Virgin Rocket Ship Crash

I want to keep my tootsies firmly planted on earth I'm very against space travel.

Did you notice the emissions of that rocket

It all depends what's in there. What comes out of the back of matters just as much as how much. S-II on Saturn V just chucks out a load of water, looks bad but that's all it is.
It's also about total burn time, it may, say, chuck out 1kg of carbon per second, but if it only burns for 10 seconds it's not as bad as something that chucks out, say, 100g per second and burns for half an hour.

So it's not any badder than sitting on Boeing...?

Don't have all the figures, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's probably better for the environment than owning you own car.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29861259

I don't feel like the Virgin Galatic exploding is a particularly good sign for space tourism. Personally I wouldn't even want to go into space (mainly because I suffer from hideous travel sickness and watched Gravity the other day).

How does everyone else feel about space tourism? Would you want to go into space?

How come?

Do you mean personally or just generally apposed to it?

If there was a manned mission to Mars and I was suitable, I'd definitely go, even if it meant not coming back. But not really 'space tourism'- it's going to space for the sake of going to space- not for research or science or the long term feasibility of space travel.

It's not going to remain $250,000 for ever, the price will naturally come down as more players enter the game and the technology matures.
In 1939 a transatlantic plane ticket would cost you almost $7000 in today's money (and take 30 hours)
In 1952, London to Johannesburg would cost almost £5,000 one way, almost £9000 return (again, both in today's money). You can do the same flight now for £1000 return direct, or just over £500 going via Abu-Dhabi

I know, but it still takes a long time to save money.

Then additionally consider how much faster wages go up vs inflation and then those old prices are working out more like £20,000 return
I wouldn't be surprised if space tourism prices fall event faster than that, I wouldn't be at all surprised if, by the time we die, it's cheap enough that it's fairly standard for the middle class to leave the planet, much like I expect holidays abroad to be commonplace for the working class.
And that's if we take current life expectancy, not accounting for the fact that we might have rather long lives if some rumours turn out to be legit.

Sounds worse than it is when you look at the number of flights and disasters.

If your worried about space then there are far more concerning things. Looking at the missions to Mars in 2018 and 2023 for example, the first will expose a pilot and an old couple to enough radiation to essentially guarantee cancer but that's why they want an old couple and to sling shot around Mars and back might be worth it to a lot of people. The second mission Is a one way trip to Mars to live there, except you can never go outside without a suit.. Ever... 200,000 people applied.

I myself.. If id spent the night on a space hotel above the earth (the plan for a number of companies) then it would probably be such an incredible experience that I could die happy.

And this is before we get to space mining which could be revolutionary.

I can't afford to go abroad.

A holiday abroad can be done for a couple of hundred quid now, there are few that can't do so now if they really wanted to, and the ranges for a similar price will just increase as time goes on.

I know. But you'd be surprised how many people don't have that much money.

200000 people?! Holy moly, don't think I'd be up for the one way mission there, especially after reading 'The Martian' by Andy Weir.

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And how many of those people could make small cuts and save a pound a week? Just £1 per week and after a few years it is there. Obviously within reason, if you really want something you will find a way to get it. It does assume passport ownership, which would be adding almost £100 more otherwise, but even so, the point still stands; where there's a will there's a way.

Haha you both have a lot more faith in it than me! What if the first voyage turns out to be another titanic?!

Yup, I'd be more worried about never being able to breathe outside personally.

The real big space news is that Kepler found 3000 planets and enough evidence for us to calculate that as many as 40bn rocky planets are in the habitable zone of stars. We have 3 space telescopes going up in 2017 and 2018 that may well find planets small enough that they may be habitated.