Slashdot Mirror

I wonder why some are trying to sell suborbital fly and (almost) noone is selling 'vomit comet' rides to the normal guys: this should be a lot more affordable!

Peter Diamandis, the organizer of the X-Prize, recently started a company called ZERO-G which sells "vomit comet" rides for $3,750 each. Flights leave from Fort Lauderdale, Florida every month or so, with 15 low-gravity or zero-gravity flight parabolas. A number of notable folks have already flown on it, such as Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan, and id Software's John Carmack.

Soon, just keep checking the ZeroG website.

Just as a quick FYI, when I tried to go to the main page in Firefox/Linux, I just got a blank screen, presumably because of Flash/Shockwave. You folks might want to add a normal link at the bottom of the splash screen to a page like this.

Individual seats are about $3,700 as noted by FleaPlus, but it is possible to book an entire flight for parties, which we've done a few times now.

For the researchers, we have successfully flown with NASA out of Ellington Field in Houston and are currently making flights available to NASA and individual (private & academic) researchers.

Lastly, I'd like to point out that we're really striving to reduce the price for each individual seat. Keep your eyes on the website over this year to see what we're able to do.

Have any questions? Look me up and drop me an email.

Here's a link to some of the photos taken on board with some of our tourists: zero-g.smugmug.com

Here's a link to a recent local news video covering our very first flights from KSC: www.wesh.com/spacenews/5267185/detail.html

And, for those of you who watched American TV last night, you would have seen us on NBC's Three Wishes and if you're really a couch potato, you've seen us on The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, and The Rebel Millionare

The article didn't have too much info on Zero-G's service, so I thought I'd chime in. Basically, Zero-G sells flights on their modified Boeing 727 at $3,750 each. Each flight has a total of 15 parabolas, which alternate between 1.8 g's and either zero g's, lunar g's, or martian g's; each of the low/zero gravity periods lasts 30 seconds.

John Carmack, of id Software fame, flew with Zero-G last year and wrote down some of his thoughts. He was pretty pleased with it, and got some ideas for his spaceflight company. He also recorded a video of messing around in zero-gravity. Here's an excerpt from his write-up:

The time went by so quickly that you completely forgot half the things you planned on trying. A couple of us were doing low gravity judo throws, and I took a shot at the worlds first flying armbar in zero gravity (didn't work out too well). Most of us that were doing fairly aggressive bouncing around landed on our heads at least once, so I have some concern that they will eventually have someone test the liability waiver. The bottom line is that I highly recommend the experience, and I am almost certainly going to do it again at some point.

The article didn't have too much info on Zero-G's service, so I thought I'd chime in. Basically, Zero-G sells flights on their modified Boeing 727 at $3,750 each. Each flight has a total of 15 parabolas, which alternate between 1.8 g's and either zero g's, lunar g's, or martian g's; each of the low/zero gravity periods lasts 30 seconds.

John Carmack, of id Software fame, flew with Zero-G last year and wrote down some of his thoughts. He was pretty pleased with it, and got some ideas for his spaceflight company. He also recorded a video of messing around in zero-gravity. Here's an excerpt from his write-up:

The time went by so quickly that you completely forgot half the things you planned on trying. A couple of us were doing low gravity judo throws, and I took a shot at the worlds first flying armbar in zero gravity (didn't work out too well). Most of us that were doing fairly aggressive bouncing around landed on our heads at least once, so I have some concern that they will eventually have someone test the liability waiver. The bottom line is that I highly recommend the experience, and I am almost certainly going to do it again at some point.

From this page:

Malaysia Could Be Hot Spot for Space Travel

Malaysia, according to a leading space authority, could be the next new focal point for space travel. Malaysia's central location makes it an attractive option for private commercial space travel companies and those interested in space exploration business, such as the Zero G Corporation and the Florida Space Authority. A 35-member Florida business delegation is scheduled to take a trip to Malaysia near the end of the month in order to look into investment and business possibilities.

Also, from an article titled Malaysia to launch five third-generation satellites:

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysia said it would launch five third-generation satellites from a site in the United States as part of its ambitious plan to become a developed country in 2020 and to meet defence needs. ...

"We are moving to become an advanced economy and communications is important to meet our economic needs. Now we are relying on other people's satellites. For security needs for instance, can we completely rely on other people's satellites?" ...

The third-generation satellites offer higher-resolution images. They provide specific and timely data for mapping departments in agricultural countries and geographical information for companies located near the equatorial belt.

"This (the satellites) is for the strategic needs of the country. For our economic and defence needs of our country, we must have our own capacity in space," Jamaluddin added.

So, I guess even if Malaysia doesn't have any launchers themselves yet, they seem to have satellite construction down.

