Paypal Galactic Creating System To Pay For Transactions In Space, So Interstellar Tourists Can Order 3D Printed Pizza On Mars

Paypal is creating a payment system for transactions in outer space. Yes, really.

Someone had to do it first...and Paypal being the one makes sense.

Paypal is leading a team of researchers, engineers, and space architects to create an Internet payment system for that sky ice cream you might want while in space.

After all, in a world where everything has a price, space travel is very expensive.

PayPal, the Internet payment company owned by eBay, is just the latest company to invest in space tourism. A growing number of Silicon Valley companies are developing ways to commercialize outer space.

The new company will be called PayPal Galactic. PayPal announced the new plan at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit research center in Mountain View, CA.

The new initiative is expected to include leaders from SETI and Space Tourism Society as well as the legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Many experts predict that there will be massive, widespread space development in the decades ahead. Orbiting hotels, restaurants, and stores are expected. People will be able to book week-long stays in luxury space stations and extreme sports on the moon.

Much has already been designed and funded for future space tourism. Companies in Russia and Las Vegas are designing hotels that should be in orbit in about three years.

Virgin Galactic is expected to launch the first tourist space flight in December of this year. It will include celebrity passengers such as Brad Pitt and Justin Bieber. They required a $250,000 deposit, but many people are more than willing to pay.

"This is not total fantasy at this point," said Anuj Nayar, senior director of communications and social media at PayPal.

"In five to 10 years people are going to be out there and needing these services", Nayar said.

Nayar says that when space is a tourism destination, travelers will need a way to pay for services like sunscreen on Mars or a 3-D printed pizza ordered to a space ship.

The normal infrastructure of digital networks that currently are used for electronic transactions will be well out of range from space.

"The one thing that's very clear is you're not going to be paying for it with cash," Nayar said.

There's no money in cash, after all. Only the US Treasury benefits from that - not banks or services like PayPal.

"That culture of mega-wealth and corporate prestige gets it. The money isn't an issue," John Spencer, who is designing superyacht "cruise ship" to orbit the Earth, said. "Some of these guys are very technical-savvy, very politically savvy, very wealthy, and they're doing it because they want to."

Meanwhile, NASA has stopped launching rockets because it can't afford to.