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First 'Space Tourist' To Bring Money Back To Mir

Posted by timothy on from the please-keep-your-hands-and-arms-inside-the-car dept.

Mugwamp writes: "An American man will soon become the first "space tourist" by paying $20 million to get one week aboard Mir. This will most likely become part of a growing trend, at least in the Soviet Union as Mir is funded by a private company rather than the government and needs money desperately to keep the station running. Additionally, in the same story is an interesting bit about how Mir will start hosting an "Internet portal" that will allow people to access cameras mounted on the tin can...er, I mean space station. Story courtesy of BBC News." That is an expensive vacation, but no crowds.

3 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Internet Portal? by fremen · · Score: 3

    Mr Manber said: "We have great plans for Mir besides the guest cosmonauts. It will be an internet portal. From a website you will be able
    to look out of Mir's windows and watch the Earth drift by."

    So, when's the IPO?

  2. What would you plan to do on Hotel Mir for a week? by yuriwho · · Score: 3

    10. Bring a few good books
    9. Bring a good sock
    8. Hassle the concierge relentlessly
    7. Scratch your initials on one of the windows
    6. Flip all the switches you can find
    5. Commit suicide
    4. Videotape your pranks on the sleeping astronauts and then sell them in an infomercial
    3. Piss everyone off with your incessant comparisons to Holiday Inn.
    2. Assume the personality of Boris Yeltsin and pretend to be drunk the entire time
    1. Drop a few hits and enjoy the view

    --
    no sig.
  3. Amateur SSTV has been operating for a while... by cvoid · · Score: 3

    The amateur station aboard Mir (R0MIR) has been transmitting Slow-Scan Television (SSTV) for the past 6 months or so. Check out the following links for some great images received from the station (the second link includes a lot of links to other archives of Mir SSTV images):

    http://www.qsl.net/wb8erj/mir-pix.htm

    http://home.t-online.de/home/mrensen/m ir.htm

    The cool thing about SSTV from Mir is that it is largely controlled by the station operators aboard , and is much more dynamic content-wise than stuff like weather satellites and stuff. They occasionally turn the camera on themselves, visiting shuttles, etc. Check it out, it's neat stuff. It is also fairly easy to receive and decode SSTV transmission using a soundcard, some freeware code and a radio capable of receiving the 2-meter amateur band. The following link has lots of info on SSTV (aside from the blink tags):

    http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~rraimb/

    --
    cvoid - satellites are cool