Rocket Science just ain't what it used to be folks: where the rocket jocks of the 60's had to derive formulae and work them out on slide rules, we already have the formulae and a good chunk of knowledge; lots of great software is out there now, based on the rules they came up with and the data they delivered. And now your home computer is more powerful than all of NASA's computers put together, circa 1969.

Materials science has progressed almost as rapidly as computer science. Composite structures of today are much lighter and stronger than the simple tin walls that provided the Apollo astronauts a barrier between life and vacuum.

Most importantly, now the private sector has become involved in space in a big way, notably through the incentive offered by the X Prize. Some two dozen teams throughout the world are using incremental improvement strategies in their vehicle designs, each seeking to be the first to perform two flights to 100 km up in the same vehicle in two week's time. And some are getting close: Scaled Composites space ship 1 broke the sound barrier five days ago; the first completely-privately-funded aircraft to do so. And other companies like Armadillo Aerospace are breathing down Scaled's neck.

This is all a very good thing. As more and more companies become involved in space launches (Mojave is turning into a spaceport) more and more of the support services that these companies need become available. This brings down the total cost. A further advantage of the clustering of these spaceports (Mojave, two in Texas, and the Orlando area) is that they become a magnet for talented people interested in becoming involved in space work, much like Silicon Valley did in the 80's and 90's for computers.

With two people already having paid their way into space, and two more rumored to be going soon, all at 20 million dollars apiece, there is definitely a market for space tourism. And it isn't a market for daredevils either. These are fairly average people who just happen to have a lot of money. Bring that price down geometrically and the numbers of people willing to pay will rise exponentially, at least until demand levels out. Considering that there have only been 450 people in space over the last 46 years, compared with the millions who would want to go, tourism is an obvious growth market, with a long time before demand levels off.

But to have a viable tourist market, there must be somewhere for the tourist to go, and something for him to do when he gets there. And a sensitive microgravity laboratory is not the place to bring a bunch of tourists. You need to take them to a place in space that is designed for their needs. What is really needed for orbital tourists is a true space station, not an outpost like the ISS. Something similar to the big wheel-shaped station in 2001:a Space Odyssey would suffice; it would rotate to provide a semblance of gravity in the rim, and still have microgravity in the hub. It would be large enough that the spin would be low enough to not cause vertigo (anything less than 2 rpm is ok).

But how does one build something that big in space? First, start with the biggest part of the STS system, the space shuttle External Tank. These tanks could be taken all the way to orbit, but are not as there would be no way to control them. Rather than wasting them as has been done on the past more than 100 flights, they should be taken to orbit and kept there, eventually assembling them into a ring-shaped station (16 of these tanks could be used to make a Space Island-type station. This does not even require a shuttle launch, as two external tanks (one fueled, one "dry", containing ~50 tons of cargo and an "Aft Cargo Carrier" containing the equivalent of space shuttle main engines and a large space habitat) may be launched "belly-to-belly" in a completely unmanned mission. So only 8 such launches (or 16 if the shuttle fleet ever gets flying again)would be needed to create a Space Island. Bear in mind that one external tank by itself is more pressurizable volume than the full projected complete ISS, Mir, and Skylab, combined.

So you build this lovely space island, and competition between suborbital companies eventually yields regular orbital transport, bringing your costs down... and your competitors' costs...

But tourism by itself is not enough. It will give a big boost to the space industry, to be sure, but tourism needs to be more than just an end - it is the means to an end, at least partly. But to really get space into high gear, industry must step in. There are plenty of advantages to operating industry in space, once the cost to orbit figure has come down to a reasonable level. Unlimited free power for one: the sun, she just keeps a'burning. Raw materials available everywhere, with no indigenous populations of snail darters for the greens to get in a tizzy over. Microgravity (think: ultrapure steel). Finally, no governments up there to tie up industry in red tape.

oooo boy, i'm just getting started...