Slashdot Mirror
Tourist-Class Soyuz Spacecraft Seats Open
brandido writes "Put another notch in the belt for space tourism - Space.com is reporting that: "If you're looking for the ultimate in get-up-and go, take note: Tourist-class seats will be available on a Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station in 2004-2005. This off-planet trek comes courtesy of a deal struck between Space Adventures, a U.S. adventure travel firm, Russia's RSC Energia and the Russian Space Agency (Rosoviakosmos)." However, NASA has yet to be officially notified or to give formal approval, so there are still some speed bumps in the road map."
There's one problem and everyone freaks out (shuttle disaster) and there's a stop to everything for a while until it all settles down. After that, everything returns to normal.
:)
Space travel is dangerous. Explosions WILL happen. Review of procedures should be constant and thorough (that's a no-brainer). After any disaster, downtime should be minimal, not excessive due to overreaction and political correctness.
With that said, I'm accepting VISA/MC (sorry, no Discover cards) for donations to my fund for a seat on the shuttle.
and to think i just spent my life savings on a pair of shoes... better start saving up again
Forgive me if I ask something stupid, but why would this need NASA's approval?
I don't see it on Expedia
See, this is the perfect way to get rid of Senator Hatch and his "I'm going to destroy your PC" brigade.
find it disgusting that companies and countries are sending people up for profit to a space station that was funded by taxpayer dollars intended ostensibly for research ? Does anyone find it disturbing that lives of astronauts could possibly be jeopardized by having relatively untrained personnel on board ?
1) Oportunity
2) ???
3) Profit!
Ultimately, if it puts cash into the space program, im all for some rich idiots paying stupid ammounts of cash for it.
An infinite number of monkeys will eventually come up with the complete works of
'However, NASA has yet to be officially notified or to give formal approval, so there are still some speed bumps in the road map.'
Las Vegas odds makers are giving 2-to-1 that NASA will find a way to much it up...
I would like to see a copy of the disclaimer on that trip ... we will not be held liable for your luggage melting on re-entry... nor yourself.....
This is certainly a lot more dangerous than going by airlines. I hope they give a good life insurance bonus plus full refund of your ticket money if you happen to be on the wrong shuttle and get blown up into smitherbits.
-N
The Cycle of Violence is to be seen as the invisible hand that maintains the balance of Man and Nature on earth.--M
It would be a great trip.
Fight Spammers!
This will do a lot more good than harm. Space travel suffers from some extreme eliteism, justified or not - and if the average joe doesn't see people who don't have 50 initials after their name going up, they are and will lose interest in space exploration. One thing that gives hope is that maybe someday you'll have enough money to do that - because in the great USA, the almighty dollar speaks both last and loudest.
Anything that drums up public support for space exploration gets a thumbs up from me. Honestly, I don't see how much this can jepordize anyone's life. Many/most of the systems onboard these craft are fully automated, and if shit hits the fan, there's pretty much zilcho anyone can do.
So no, I don't find this disgusting at all.
..don't panic
Man: Excuse me stewardess, what is the in flight movie?
Stewardess: Apollo 13, sir.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Holy shit.
It's "Rosaviakosmos", not "Rosoviakosmos".
It's not as though the tourists would have anywhere else to go--where are you going to send them, the moon? And as others have pointed out, the more money rich folks pour into space programs, the less of your tax dollars are taken out for them.
As far as "possibly jeopardizing the lives of astronauts", RTFA: This "extra mission" would fly two paying passengers that will have undergone months of training for the trip to the orbiting outpost. (emphasis added) Even Russia isn't stupid enough to send people into space without adequate training.
think the parent poster is bitter because he can't afford a space trip? I do.
First it was a billionaire, then it was a pop star, now it's any tourist with money. Well hell I've got some shiny tin foil I will trade for a ride on the Soyuz.
You want that boy? Sure ya do! Good boy! You want the shiny tin foil? It's worth more than your GDP! Good boy, fetch!
It's like living with roommates... if everybody is paying rent then notice is only a courtesy. No need to mark this as flamebait. NASA is such a horrible agency that disgraces the men and women that live and die for a future human presence in space. It takes money to do that. Nobody gives NASA money because NASA doesn't know how to properly manage it. Or make more of it. Consider that one of the experiments on Columbia was to see if popcorn pops differently in space. That's clue #1 that NASA is out of gas. NASA needs to be reduced to an interstellar department of transportation and just manage the traffic. They really need to get the hell out of the way.
Laws are for people with no friends.
I'll wait for the ISS to appear on hotels.com before signing up. I have to find someway to save a buck...
From the way your post is worded it sounds like you're calling Bill gates a /.er, people have been hanged for such blasphemy.
Yep.. none of you dotslash mortals will ever be able to afford it.. but I, as a slashdot mortal, already can!
-Dae
"Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
lol... i didn't notice that. and no, I know BillGates is not a /.er.
It just goes to show you how important correct punctuation is. If he put a period before the 'unless' instead of a comma his post would have been fine.
NASA knows that the Russians need money for their space program and will probably tolerate this guy as well.
this sig deleted by another sig
...He can always sit in the Soyuz (not set foot on/in/onto(?)) the Station until it's time to go home. Oh, wait, THAT Soyuz will stay docked to the Station for six months...
He/She will be the first orbital hermit.
1. Invesnt product
2. Sell product
3. Repeat (2)
4. Profit
5. Hitch a ride on Soyuz?
If I had that sort of money, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe it unless he's seen it, so to speak.
