Many space enthusiasts have similar feelings. But Bigelow also has formidable resources and a plan to change the situation. The Las Vegas-based multimillionaire says he will spend $500 million to build a cruise ship that will carry 100 passengers and 50 crewmembers in orbit around the moon.

Bigelow, whose holdings include the hotel chain Budget Suites of America, has formed a company called Bigelow Aerospace and is hiring rocket scientists and others to work on the lunar project. He hopes to bring other companies into the effort as well, and to have the spacecraft ready for launch in 15 years.

According to preliminary plans, the cruise ship will be roughly half a mile from one end to the other -- far larger than any current-day spacecraft. The craft will rotate slowly to provide artificial gravity at some 40 percent that of the Earth; the passengers will not have to worry about the discomforts of weightlessness.

Why shoot for lunar orbit rather than the more modest goal of putting tourists into Earth orbit? The moon, says Bigelow, "is sexier." He expects a "much greater volume of hands to go in the air" when a lunar mission is offered rather than a trip that provides "the same view of Earth over and over."

In any event, says Bigelow, tourism will "get Uncle Sam out of the field as the exclusive owner of space." Indeed, the Las Vegas businessman speaks scathingly of current government-run space projects. The International Space Station, he says, "is a huge economic fiasco, and it's not even fully deployed."

He adds, "If things continue as now, it's doubtful that in your children's lifetimes they would see the opportunity to go into space."

Bigelow intends to change that.