Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos licked by James Lick in space race

[bananas]

http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/?itemid=23140

Old-old-space vs NewSpace

Here's an article about the comparison made by NASA economist Alexander C. MacDonald of the scale of today's privately financed space projects with that of the big astronomy observatory projects of the 1800s and early 1900s: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos licked by James Lick in space race - Bruce Upbin/Tradigital/Forbes - Aug.28.10 . (Jon Goff mentioned this back in July).

Here is the paper: A Brief Note on the Economic History of Space Exploration in America, Alexander MacDonald (pdf)

http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2010/08/27/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-licked-by-james-lick-in-space-race/?boxes=Homepagechannels

Aug. 27 2010
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos licked by James Lick in space race
By BRUCE UPBIN
Photo by Andy Morris

The list of rich men obsessed with space exploration is as long as an Apollo rocket. The sums spent are long, too. Musk has put up an estimated $100M, Bezos is into the millions likely, Paul Allen spent $100M. Robert Bigelow, a budget hotel-chain mogul, built a life-size space station in his well-guarded Bigelow Aerospace factory in Nevada.

But Musk and Bigelow look like pikers next to James Lick. The wealthiest man in California (150 years ago), Lick spent more on a single telescope (in today’s dollars) than all of their investments combined. Lick made his fortune in real estate after the Gold Rush. He built most of downtown San Jose, Calif. and late in his life was moved to spend $700,000 on the Lick Observatory, finished in 1876 in San Jose at a cost of what would now be the equivalent of $1.2 billion (in 2008 dollars). The era of the tycoon-funded giant telescope lasted until the construction of the Palomar Observatory in 1928 with $6.5M from the Rockefellers. That’s $972M in 2008 GDP equivalent dollars (see methodology below). Most of these big scopes were built with private money, and most were built purely for scientific purposes. Musk and Bigelow seem like they’re in it for the money and the science. And why not go for-profit? The space industry is worth $250B, with great potential for entrepreneurs to take share from lazy, shiftless government programs.

These money comparisons were drawn out in a recent paper by NASA research economist Alexander C. MacDonald (yes, NASA has economists), who is working on an economic history of space exploration for his doctoral dissertation. He says the rich have always been a huge factor in space work.

“These guys,” says MacDonald of Musk, Bigelow and Bezos, “already made their money so profit is not really their goal. They’re also doing it for personal reasons. They want to see space as an option for humanity. I mean, there are a lot of easier ways to make money than in the space industry.”

<snip>

[gateley]

1. Don't know about Bezos, but I think Musk has spent most of his money on

this (after he spent a lot on Tesla). I like that guy.