In the BFR announcment Musk promized that tickets from intercontinental rocket travel for the price of a current economy ticket.
“Full-fare” economy, which is much more expensive than even the “typical” international economy seat tickets you’re thinking of, but yes, and even outsiders don’t think it’s impossible. It is very sensitive to a lot of assumptions—third party spreadsheets I’ve seen say low thousands of dollars per ticket is possible, but it wouldn’t take many assumptions to fall short before prices jumped into the low tens of thousands.
If that’s the price to travel by rocket it would also be the price to go to a space station.
No; a space station trip could even be an order of magnitude more expensive. (Which I admit surprised me too).
An intercontinental ballistic arc can require nearly as much fuel as Low Earth Orbit, true, but some hops are shorter than others, and in every case the difference then goes through an exponential function in the rocket equation. BFR might end up needing half as much propellant on a mere transatlantic flight, and the whole “super cheap flights” plan is predicated on them reducing non-propellant costs to a small multiple of propellant costs, so that’s not a trivial change.
Also, an intercontinental flight can pack people in like sardines, with enough life support to go up and down again. A flight to a space station implicitly includes the cost of lifting and operating (and if it’s going to be big enough to be useful for a full BFR passenger flight, assembling) a space station which is roomy enough and well equipped enough for every passenger to stay a while.
Maybe there are some illnesses where you can benefit from being in zero g
This is a mainstay of classic Sci-Fi, but so far IIRC every effect we’ve found has been in the opposite direction. Zero G is like anti-exercise for the human body, like being bedridden.
and you can have your hospital outside of any jurisdiction.
This makes more sense, and (unlike the rest of my huge digression) gets straight at the heart of the post here, but I don’t think orbit adds any extra sense to the idea. There are a hundred little jurisdictions around the world who would happily issue the medical equivalent of a “Flag of Convenience” and waive whatever regulations you think are stupid in return for getting heavy investment and medical tourism. Even if there weren’t, and you had to go outside every jurisdiction, international waters a hundred miles offshore would have the (questionable!) legal status you’re looking for and would still be cheaper and more convenient than international space a hundred miles up.
“Full-fare” economy, which is much more expensive than even the “typical” international economy seat tickets you’re thinking of, but yes, and even outsiders don’t think it’s impossible. It is very sensitive to a lot of assumptions—third party spreadsheets I’ve seen say low thousands of dollars per ticket is possible, but it wouldn’t take many assumptions to fall short before prices jumped into the low tens of thousands.
No; a space station trip could even be an order of magnitude more expensive. (Which I admit surprised me too).
An intercontinental ballistic arc can require nearly as much fuel as Low Earth Orbit, true, but some hops are shorter than others, and in every case the difference then goes through an exponential function in the rocket equation. BFR might end up needing half as much propellant on a mere transatlantic flight, and the whole “super cheap flights” plan is predicated on them reducing non-propellant costs to a small multiple of propellant costs, so that’s not a trivial change.
Also, an intercontinental flight can pack people in like sardines, with enough life support to go up and down again. A flight to a space station implicitly includes the cost of lifting and operating (and if it’s going to be big enough to be useful for a full BFR passenger flight, assembling) a space station which is roomy enough and well equipped enough for every passenger to stay a while.
This is a mainstay of classic Sci-Fi, but so far IIRC every effect we’ve found has been in the opposite direction. Zero G is like anti-exercise for the human body, like being bedridden.
This makes more sense, and (unlike the rest of my huge digression) gets straight at the heart of the post here, but I don’t think orbit adds any extra sense to the idea. There are a hundred little jurisdictions around the world who would happily issue the medical equivalent of a “Flag of Convenience” and waive whatever regulations you think are stupid in return for getting heavy investment and medical tourism. Even if there weren’t, and you had to go outside every jurisdiction, international waters a hundred miles offshore would have the (questionable!) legal status you’re looking for and would still be cheaper and more convenient than international space a hundred miles up.