If you told the "typical" American that NASA doesn't launch any spacecraft, including the shuttle, they would generally try to contridict you. Yes, you are technically correct that the people doing the launches are not NASA employees but rather NASA subcontractors, but that is really splitting hairs. The people doing the launches just go through a different heirarchy of management than through the Federal Government civil service appointments, and a few for-profit companies get to milk the Federal money cow a little bit more. Just more graft and corruption, IMHO, but that doesn't matter.

In terms of general voter support, most ordinary citizens still do support NASA, which is why there is still incredible desire on the part of people to view space launches (the Florida space coast always has its hotels fill up before a manned launch) and huge ratings for television networks that cover those launches for its news programming. That is some sort of support. As far as the P.R. stuff I was talking about... this is perception from ordinary folks, not to those informed about the real community. And yes, speeches by John F. Kennedy, LBJ, and even Nixon did indeed promise that eventually ordinary Americans would eventually go into space thanks to the pioneering efforts of the original astronauts. That is a failed promise by NASA, and one they don't want to talk about, and was a part of the sales job to convince voters to have several percentage points of the GDP going into the space program back in the 1960's. You can argue that it was to help fuel military spending as well, but that was not the bill of goods sold the the American public.

As far as actual revenue from "space-tourism", the best current example I can come up with is Space Adventures, which has indeed sold several flights into space.

Zero-G Adventure has been booking flights as well. Just for the "Vomit Comet" style free-fall experience, people are willing to pay about $4000 per flight, and they don't seem to be hurting for customers at the moment. Indeed, they are expanding into many other areas with more planes, and in particular Las Vegas seems to be the next major city they will be flying out of. Maybe they are Baby Boomers and greying Gen-X'ers who want to be "Buck Rogers" in their own mind, but these are still people with a passion that want to get into space.

And right now manned space exploration is indeed "non-existant". With an average of one launch per year, that is hardly anything to get excited over, even if it is an improvement over the past couple of years. That is even hardly the workaday grind stuff, but rather mismanagement to an extreme degree. Going into LEO was well established and perhaps could be argued even perfected with the Gemini program. The most ambitious manned spaceflight program that seems to be in the future of NASA is more going back to Gemini, with perhaps a return to the "Big-G" spacecraft that never got built in the 1970's except as a mock-up. If that isn't a step backward, I don't know what is. That is not exploration, nor is it pushing into new frontiers and gaining any new knowledge. Apollo did push technology, and indeed did discover some incredible things about the Moon and in turn more about the Earth itself. That there was some show about it, and perhaps it could have been more science oriented than it was is true, but real science did happen there and back elsewhen.

That is nothing. I think Zero G Adventures already has a deal with Vivid Entertainment to make a film. Of course that isn't quite the same as going into orbit, but that is only a matter of time. Just keep going to your usual websites for more details when the film actually gets made, and no doubt there will be some sort of posting here on /. when it does.

1. Space
2. Space Tourism
3. Profit!!!

There's a potential route from suborbital all the way to space hotels to lunar trips; that is mostly funding driven (i.e. suborbital profit is likely to lead to increased orbital flights, the technology is not really directly applicable, although it's quite closely related.)

• Flight ZG-28 from Fort Lauderdale, FL - Saturday, Mar 12, 2005 - $3,750.00 + Tax
• 
  Flight ZG-29 from Fort Lauderdale, FL - Saturday, Apr 09, 2005 - $3,750.00 + Tax

That, and there's that whole "seeing Earth from space" thing, which is supposed to be a very profound experience.

Anyways, X-Prize head Peter Diamandis's new company Zero G is now offering a weightless flight with 15 parabolas for $3000 - $4000 a ticket.

That, and there's that whole "seeing Earth from space" thing, which is supposed to be a very profound experience.

Anyways, X-Prize head Peter Diamandis's new company Zero G is now offering a weightless flight with 15 parabolas for $3000 - $4000 a ticket.

If so, you may want to consider to book a parabolic flight with ZERO-G.
John Carmack has taken the ride and seems to have liked it a lot.

The founder of the X-Prize owns a company that offers parabolic flights.
The hype that the X-Prize creates will hopefully get a lot of people interested in the flights,
which are cheap by comparison ($3k for a dozen parabolics).

If you want a new contest for emission free vehicles, organize it yourself.

there's Zero-G, which is offering flights now for just under $3000 per person. Ok, so it's not exactly going to space - but you get real weightlessness for the price!

Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) is booking seats for Vomit-Comet-like weightless flights. The 'ZERO-G Experience' has 20 parabolas--made up of Martian (1/3 gravity), lunar (1/6 gravity) and zero gravity parabolas--and costs $2,950 per seat. Peter Diamandis (founder of the Ansari X Prize) is the CEO.