Space Tourism.

[squire]

Personally, I think its a bad thing. Well, not so much BAD just, its not fair. Its not fair for the hard working astronauts who have have to study ALL their lives to go into space. Then some rich guy comes along, pays a whole heap of cash, and bingo, he's there.
Which means, now the astronauts have more work to do. To make sure that this 'tourist' doesnt touch anything or do anything. So ya know, heres the astronauts trying to do their job, which theyve been studying their whole lives for, but theyve now also got to show their 'tourist' what things do and all that. I mean, if you were to go into a space shuttle, you would like to know what all the little buttons and all that do.I think they have more to worry about than explaining stuff to this tourists.
But hey! Thats just me!

Squire

[padders]

Perhaps but that $20 million he paid will enable more astronauts to go and fly up on missions but as space becomes commercalised astronauts will beomce less and less of the dream job as it becomes relegated to that of a pilot. At the moment astronaut = test pilot but that will eventually change.

Totally agree about the power source problem Dave, that is probably the major change that is needed, and thanks for the link to that article

[Dave]

This is the sub-orbital craft that 'Space Adventures' hope to take you up to space in:

http://www.spaceadventures.com/press/031402.html

The Cosmopolis XXI Aerospace System (C-21) is designed specifically for sub-orbital space tourist flights. The full-scale model of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) was unveiled this week at the Zhukovsky Air Base outside of Moscow, Russia.

Can anyone lend me some money?

[Gaia]

Originally posted by Dave
Can anyone lend me some money?

<<<<turns pockets inside out>>>> oops, dave...don't think that is gonna get you there...<<<<lightbulb>>>> why don't yo start a "please send dave to space" collection thread? i'm sure if you promised to give ascifi a step-by-step report maybe together we could make your dream come true???

[Dave]

I promise to write up a review after I return

[Dave]

Another man, Mark Shuttleworth, is reported to have paid $20 Million to be taken to the ISS.

Russia is ready to sign on a third "space tourist" who will follow in the footsteps of American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth, a space agency official said on Tuesday.
"There are volunteers. Their numbers are even greater than we could expect, considering the cost of such an outing," Russian Space Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told ITAR-TASS.

NASA meanwhile have produced new ISS guidelines for visitors. These require them to speak English (and basic Russian if arriving with them) and to train for 12 months in advance. The Code of Conduct prevents experimentation on guests, selling of souvenirs for profit, and includes a list of unwelcome guests.

[Neo]

$20 million.... Its disgusting that people have this much money to throw away when we have disease and poverty in our world..

[Dave]

Originally posted by Neo
$20 million.... Its disgusting that people have this much money to throw away when we have disease and poverty in our world..

That is another subject entirely, and I agree!

But given that some individuals do have that much money, and that they are entitled to spend it anyway they wish, is it "throwing it away" to put it towards building the ISS?

Throwing big celebrity parties, racing motor cars or horses, flying hot air balloons on pointless long distance flights -- these all seem more like "throwing it away" to me?

And don't governments have a bigger responsiblity towards resolving the inequality in our world. Aren't they "throwing it away" too, by spending it on space research instead?

[Dave]

Whether we agree or not, Space Tourism is now an established part of the setup. This report says that the Russians would be crippled without this western money to supplement their own.

(from Space.com)
Soyuz Rocket Launches Shuttleworth into Orbit, Space Station Next Stop

By Mara D. Bellaby
Associated Press

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- The world's second space tourist lifted off Thursday on a Russian rocket from the Baikonur launchpad in Central Asia, heading for the International Space Station.

The Soyuz-U rocket blasted off at 2:27 a.m. EDT (0627 GMT) carrying Mark Shuttleworth, a 28-year-old South African Internet magnate, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko and Italian Air Force pilot Roberto Vittori on a 10-day mission.

The launch went smoothly and as scheduled, and the rocket reached orbit about eight minutes later, officials at mission control outside Moscow announced immediately after liftoff.

