2nd Space Tourist To Visit ISS In April 2002

Anonymous Coward writes "Another continent is represented in space: It has just been announced that Thawte founder Mark Shuttleworth is in the final stages of securing a seat on the next Soyuz launch in April. Press Release says he plans to do a lot of Science up there, with a whole bundle of other stuff. SpaceDaily seems to have broken it first of the commercial news, haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Go, Africa, Go! (Oh, and he reads Slashdot religiously ... Good Luck Mark!)" Looks like it's getting cheaper, too. I think it's time for a Slashdot staff meeting in space...

Comments

Re:Why is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't the eventual goal to have "average Joes" go to space?

Actually I think that this is a better way to fund space technology than selling the results of weighlessness experiments to companies.

Through Haggling, Space

[patiwat]

Shuttleworth had to go through a lot of haggling to get into space. For one, he had to cut back on his original plan of staying two weeks to only ten days. There were also difficulties in resolving what would happen if Soyuz failed to dock with the ISS - would he get a free repeat flight or not? In addition, Shuttleworth insists on being the first African in space - however, South Africa isn't part of the ISS consortium.

The difficulties appear to have been resolved though, and through the magnificent power of over $20 million, a just about anyone can get into space.

But please, don't by claim that now we have "geeks in space" - the original Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo astronauts were the original ueber-geeks, and their hacks saved many missions from failure.

The favoritism runs rampant

[dfeldman]

Space, like so many other industries and programs throughout the years, has seen tremendous advances in technology, accomplishments, and workforce skill. It is often speculated that eventually many people will live for years, or forever, on other planets or in human-friendly space stations. This helps ease overcrowding of Earth, and helps people experience new living environments.

However, it seems as though most nations' space programs don't feel the same way about that egalitarian vision. They don't think space is the final frontier for everyday citizens; they don't want space travel to become commoditized. NASA, and now the Russian space agency, want to use space as a perk to sell to very wealthy businessmen. They want money, influence with politicians, or both. Regardless, these agencies are using taxpayer money to pamper the rich, and it is high time to stop this abuse.

Mind you, I am not against rich people. My brother has a net worth of over three million dollars. I am simply against letting the government use its considerable power to reward those who have already been rewarded by the capitalist system. Why reward people twice for the same deed? I don't win an award or see the government kissing my behind every time I collect a paycheck. Why should really rich guys be any different?

Astronauts are hired because of their physical strength and courage, their technical abilities, and their personalities. They should not be selected on the basis of their bank account balances. We should work toward letting astronauts do their jobs, without interference from wealthy joy-riders who feel like they have to ride into space before they die, just because they can.

df

Re:The favoritism runs rampant

[Omnifarious]

Indulging a few rich people their fancy is the ticket for travel to space to become affordable. We don't try to get people into space much now because no profit can be made doing it. If a profit can be made doing it, there will be strong financial incentive to do it more and more cheaply, and eventually it probably won't cost too much more than a transcontinental airline flight.

That's the logic that's driven the semiconductor revolution to incredible advances in speed and minaturization. Mark up your advanced products, and sell them to rich people who want them, use the money to design the next batch to be better and cheaper.

Re:This isn't about making space profitable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes

And the PR is great. This guy is quite obviously doing something a huge number of people want to do, and he's doing something useful whilst he's there. Which is of course irrelevant, but true. Now the point is that he's not an idiot; he's likely to have a slant on what he sees there which is both different to the average selected astronaut, and useful. Clearly he's good at making money.

I don't see the problem, unless it's that certain Slashdotters just can't keep their elitism down. Personally, I'd like to congratulate this guy, and eventually do just what he's doing now.

Re:This isn't about making space profitable.

