At least three space-related venture companies are banking on the International Space Station (ISS) to become a new venue for satisfying the entertainment-hungry appetites of Earth's population.

Washington, D.C.-based Space Media is pairing up with Russian aerospace giant RKK Energia to wire the ISSs new Zvezda service module for commercial video. They also plan on digitizing the Russian space archives for distribution on the internet.

Space Media also will sponsor construction of a Russian module called Enterprise that will house a broadcast studio that will transmit to Earth entertainment from space via television and the web.

"There is a huge under-served space audience just waiting to find sources of material that is of interest to them," said John Getter, Space Medias senior vice president of creative services.

When the station's first live-aboard crew of one American and two cosmonauts goes up in October, it will begin beaming live updates of the progress being made on the ISS.

Another venture courting the idea of entertainment on the ISS is Amsterdam-based MirCorp.

Capitalizing on the surging popularity of reality TV, MirCorp is teaming with producer Mark Burnett for a television series called Destination Mir. The show follows more than a dozen people competing for one seat on a trip to the Mir space station.

Each week one contestant will be disqualified by the Russian space trainers. The guest cosmonauts will undergo rigorous physical and psychological testing at the Russian training camp, Star City. The winner will get a ride into orbit aboard a Soyuz capsule with two cosmonauts for a docking at the Mir space station.

MirCorp, made up of a sanguine band of space enthusiasts and a graying group of Russian space engineers, was formed this year to convert the empty Russian space station into an orbiting business park and vacation spot.

The first tourist to shell out the $20 million for a trip to the aging Mir will be 59-year-old Dennis Tito. The former rocket scientist who made millions in the world of stocks made his announcement in June saying the trip will "be my opportunity to realize my life's dream."

The space agency has teamed up with Dreamtime, a San Francisco-based internet company that will produce reams of high-quality images about living and working in space.

Aerospace giant Boeing meanwhile has teamed up with Russia-based Khrunichev to build a commercial space module that will include multimedia equipment.

"Were in discussions with a wide range of potential customers," said Mike Albright, Boeings project manager for the module. "Some of those discussions are with the types of entities that would look at doing multimedia activities."

But there are still questions of whether or not these ventures will have staying power because it is not yet clear how any of these deals will make money.

All are taking a different approach.

MirCorp, for example, is hoping its high-profile TV deal and first space tourist will attract an audience. By being the first to tap into an unexploited market, the company is betting that the market will attract more cash from Wall Street investors. MirCorp also plans an initial public offering next year.

NASA hopes that commercial revenue, including deals with pharmaceutical companies and universities doing scientific experiments on the station, will help cut the station's costs. NASA's joint venture with Dreamtime also may bring in cash from the distribution of new content and selling high-tech versions of space imagery.

Additional revenue could come from selling advertising on Dreamtimes website and from marketing Dreamtimes documentaries to television networks and movie studios.

Space Medias studio in the sky will produce educational and mass-market programming that will strive to tap into sponsorship and advertising as a revenue source. One idea, sponsored by sister company, SpaceHab, will be to pair student space experimenters with corporate sponsors who will get promotional space on websites devoted to the student experiments.

But even if these ventures can make money, is there room for all of them in low Earth orbit?

"The short answer is, of course," said Space Medias Getter. "We will just be giving audiences a choice."

"Asking about there being enough room to compete is like asking in 1950, 'Can we survive with three television channels in the United States?' Today we have hundreds," said MirCorps Manber.

The real question, however, is whether there is an appetite for space-related entertainment.

"This has actually come up in many conversations recently," said Warren Betts, a high-profile Hollywood publicist who has worked on space-themed movies like Mission to Mars and Space Cowboys.

While a studio making a film on space could benefit from a realistic environment, the question of cost becomes a big factor, he said.

"We can do it so realistically with computers these days for much cheaper," Betts said.

"It could be the coolest thing going," said David Card, a senior analyst with Jupiter Communications in New York. "But the question is whether they could create programming that would appeal to people beyond the hardcore space-nut fans."

Proponents argue, however, that there is a great interest in the education, entertainment and news value of what is happening in space. And they say they will succeed because so far there has been no way to broadly distribute that information.

"So far it has been space for the classes and not for the masses," said Space Medias Getter. "We simply want to expand peoples experience in space and these ventures will give audiences a choice to do that."

Rae Sanchini, who heads Hollywood director James Camerons production company Lightstorm Entertainment, believes that as demand for stunning visuals of space grows, it will drive the market for space-related entertainment.

"There are always better and bigger stories to tell," she said.