The 161-foot (49-meter) Soyuz-U booster delivered the Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft into an orbit that will lead to a docking with the frontier outpost Saturday at 3:57 a.m. EDT (0757 GMT). The docking will be carried live on NASA TV.

Shuttleworth paid $20 million for the journey, which began from the same cosmodrome in now-independent Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union inaugurated the space race, sending up the world's first satellite in 1957 and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, four years later.

The money will be paid in installments that will be complete only after the team returns to Earth on May 5.

Shuttleworth admitted to feeling a bit jittery about his voyage into orbit, a trip that he's been dreaming about since childhood.

"I have some nervousness and some anxiety _ I am not a professional astronaut,'' Shuttleworth said on the eve of the launch.

This team's mission, named "Marco Polo,'' is to drop off a fresh Soyuz spacecraft to the space station. A Soyuz is kept docked as a lifeboat and replaced every six months.

"We are ready. We are sure of ourselves and our hardware,'' flight commander Gidzenko, the only one on the crew with space experience, told journalists Wednesday.
Shuttleworth is following in the footsteps of American businessman Dennis Tito, who became the first space tourist last year when he went to the international station on a Russian rocket. But Shuttleworth is determined that the world consider him more than just a passenger.

He has spent eight months in grueling training with the other cosmonauts, learned Russian so he can communicate with mission control outside Moscow and attended one week's worth of lessons at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Shuttleworth also received lessons from a South African scientist who needs his help to conduct experiments on how sheep and mice stem cells react in zero-gravity.

Stem cells are the body's master repair cells, and they can develop into a wide variety of different cell and tissue types that researchers are working to develop as treatments for various diseases.

Shuttleworth wore a patch Wednesday on his blue spacesuit bearing the red ribbon symbolizing the fight against AIDS, saying that he hoped some of the experiments will in "some small way'' help in the battle.

Struggling to keep alive their once world-leading space program, the Russians began exploring alternative sources of funding after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In addition to offering seats to paying riders, the Russians have courted Western companies eager for a chance to work in the world's oldest space facility.

"The Russians were near starving. Five or 10 years ago it looked like they were all going to disappear, but now Western money has come in and things are looking brighter,'' said James Oberg, a U.S. expert on the Russian space program.

Shuttleworth said he is grateful for the chance the Russians offered him.

"I believe we are stretching the boundaries of the cosmos and in the next few years, I believe we will make the cosmos even more accessible,'' he said.

[Technomage]

I think it's a good thing, too, as the money he is paying the Russians is helping to keep them afloat. I think the Americans should be grateful that it isn't them who are having to bail the Russians out.

Actually, I don't think the Americans are upset by it, but they have to make disapproving noises so they aren't bombarded by people wanting to do the same.

[Dave]

Were you aware that there had been symposiums on space tourism?

I found this article which suggests a model for the development of space tourism along the lines of cruise ships, and concludes that cruise ship companies should quickly get in on the act.

http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/s..._analogy.shtml

[sidewinder]

its a nice dream but until the launch costs can be lowered it will remain a dream.

[Dave]

I don't think it is that much of a dream, if this is built it would be fairly easy to get people into orbit, and from there the costs of travel to the moon and planets is much lower.

Going up? Space elevator wins support

Canadian National Post. Tuesday, August 13, 2002 -- The fantastic notion of a space elevator -- a concept that first appeared in a Russian technical journal in the early 1960s and then crept into the works of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in the 1970s -- could be a reality before long.

Seattle-based HighLift Systems is hosting a conference this week to meet with investors and other parties potentially interested in a device that could open the final frontier to the masses within 15 years because of the space elevator's relatively low costs and extremely high traffic volume.

NASA has given HighLift a US$570,000 grant to continue research into the elevator and the company has received an indication of support from the European Space Agency, which has representatives attending the Seattle conference.

