy's avatar

@JLeslie The six hour balloon ride to space costs $125,000. They will be profitable.
(I was thinking $5000 for 6 hours.)

JLeslie's avatar

@LuckyGuy The $5,000 was what I would be willing to pay. I heard it was $100K per flight, but if you read it is $125K then I guess that is what it is. I did not look through the website, I just linked it. When I saw the story on TV I did the quick math also and yes, it will be profitable if they can get all the testing and research done for the $400 million (if memory serves correctly) to build it and also service it with staff and upkeep for a while. That’s just 3,200 people taking the ride at $125k a pop to break even, and several people ride together on each flight.

I don’t know if a lot of the money was donation and grants that never need to be paid back, making the breakeven point even sooner than most business models. That is if they accomplish what they want to do as laid out in their business model.

More interesting to me was not the tourism, but the possibility of this method for science and discovery. A gentler space travel.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Fiddy bucks.

jca2's avatar

In a plane, there’s a sensation of not moving very fast. I feel like on the space flight, it wouldn’t feel like it’s moving slowly, it would have a feeling of “make it stop, make it stop.” I wouldn’t want to go, so therefore, zero. Even if I had 100k to burn, I wouldn’t go.

SnipSnip's avatar

Zero. I probably wouldn’t take the trip if I was paid to go.

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