Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don't Know May 28, 2009

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Google Tech Talk
May 21, 2009

ABSTRACT

Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don't Know (And how soon will we be able to fly to Australia by hypersonic transport?)

Presented by Derek Webber

Space Tourism: what is happening and what are the trends? Will there be a point-to-point sub-orbital vehicle capable of getting from California to Australia in an hour?

How do we forecast a market for something that does not exist yet? Which of the current business plan assumptions are robust and which ones are flaky? If a hypersonic transport vehicle can be built, who would use it and at what prices? What peculiar logistical problems would arise from its use?

Derek Webber, Washington DC Director, Spaceport Associates.
Derek is a former satellite and rocket thermal systems design engineer, and former Head of Procurement at the Inmarsat mobile satellite organization (responsible for buying over $1 billion of satellites and the launch vehicles to get them into space). He was previously Managing Director of Tachyon Europe, providing satellite broadband services. He currently specializes in the commercial space business, especially markets and regulatory aspects of space tourism. Derek directed the ASCENT study for NASA, forecasting the requirements for the next generation of space vehicles after the shuttle, and also the Futron/Zogby market survey of millionaires' space travel intentions, used by the space tourism businesses to underpin their business plans. He has provided testimony to the President's Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry, and is an adjunct faculty member for the International Space University.