Space Experience session

10/08/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

Xprize Cup update: we just heard an update on the Xprize Cup that included some minor details on the look and feel. Its very much taking NASCAR as a model. And, if the sponsorships work out, at least some money for those of us who would like to win some of the prizes in order to fund some of our development. The layout of the event area put the viewing public very close to the launch pads. There were several comments along of the lines of “AST isn't going to let you do that”. John Carmack said it best, “You want to do something that's exciting. AST doesn't like exciting.”

Now we're hearing from Dr. Pascal Lee (Mars Institute) but this is mostly a science based discussion. He suggested that the Moon is scientifically explorable according to the Antarctica model which made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I don't think he ment the politico/economic aspect so I'm not going to pick that nit.

Now we're hearing from Joe Landon about Yuri's Night. Joe is with the Space Generation Foundation. Heh… Yuri's Night is about bringing other communities and the space communities together. Specifically the art, music, dance and fashion oriented communities. No wonder ours didn't do very well, none of us had any artistic or musical talent, rhythm or style! ;-)

Joe Horsting (Intrepid Digital Design Studios) is talking about MMORPGs. Nothing new here for those who know what MMORPGs are. The absolutely funniest thing just happened. Joe was making assertions about costs to deploy a game and John Carmack asked for details and then disagreed with his cost estimates (they were really talking about two vastly different market segments). But Joe had no idea who he was talking to. He asked, slightly incredulously, “So what part of the gaming industry do you work in?” The room immediately fell completely apart. The biggest “lol” I've seen in a while. You have to feel sorry for the guy, but that was just damn funny.

Life Lesson #23: Be careful what you say because you never know who is in the audience.

Now we're hearing form Andre Bormanis who is the lead writer for “Enterprise”. I missed most of this because I was chatting with Carmack and Horsting in the back of the room about the gaming/internet entertainment industry.