Eric Haakonstad, right, program manager for the valley-based Bigelow Aerospace Genesis 1 inflatable spacecraft, talks Thursday to Alan Boyle, second from right, science editor for MSNBC, during a tour of the mission control facility. Robert Bigelow, the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, invited the media to tour his North Las Vegas facility as part of the NewSpace 2006 conference. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Thursday tours the Atomic Testing Museum during a break from the NewSpace 2006 conference. Aldrin, who was the second man to step onto the moon, said he is bullish about the possibilities of commercial space tourism. Thursday was the 37th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Aldrin went to the museum at the invitation of Dr. Lonnie Hammargen, who knows Aldrin from when he was a NASA flight surgeon. Hammargren, running for lieutenant governor, said advocating for a commercial space launch facility at the Nevada Test Site is part of his campaign platform. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Lunar mining colonies, space cruise ships and orbiting solar power plants remain futuristic dreams, but they'll soon be money-making realities. Just ask the rocket scientists meeting this week in Las Vegas.

Naysayers need only look back 20 years, supporters say, to find evidence of other technologies once dismissed as too far-fetched for everyday use.

But consumer demand rapidly pulled the Internet out of university backrooms and military bunkers, and today nearly 70 percent of U.S. homes pay for broadband service.

Likewise, the makers of pocket-sized wireless communication devices and Global Positioning System gadgets discovered vast consumer audiences that until recently didn't exist.

Those successes help explain why some of the world's best-known businesses are examining different ways to earn cash outside the atmosphere.

The Flamingo Las Vegas has become the unlikely epicenter of space-based commerce by hosting the third Lunar Commerce Executive Roundtable.

The three-day event brought together 75 or so aerospace leaders, bankers and academics in a cooperative effort to develop new commercial applications and activities in space.

Businesses now make money in space primarily from satellite services or by operating the vehicles that put such equipment into orbit.

Future industrial markets could include space-based power plants, whose collected solar energy would be beamed down to Earth, as well as the construction and operation of orbiting platforms housing research, entertainment or manufacturing.

Revenue also could come from industrial activities on the lunar surface; enhanced transportation methods between the Earth and space; and improved communication and navigation technologies, participants said.

"Surprisingly enough, a lot of these things can be done near-term," said Paul Eckert, who develops space business strategies for Boeing Co. "You've heard of Mr. Bigelow."

That would be Robert Bigelow, who has used riches earned from his Budget Suites of America motel chain to fund Bigelow Aerospace, a North Las Vegas-based venture that last week launched the unmanned Genesis I spacecraft.

The company's spacecraft soon could house for-profit human activities including lodging, laboratory work and astronaut training.

Government has historically financed space exploration, a practice President Bush reaffirmed with his January 2004 announcement of a $12 billion, five-year plan to boost NASA's short-term operations.

But an influx of private capital must follow for the new space race to truly fly, participants said.

"The technology exists today. The investment is lacking," said Randy Lovell, space systems business and strategy development manager for Northrop Grumman Corp.

It will require hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, in investment before some space-based businesses become profitable. Nonetheless, space tourism, advertising and branding efforts already have occurred and could become space's next viable industries, Lovell said.

Examples include Pasadena, Calif.-based Ecliptic Enterprises Corp., which sells photos taken by its RocketCam to media outlets and educational institutions.

Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites collects advertising revenue by placing logos for 7UP soda and M&M's candy on SpaceShipOne, a privately funded manned space program based in Mojave, Calif.

Looking forward, Bigelow Aerospace is accepting reservations to place mementos within the Genesis II spacecraft scheduled to launch later this year.

Those who pay $295 will see their trinkets float in zero gravity via onboard Internet cameras.

If all goes well, accessible space vacations will follow.

"Long-term we're talking cruise ships to the moon," said Lovell, who expects 5 million passengers to travel in space before 2030.

Linda Karanian, space exploration director for Lockheed Martin, said environmental issues will drive orbiting power plants and mineral mining on the moon.

"We're starting to overuse our own planet," she said. "I think there will be a demand for it."

Should business in space become profitable for investors, Karanian believes interest in math and science would surge among U.S. students because those skills are required to work in the space industry.

NASA's efforts have made it easier for the commercial sector to reach for the stars, though Karanian and Eckert each stressed the importance of continued international cooperation.

"One country cannot take sole ownership of (space exploration) and assume that the rest will follow," Karanian said.

Interest in space isn't confined to industry. The Flamingo is also hosting NewSpace 2006, a separate-but-similar event organized by the Nyack, N.Y-based Space Frontier Foundation.

Attendees of that five-day gathering will brush up on topics such as personal risks associated with space travel, lunar exploration and -- "Star Trek" geeks, listen up -- how to have sex in space. Seriously.

Scheduled speakers include Bigelow; Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot from 1969's famed Apollo 11 mission; and George Nield, a deputy administrator from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

NewSpace 2006, which ends Sunday, is open to anyone willing to pay the $370 registration.

The Executive Roundtable, which ended Wednesday, was an invitation-only summit for academics and professionals from around the world.

Though it lacks the celestial associations of a Houston or Cape Canaveral, Fla., Las Vegas was selected because it's a showcase for the power of commerce, Eckert said.

"There wouldn't be anything in the middle of the desert if it weren't for high-value activities, mostly entertainment and associated kinds of things that brought people here initially," Eckert said. "That's a lot like what we might do on the moon or in space."