My fellow Spacetropians,
Last weekend, I'm thinking about MirCorp, you know, the company headed up
by Walter Anderson, 46-year-old American Telecommunications billionaire and
private-enterprise-in-space enthusiast. This is the company that
bought--or maybe rented--Mir from the Russians for 200 mil or thereabouts,
when the Russians were seriously considering dumping it in the drink. Well
ol' Walter, a guy overtly unimpressed by nasa and its enfeebled space
program post-apollo; a guy who like many, thinks the unfulfilled promises
of moon bases and mars colonies was a betrayal of the essence of the
American spirit, was pleased as Libertarian punch to be able to poke a
sharp stick in ol nasa's eye, by getting Mir-plus-support-services on the
Private enterprise cheap--compared to Nasa's govt bloated ISS
invoice-in-general, and the
thoroughly-gouged-by-the-Russians'-overbilling-for-ISS-support-services in
particular--plus poking ol nasa in the other eye by dashing their hopes
that the ISS would be the one-and-only game in town, space-station-wise.
Well, jazzed about this little adventure, I'm pleasantly fondling the big
question, "How does MirCorp turn a profit? Okay, you've got a space
station. Major first hurdle behind you. Now what's the strategy that gets
the cash register a jinglin'?"
Easy clue number number one: Mir, a space station, is about space
exploration, is about the excitement of the future. Excitement attracts
eyeballs: so naturally we're looking at entertainment and advertising.
Sell those eyeballs. Advertising logos on the sides of the station.
Inflated mylar billboard balloons tethered by threads in a constellation
around the station. Televised photos of same broadcast with other content
from MirTV.
Then I thinkin', a buck-a-pop lottery to sell a slot on the station.
That's the ticket. Why should millionaires be the only ones to get a
chance at the high frontier. Besides, from a business perspective a
lottery opens up the market. Why should MirCorp limit itself only to
millionaires, when millions of regular joes and janes regularly pony up for
the chance at the other sort of lottery dream?
And then it hits me. Survivor. Oh, yeah! A reality-based tv show ala
Survivor where a the prize is a trip on Mir, and the competition is, quite
obviously, the cosmonaut training program. Bingo! That's the ticket.
Gotta get ol' Walter on the horn, and get myself a piece of this action.
Saturday night this stroke of genius came to me, since which time I've been
gleefully sharing it with my various buds.
Then tonight, Tuesday, I'm online, checkin' out my regulars, and I drop in
on slashdot, and I find this:
Destination Mir will Launch on
NBC
Mark Burnett, producer of the hit show "Survivor",
has sold the rights to his new show, "Destination
Mir" to NBC for $40 million. The show will
follow a
group of 13-15 would-be cosmonauts as they train
for a trip to the Mir space station. Each week, a
contestant will be removed by Russian Space
Officials until the final winner is launched
into orbit
on a special, live broadcast. Half of the money
will
go to MirCorp, to help cover the costs of the
trip.
As part of the deal, NBC has agreed to run an hour
long, Burnett-produced show about Dennis Tito,
the businessman who paid $20 million for the
chance to fly on Mir next year. "Destination Mir"
will air in late 2001, early 2002.
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Ok, fine. I never said it wasn't obvious. Now where do I go to sign up?
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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