No, I don't think we'll be transporting a great many people for quite a few years. One of the more depressing things that I got out of the SE Conference last month was the problem we'll have getting humans through the radiation belts on the SE.  It's slow, so they're in the belts for a long time, and they'll pick up too much radiation. I don't think this was ever said explicitly or even implied, but it sounds to me like an unprotected person going up an SE will die before getting to GEO. Even if it's not really that bad, it's bad.

It seems likely we'll need something like 30 cm/1 ft of water or the equivalent of aluminum to protect passengers during the transit of the radiation belts. I visualize something like a spherical shell with the minimum internal volume that the passengers can stand for that amount of time. Maybe they'll be in wetsuits, breathing through tubes. Other tubes for other things. Not much of a tourist attraction.

Yes -- and I believe it should be proactively acknowledged and "defused" before we see too much more press about people riding SEs, followed by a backlash: "you didn't tell us about the radiation!"

Greg: remember that your up-and-back is not much closer to orbit than Spaceship One. Until someone comes up with a good scheme to gain a quick 25,000 kph when "jumping off" at LEO, all SE talk should focus on cargo. It does no good to know that passengers could inexpensively drop-and-circularize from GEO if they can't get there.

In the long run, we need a heavy-duty SE that can either haul a lot of shielding or handle the stress of very fast climbers (back to the Smitherman maglev?) It wouldn't have to be that long after the first SE if the subsequent scale-up is as easy as we hope.

-Monte