"With a system as inexpensive as ours, every nation could have a space program. Most universities could have a space program. And a few corporations could have their own space program," said Michael Laine, the company's president.

"We're bringing it down to the level where maybe not everybody, but an awful lot of people can have access to space in a realistic way."

HighLift Systems' space elevator would not be quite the same as that of Mr. Clarke's imagination.

Unlike the science fiction version, this space elevator need not be anchored improbably both to Earth and an asteroid.

Instead, it would be tethered just to Earth from a floating platform in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

From there, a 100,000-kilometre-long ribbon about one metre wide with the thickness of a sheet of paper would be propelled by rockets beyond the point in space where orbiting objects remain above a fixed point on the Earth's surface, the so-called geosynchronous orbit.

The elevator would be kept in place by the competing forces of gravity at the lower end of the shaft, and, at the far end, outward acceleration.

Mechanical climbers, powered by an electric motor, would scale the ribbon, hauling the cargo thousands of kilometres before catapulting the payload, which could include anything from satellites to human passengers, to its destination.

Travelling at average speeds of anywhere from 120 km/h to 160 km/h, the length of a voyage to low Earth orbit might be as brief as four hours.

A longer trip into the geosynchronous orbit would probably last a week.

Of the technology required to construct the US$10-billion elevator, the only piece that does not exist is the material that would constitute the ribbon -- carbon nanotube composite.

Mr. Laine said the material, expected to be highly conductive and 30 times stronger than steel, is not yet in production, but a Japanese car company is planning to begin producing it for use in the bodies of its vehicles.

Expected to be operational in 15 years, the space elevator's biggest advantage is the tonnage it can deliver.

"We expect to be able to lift five tonnes of cargo every day and ... we're going to do about 250 trips, or 1,200 tonnes of cargo a year. That compares to the space shuttle, which is able to launch 20 tonnes at a time, but only six times a year," Mr. Laine said.

The space elevator would offer more destinations to its customers at about one one-100th the cost of using the space shuttle.

"The shuttle has a very limited capability of lower orbit. Our system allows you to go lowest orbit, to geosynchronous orbit and you could use it as a slingshot to send you to to other destinations like Mars or Venus or asteroids."

That is why potential private-sector investors attending the Seattle conference include Fortune 100 companies whose interests lie in everything from energy to communications to manufacturing.

The public sector has already chipped in.

Perhaps the project's most impressive endorsement of all comes from the man whose writing inspired the development of the elevator.

In a letter to the editor in the April, 2001, issue of Scientific American, Mr. Clarke offered his support for the space project.

"When (not if!) the space elevator is built, the cost of reaching stationary orbit will be virtually zero," the veteran science fiction author said.

THE SPACE ELEVATOR:

A 100,000-kilometre-long ribbon, with one end attached to the Earth and the other end in space, relies on the competing forces of gravity and centripetal acceleration to remain taut over a single position. The estimated cost is less than U.S.$10-billion.

THE CLIMBER: A climber proceeds to the far end of the ribbon and releases, having sufficient energy to escape from Earth's gravity and travel to the Moon, Mars or Venus.

THE LASER: The climber is powered using a laser that beams at photo cells on the climber's underside. The power is converted to electricity, which is used by conventional electric motors and set of rollers to pull the climber up the ribbon at speeds up to 200 km/hr.

THE ANCHOR: The proposed anchor zone is in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, where high winds and fierce storms are not common.

Source: Highlift Systems

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/s...A-89F43CB4E588

[sidewinder]

thats a great idea but as Arthur C Clarke said the on biggest problem with the space elevator is the orbiting space junk so space would have to be cleaned up first.

[EmilyH]

I'd love to go, but I probably wouldn't be able to do the zero-G training without getting sick to my stomach.

I think the reason NASA is against it is cause they don't want rich folks going up and getting in their way and not being really trained to do anything, not for any political reasons or anything.