The resource that is lacking is WILL.

Call it "political will" ... "moral fortitude" ... whatever. Once the tech is available, the only thing preventing any group from making a large project like this happen is the will to do it. Which is precisely why we probably WILL have a Mars mission (manned) by 2033 ... but it WILL NOT be the government doing it.

Private enterprise has the will, the stated goal, is gathering the money, and refining the tech. Elon Musk is not the only one, either.

People routinely OVERestimate how difficult this will be once the will is in-place.

(Note: having the will to "do it" includes the acceptance of the RISK involved. Kinda like Everest climbers and cave divers.)

... features Lotus Notes and a machine gun.

It is the finest available.

Hey, my fellow Slashdotters!

Unfortunately, I have a last-minute obligation with one of my kids, and I will not be in Columbus tomorrow. Hopefully you several folks will still meet to hoist a pint in honor of the 15th! We didn't rate 15-year shirts, unfortunately (not enough sign-ups) but if anyone still wants a 10-year shirt (only XL) I will be happy to give you all one. (You can contact me via the email address listed for the party, or just through Slashdot.

HAPPY 15th SLASHDOT!

>Fascism: the merger of corporate and state interests.

Huh?

Where did you get this definition, or did you just make it up? Or did you transcribe it from the "Peoples Microphone" last summer in NYC?

I will check. Actually, I believe all of the 10-year tees I have are the same size ... it is either XL or 2XL. (Sorry for the lack of variety ... but it's been five years!) :-)

Look forward to seeing everyone at Barley's.

By the way ... although the system didn't seem to add it to the "official" party info ... I created a Columbus-specific hashtag:

#Slashdot15Columbus

Hey all!

I hosted a 10-year party, and have the t-shirts to prove it! The first five (5) people to sign-up (and show up) get a FREE 10-year t-shirt, in addition to the 15-year shirts (assuming we get some).

I will probably come up with something for us to do to commemorate ... at the 10 year party we brought 'unearthed dot-com era' items ... such as a genuine CueCat in it's original WIRED box! (ooohhh ... ahhhhh)

Of course, the selected venue offers good micro-brews (necessary for any respectable geek gathering). It will be happy hour, so beer is discounted and their (excellent) burgers are 1/2 price.

Feel free to email me with suggestions or questions.

Happy Birthday, /.

*sigh*

I get tired of pointing these guys out ... but if you do your homework you will realize they are the real deal ... and they are not rushing anything just to get some cheap PR. Eventually, I am confident they will succeed:

http://www.urbanaero.com

These guys have it just about there.
Won't be the vehicle for "everyman" ... but (a la Blade Runner) the military, police, fire & rescue, diplomats, etc, etc.

http://www.urbanaero.com

I have worked in the belly of this very beast ... and although much wisdom has been shared in this thread, the true solution can be found right here:

http://programming-motherfucker.com/

As far as adding value (and therefore commanding a better hourly rate) the "cert du jour" is arguably the PMP (Project Management Professional) from the Project Management Institute.

As the recently popularized joke goes:

Q: What does and engineer call a PMP?

A: Boss.

Of course, YMMV ...

"... we are long, long years away from any sort of "cruise ship in space" experience."

Well ... depending on how you define that phrase, perhaps not as long as you imply.

Just a bit of Googling illustrates the fact that an orbital "hotel" (okay, perhaps more like a rented office space available on a month-to-month lease) capable of hosting a dozen people at a time is at most five years away. (Bigelow Aerospace)

Once there is a commercial capsule available for transport (SpaceX, three years), and a habitable destination available for stays of weeks at a time for mere millions of dollars per person, then the phrase "cruise ship in space" starts to sound less and less ridiculous.

Based on current projections from SpaceX and Bigelow, some cocktail napkin figures would probably place a week in space at an "orbiting hotel" in the range of about $15M per visitor.

Definitely in the realm of "billionaire tourist", but already being regularly snapped-up at a higher price than that via Space Adventures, Inc. In fact, it is widely known there is more demand than capacity for such trips NOW, due to the limited access at the ISS.

However, this calculation ignores the fact that with potentially hundreds of launches per year, costs will be reduced significantly. There indeed will be economies of scale in the commercial space industry.

In just one example, such a destination could easily spur development of a large passenger module for the Falcon Heavy rocket, which could potentially transport dozens of people per launch (estimated at $120M). In addition, larger Bigelow stations to host more people are not simply a possibility, they are already in the plan.

It is not a stretch to imagine costs for a week in space coming down into the range of "several million dollars" within a decade, in which case the market opens to quite a large number of people.

I, for one, welcome our new commercial space overlords.

"You see, to be quite frank, Kevin, the fabric of the universe is far from perfect. It was a bit of botched job, you see. We only had seven days to make it."

OMNI rocked in all the ways that matter.

As mentioned, the sci-fi, the science, the palpable sensuality of it's envisioned future ... it was the death of OMNI which led me to seek solace in the emergent WIRED. For a time, it was a suitable heir.

And the death of WIRED (just try and argue that it ain't) has led me ... nowhere.

I'd gladly pay $36 a year for a worthy successor to either one.