Billionaires, Rockets & Space Hotels- Oh My!
Photo Credit Here
Pictured: The Wizard of Oz "Lions, Tigers & Bears" scene.
"The size of glaciers, cell phones and a human's attention span may dwindle over time, but mankind's fascination with space travel will never wane. In fact, we're just entering the dawn of a new intergalactic renaissance."
-Bruce Furst, Founder of iROC [Intergalactic Royalties Operation Corporation]
We couldn't agree more - See EXHIBIT A:
Photo Credit
Pictured: 1968 TIME Magazine cover and 2019 TIME Magazine cover.
The race to space revved up from "a two-party sprint" as TIME magazine described their 1968 cover (above left) to today's full throttle race of the elite billionaires, private companies, and two world super powers that's as stacked as a Formula One starting line at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Let's have a look at this illustrious starting line up in the 2.0 race to space, shall we?
1) CHINA
Nothing like spring loading the future by investing in the minds of tomorrow-
and nothing like being told what to do or what's going on by a 24 year old female director. If American film is any indication of what's seen as "cool" or "bad@$$" during real world conflicts in politics or technology- it looks as if the 'formidable opponent /worthy adversary' role has changed face in the last 40 years...
Pictured Left: Ivan Drago (USSR) vs Rocky Balboa in 1985's "Rocky IV"
Pictured Right: Jiao Long in 2000's "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"
(No, we cannot site Gogo Yubari & her nun-chucks from "Kill Bill" because she's Japanese & this space race is about China as a contender)
China has also been the first to achieve landing "Chang’e-4, a small base station and rover*" onto the far side of the moon (Yes, cue the Pink Floyd song here...) in January of this year (*as reported by TIME).
2) Billionaire Jeff Bezos / Blue Origin
It is no secret that billionaire Jeff Bezos plans to stay more than a weekend on the moon, for full details of his lunar goals and plans-
See iROC's previous post:
3) Billionaire Elon Musk / SpaceX
Photo Credit Here
When he's not lending his rocket building facilities as the set of "Ironman" movies, snagging film cameos, juggling his passports of South African and Canadian and American citizenship, dating models and running through his office with a blow torch when excited- Mr. Elon Musk actually runs a space transportation company too.
According to the SpaceX website:
"SpaceX’s mission is to enable humans to become a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species by building a self-sustaining city on Mars. In 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel launch vehicle to orbit the Earth. Following that milestone, NASA awarded SpaceX with contracts to carry cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). A global leader in commercial launch services, SpaceX is the first commercial provider to launch and recover a spacecraft from orbit, attach a commercial spacecraft to the ISS and successfully land an orbital-class rocket booster."
SpaceX (founded 2002) sets itself apart from other space endeavoring companies as it was the first to re-use the same parts of rockets that had orbited and returned to earth- thus cutting costs like a re-usable FedEx envelope... only 20'x12' and 9,300 pounds (6.1m x 3.7m and 4,200kg).
4) Billionaire Robert Bigelow / Bigelow Aerospace
Pictured: Robert Bigelow showing NASA Deputy Admin inflatable habitats engineered by Bigelow Aerospace.
Founded in 1999, Bigelow Aerospace picked up where NASA left off: The idea of inflatable habitats was conceived at NASA but later abandoned. Robert Bigelow developed the technology and created BEAM: Bigelow Expandable Activity Module to increase the space for astronauts without hindering the rocket's launch with extra weight and size dimensions since it is expanded only after launch settles into orbit.
Bigelow Aerospace ascertained an exclusive contract with NASA to create these pods and also holds the exclusive licensing rights to commercialize expandable habitat technology. Bigelow Aerospace has also earned over twenty patents over last 17 yrs.
For a video of what BEAM can do, see below:
Funny what tossing $350 Million US Dollars of your own money into your own space company can do.
AND it doesn't stop there-
Tired of the same old AirBnB vacations?
Try a SPACE HOTEL:
It's only $25 Million US Dollars to lease for 60 days.
Looks like iRoc's powers to license and distribute music and entertainment content to those beyond the Karmen Line is needed more now than ever...
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