[Supa Mentat]

First a disclaimer, I am an American, not a Russian, these are just the facts as I have come to know them. First off, Russia spent a shitload of money on ISS, not as much as us but it was a significant contributor, I think second overall as far as money spent goes. Secondly, if it hadn't been for the knowhow that the Russians acquired with Mir ISS wouldn't have gotten off of the ground, their biggest contribution by far was the technical knowledge and experiance they brought to the table. Back to money though. What money Russia did spend it really didn't have, the Russian government is in economic straits and space gains them nothing in the short term. So they figured out a way to recoup some of their losses, Tito. He never even touched the American side of the station so Americans (including me) have no right to bitch about it. The Russians have gotten plenty of science done in space, more than us actually because for the longest time we didn't have a station and they had Mir. In conclusion, don't sell the Russians short. Their contributions to the ISS have been substantial and if they need a way to subsidize their part of the station and they can do it than I say more power to them. Neither Americans nor Russians are being kept out of the station because of these extra visitors, so don't worry about it.

Re:An awful lot of money?

[October_30th]

Well, it's HIS money and he can use it any way he wants.

If I had surplus money I sure as hell wouldn't use it to do what the government is already supposed to do with all the tax money they're collecting.

Re:This isn't about making space profitable.

[reg]

I think you need to look a lot more carefully at Mark Shuttleworth. While his motives aren't altruistic (if I was an unemployed, ex .com'er, and had $575mil in my pocket, I'd also be going into space), he nearly didn't get to go because he insisted on being allowed to conduct scientific experiments, and held a competition in South Africa to find the best experients. NASA's primary complaint is that they didn't want him doing experiements... It was OK if he just sat there and enjoyed the view.

I'd hardly call his trip wasting the precious US investment (which would have been a lot less if the Russians had built it, because they don't squander money like NASA).

Regards,
-Jeremy

Re:Why is this news?

[freeweed]

Why? Well, seeing as this is only the second civilian/paying customer/whatever to go into space in the history of human space exploration, I'd say it's pretty important.

Isn't the eventual goal to have "average Joes" go to space?

Yes, and considering NO average Joes will go until a LOT of rich folks do (think cars, airplanes, etc, etc, etc)... I'd say it is NOT going to happen overnight.

Re:No

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you live in South America, which is also America by the locals.

Of course, locals never know what they're talking about, right?

Research

[HavingToLoginSucks]

I'm really curious about what type of scientific research he intends to pursue while up there. Does anyone know what his scientific interests are? Anyone have any idea what experiments he intends to perform? Anyone gotta link or literature ref (CS research may be online, but the rest of science is laggin a little)? A curious chemist

'Nonsense' right back a'cha

[Dirk Pitt]

C'mon. I get so tired of these 'America is so self-centric and aggressive' posts that automatically get modded up.

Firstly, the USA is commonly referred to as 'America' because it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only country on these two continents that includes the word 'America' in its title. People would quickly grow tired of calling us "United States of Americans" or "YouEssAyans" instead of just "Amercians". This is the only descriptor I've run across, in my fairly wide travels anyway, for people from these United States. All of the Australians, Brits, Chinese, and Japanese I know refer to the American continents as "The Americas", and would never assume that 'America' includes countries north and south.

Secondly, oh yes, our 'predilection towards violence' and aggression is so unique in the world. The countries of Africa, Asia and Europe are just flower carrying peace lovers compared to America. Every country has their violent little toys, and likes to use them. Just because America can afford the most and the best right now doesn't make them any worse or better than any country of the often parental 1st world on down.

Civilians in space

[soundlord]

one important thing to note is that if Christa McAuliffe, a civilian teacher, hadn't died aboard Challenger in 1986, the idea of civilians in space probably wouldn't be as big a deal as it is now. More civilians would have likely boarded shuttles during the following years, and gradually the civilian population would have become more comfortable with the idea of having civilians in space. When this happened, the average person would feel that space was within his or her grasp, and the space program would have experienced more interest and increased financial support.

the Russians, perhaps without meaning to, are again getting average people comfortable with the idea of civilians in space, which might not be such a bad thing - they don't have the stigma of the Challenger tragedy to deal with, and their efforts might foster increased interest in space programs here in the States.