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Space Tourist Standards
Snuffleupagus writes: "I found an interesting story at cnn.com about NASA's new standards for civilian space travel. It looks like if you have a history of drinking, lying and cheating you won't be going into space anytime soon, no matter how much money you have. Looks like I'll be stuck here on Earth for awhile." The guidelines for future space tourists are on NASA's site.
Just like if you are a fucking unrepentant drunk you don't get a new liver.
Unless you are a baseball player.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
This applies just to the space station, it seems, not to space in general. The thing to remember is that NASA has no real authority over space -- It's just space, it doesn't belong to anyone. They *do* have authority, however, over the facilities that we put into space, so they get to call the shots on the space station.
Technical Writer?
These are the kind of rules that will never change
Come on. By the time you and I get into space (if we aren't too old), these rules will be changed over 100 times. Think about it.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Subject line says it all, really.
Commercial spacelines wouldn't be using NASA facilities anyway; they're too expensive.
Sean Ellis
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if you have a history of drinking, lying and cheating you won't be going into space anytime soon
And I guess that rules out most of America...
However, as with a security clearance, the fact that you smoked a bit of weed and took some mushrooms along the way probably won't hurt. If you have a history of abuse ala Tyson, then perhaps they won't want to include you in a crew that gets to spend weeks in a sardine can together. It just makes good sense.
Sometimes you really just want the wheat
Yeah, cause good ol' Bill isn't philanthropic enough...
And just how many people who don't "wholeheartedly support large corporate power" do you think have $60 million to blow on a 2 week vacation?
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
I wonder how much additional money it would generate if the govt had a "lottery" for space travel instead of a you-pay-you-go type thing. I bet they could work it out to generate alot more money per space tourist that way, while giving us ordinary citizens a chance to go.
I Heart Sorting Networks
They look up your police records and military records, interview you, and some of your (earlier) employers, family, and so on, to try to determine if you are a responsible person. If you aren't, then they won't risk the lives of other astronauts, important space research, huge amounts of money, etc, just to get you into space.
This is nothing but common sence. You shouldn't trust untrustworthy people. I fail to see the logic behind allowing Osama bin Laden on the space shuttle just because he has enough money.
As I see it, NASA has spent far too much time, money and effort in building a plethora of complicated guidelines that can be simply summarized in one commonly used phrase:
"We reserve the right to refuse admission at any time for any reason".
And that's it! It would be preposterous to believe that for all the people who have gone up to space on successful NASA missions, not ONE of them have a quality that would be seen as grounds for rejection according to NASA. They've simply passed below the NASA Radar of Morality (tm) - they're humans, aren't they? Don't believe for a second that there hasn't already been a pathological liar, someone who inhaled, or someone with a "questionable" (according to NASA) background or associations shot up in to space - they just didn't know, that's all. These are private details that people keep close to themselves, and save for any physical evidence there's no way to prove it without going on a witch hunt.
That said, I think this is a rather transparent move at introducing enough variables to enforce a broad refusal of admission policy under the guise of "keeping things safe and fair" while providing avenues for plausible denial in the case of some problems arising that could have otherwise be blamed on NASA. With such guidelines in place they've got carte blanche in these matters..