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Jeff Greason was scheduled to talk later this morning, but he had a situation come up that required him to leave earlier than planned, so his talk has been moved up, swapping with Masten Space. He'll be starting in a few minutes, and I'll be blogging.
[Update]
Oops! My mistake. Sam Dinkin is speaking first. He's showing a video the CSI "Lunar Tour" concept, using Russian hardware for tourist trip around the moon. Three weeks, including a stay at the ISS, for a hundred million dollars. (Note: Robin Snelson tells me she's offering it for fifty million--half price! That's what we want to see: spacefare wars.)
Sam contines to see games as a means to expand the market for suborbital spaceflight, which few can afford on their own. Games are self-financing. Spaceshot is a media company, not a space company. Hope is that with success, will be acquired as a media company, valuation in the hundreds of millions or billions.
Originally thought that adults would be the big market, because they have the money, but it turns out that they're jaded and the kids are the most interested, and they have enough money, if the game is properly repositioned. Expects interest to grow as flights and winners appear. Feels validated by his competition--Virgin/Volvo, Microsoft/Rocketplane/Vanishingpoint. Names were thrown away after games were over. His plan is sustainable, though, rather than a one-shot.
Flight to the moon will require millions of players. But Barbara Morgan has been waiting 22 years to fly on a government vehicle, so be patient. Notes that he is a little early to market, because Rocketplane XP is not yet flying, nor is Bigelow. Will be expanding to new languages (Spanish, Japanese) in the next couple years, new games and non-space prizes (cars, houses, cash).
I'm sure that Sam will correct/expand this report of his talk.
Posted by Rand Simberg at March 24, 2007 08:49 AM
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