 Games offer an opportunity for people who could otherwise not afford a suborbital flight to experience space and perhaps further humanity’s expansion into the universe. (credit: Rocketplane Kistler) |
Aggregating new customers via games
by Mark Boehme and Sam Dinkin
Monday, July 24, 2006
[Editor’s Note: the following is an edited version of a speech delivered by Sam Dinkin at the NewSpace 2006 conference in Las Vegas on July 22.]
Fans propel launches of television shows for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Star Trek: New Voyages and other new fan-produced television shows are not only possible, but easily replicable. Ordinary people can produce and distribute space voyage TV shows on YouTube, Google Video and BitTorrent that would cost traditional producers over a $1 million to produce.
Non-fiction space travel will happen at this scale in the not-too-distant future. Wealth and manufacturing capacity will increase until everyone who wants to can have a private spaceship like Paul Allen or a private space station like Robert Bigelow. Space travel will happen one day with or without my company, SpaceShot, Inc. It will happen with or without any or all of the announced rocket manufacturers and operators. The drive of humans to explore, to seek out and conquer the unknown, is too powerful to ever be stopped. Where one fails, another will succeed.
SpaceShot is not about doing something no one else would do, could do, or will do. We are about propelling the space industry forward, about making space travel accessible to everyone.
Innovation in technology advances faster, more efficiently, and becomes more reliable as more people gain access. The space industry will move forward; our goal is to help push it along a little faster.
Imagine with me for a moment if Henry Ford had given away hundreds of Model T cars a year using a skill game. More cars on the road leads to more gas stations and roadside business, more tires and oil, more parts and mechanics, all helping bring down the cost of owning a car.
| The human spaceflight industry is no different. As soon as we can start making space travel affordable for the general public, the sooner we will see humankind exploring the universe aboard a spaceship. |
Imagine if Philo Farnsworth handed out tens of thousands of televisions to winners of sweepstakes. More television sets lead to more viewers, more shows, more ads, and more profit overall. This helps bring down the cost of individual TV sets while sparking innovation as demand spurs competition.
The human spaceflight industry is no different. As soon as we can start making space travel affordable for the general public, the sooner we will see Moon trips affordable and possible, the sooner we will see Mars trips, the sooner we will see humankind exploring the universe aboard a spaceship.
SpaceShot will bring new people who otherwise would be sitting in the back watching from afar, wanting to help but having no means to do so. SpaceShot allows people of ordinary means to contribute to the industry. It allows them to build more revenue for space companies and participate in the excitement.
SpaceShot is an online skill game company that has the potential to award any space prize. Companies have an opportunity to create additional profits through a market demographic they would otherwise never look at—people unable to pay full price.
SpaceShot has the potential to build millions in revenue and be the first to bring space travel to people of any and all means. Space has room for everyone.
Mark Boehme is a speech writer and Head of Customer Acquisition at SpaceShot, Inc. Sam Dinkin is CEO of SpaceShot, Inc. and can be reached at dinkin@space-shot.com and 87-SPACE-TRIP.
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