My wife is a giver to University of Texas athletics. They find her some excellent seats that are hard to find priced at face value. IRS allows her to deduct 80% of the reservation fee. If the reservation fee includes the face value of the tickets, then IRS allows her to deduct 80% of the reservation fee minus the face value of the seats.

I think it is time to start university space sports foundation membership in which entitles one to preferred seating on spaceflights. This foundation should team with a spaceflight operator that can offer a limited number of seats to the public at bargain rates. E.g., fly to the space station for $12 million, but preferred seating reservations and a seat to members of a foundation that pay $20 million to join. Will IRS then allow an 80% deduction of the $8 million net reservation fee to those who join?

Another excellent title in the Total War series. Decisive Win takes its time to chalk up another detailed strategic and tactical analysis of this Sega game released for PC on November 17. In 26.5 turns with 199.5 to go, 45 regions are controlled including Rome at the very hard level playing the Holy Roman Empire.

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NASA’s announcement regarding their proposed Moon Base has been impetus this week for collective soul searching about whether the cost of returning to the Moon is:

• worth it
• worth more than alternatives

Can we all agree that if the Moon were home to 650,000 people and had a GDP of $100 billion that it would have been valuable to settle? Having a second planet makes the species more resilient to a variety of catastrophes. A new economy with new entertainment, travel, engineering and art would be a good value to humanity.

Alaska has 650,000 people and a state GDP of $40 billion/year. Wikipedia said that the US bought Alaska from Russia for the equivalent of $1.7 billion in 2006 dollars (or what Google bought You Tube for). It would cost far more than that to settle the Moon.

I propose spending $1 trillion to settle the Moon. It’s a lot. But if we disengage from Iraq, the US can spend that amount of money in about four years. How to spend it?

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“beyond the moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself.” President John Kennedy, addressing a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961.

And Moon Base dreams? That’s old news, too, according to Wired, 2004! How about some action “within this decade”?

I am glad to see that XCOR isn’t trying to build both rocket engines and space suits any more. Orbital Outfitters has won Greason’s trust as being capable of producing economical, safe space suits.

Part of why the world economy will hum along is that the drop in the dollar has accelerated the drop in oil prices because oil contracts are generally denominated in dollars. Stocks of multi-nationals denominated in dollars should rise. Import prices for the US market should rise generally.
Spaceflights are denominated in dollars too. Russia, ever the capitalist country, has announced a rise in the price of spaceflights (via Space Today).

Maybe the Russians read my last post on this.

I went to Mexico City to do a sneak preview of Space Shot 2.0. It will be an all ages game. The kids in Mexico City were really excited about science: both meteorology and space. We have cracked the code for how to interest kids in science. Even kids 10 and 11 years old.

During the course of the trip I lost my passport. American Express Global Assist said that I did not need a passport to board. That was not true at Continental Airlines. They sent me to the Embassy to get an affidavit of citizenship. Unfortunately, it was inauguration day so the embassy was closed. The gate person and the duty officer both said that I should wait until Monday when they opened. How about that for service! I checked out my options. American Express Global Assist said that I did not need a passport at the border if I drove across. My concierge at American Express Platinum said it’s 15 hours to the border by car. Now to Amex travel. They could book me a flight on Southwest from El Paso to Austin, but to get to Ciudad Juarez, I would have to buy my own ticket at the airport. Back to the airport, domestic. It’s now noon and I grab a cuarto libre at the McDonald’s and headed for Ciudad Juarez on Aerocalifornia. Amex (concierge, not travel) comes through with an El Paso driver to come pick me up at the Gonzales airport. Not too easy to walk across and get a cab on the other side.