As for NASA...meeehhhhhh! Is NASA's "approval" really relavent these days? I don't just mean the Space Shuttle disasters, but their slow-moving government oriented ways, way of accountability, etc.
Seriously, I think the Russians and Chinese are far more commited to serious space programs than us North Americans. And you know what? Good for them.
-psy
Damn no-fly list
space. You'd get even more tourists, safe from the laws against prostiution.
The mile high club would be a hell of a lot higher.
Plus if you sign up now you get a 10% discount on Russian nukes!
read my blog
musings on politics and technol
Mile high club? That is soooo 20th century. I suggest that the next module to be attached to the ISS should be the Space Erogenous eXperiment module. For the very reasonable price of USD 50M, you and your partner get a round trip ticket and a week's stay in the luxurious and private S.E.X. module on the ISS. (Meals and port fees are included.)
This is the kind of development that makes the budget woes of the ISS go away. If it costs <pinky> one Billlllion dollars </pinky> to put the thing up there, you've roughly broken even after 20 bookings. So be pessimistic and say that it takes 40 bookings. If they fly passengers 6 times a year, the module is "in the black" inside of 7 years. After that, it's generating revenue for the program and funding the science operations. How many other ISS modules could lay claim to that? I know I'd certainly welcome any structure that reduces the amount of money that the ISS sucks out of my wallet.
it wouldn't make a difference. since what follows the period would not be a complete sentence, it would still be interpreted as a comma for which a period was substituted for stylistic reasons.
So who else saw Tourist-class and right away assumed it was an article about nethack?
Doh, of course he is.
More than mere navel gazing.
Whoever registered Slashdot #75865 http://slashdot.org/~BillGates might beg to differ with you. :)
nasa has lost more people in space than the russians. so i don't know why nasa should have any veto power over the russian space program and how it is funded.
Disclaimer:
You may die. poihnt in fact if anything goes wrong, you will die. If you cause something to go wrong, and though some miracle people don't die, you will be ejected nto space, and you will die.
If you do not want to die, put the pen down and leave.
Do you accept that you will probably die and agree you or you estate will not hold anybody who own or come in contact with anything that is in anyway connected to space travel?
If you do die(and probably will) taco bell promises to name a taco after you, if your body hits a target they specify.
Good luck, spave traveller.
Please kiss you loved good by.... forever.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What I want to know is why the heck are we letting the Russians do this before us? This is just the kind of capitalism that will encourage the commercialization of space. Can you imagine a shuttle flight that actually showed a profit?
Tickets are available for $20 million per seat aboard the Space Adventures-1 (SA-1) mission.
Well, doesn't look like I'll be going into space any time soon!
"road map"? I hate buzz words/phrases.
The other one that really irritates me (especially as a researcher who goes to many seminars): the take-home message.
First off, I hope I came to a talk that was sophisticated enough that you actually can't sum it up into a take-home message.
Secondly, if I were dumb enough to need you to tell me you're summing your entire topic up into a 10 word phrase, then I'd need you to read directly from your Powerpoint slides...oh, I see you're doing that, too.
[sniff, sniff]Ahhhh, karma well burnt.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
How many miles would that be for a single trip? Will it allow me to get one more free?
Space tourist tickets have recently been selling for $2e+7. ISS cost ~= $1e+11. At those prices, you'd have to send up 50,000 tourists just to pay for the amusement park, ignoring the cost of gas and a ride.
Putting aside that the ISS isn't just an amusement park, you're off by an order of magnitude:
1e+11 / 2e+7 = 10000e+7/2e+7 = 10000/2 = 5000
I don't think the rich should be rewarded for being rich. Instead, I think a lottery would be more appropriate, with tickets in the range of $100 and made available to anyone in the world. I would certainly buy one. And why shouldn't I be on a space flight instead of Lance Bass or whatever the hell his name is? This would generate a much larger revenue than any single ticket.
And as for the overhead of actually conducting the lottery, we could just use the existing infrastructure in most countries that already exist for the purpose of monetary lotteries. Then, a winner from each country could be chosen, and from those, a final winner would be picked. It really wouldn't be that difficult.
And somehow I don't find this at all surprising.
This is almost what Denis Tito did. On his flight (the first Space Tourist flight) NASA dragged their feet on granting permission, and it was planned that he remain in the Russian parts of the station for his stay at ISS. In the event NASA relented and he was allowed in the American section as well.
I am a Statistician. One false move and you are a Statistic
Aw, c'mon, you're just saying that. If you're a true slashdotter, you'd be up there in a minute if someone else offered to pay for your seat. I know I would! Man, for a chance to get into orbit, to be weightless, to be outside of the atmosphere... Probably the farthest anyone's going to get this side of 2050, if ever...
You know you want it. C'mon. You KNOW you do.
- Murphy's Corollary: - It is impossible to make things foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Does this mean we get another shot at punting Lance Bass into orbit? ;=)
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
Waddya know, the trolls have mastered the Art of Zen!
More than mere navel gazing.
This is microgravity. You can go anywhere in the station without "setting foot" at all!
Looks like they don't offer business class seats. No way I'm sitting behind the curtain!
Wonder if they have a loyalty program though. You could rack up some good miles quickly.
Space for two! Now, you too (for a mere $40 million bucks) can join the 100 mile club!
Even better if the tourist can help out with the house cleaning! But there is a dark part of me that wish that anyone who can afford this would just burn up on reentry.
Freebee!
I just wish it did not cost that much. One day.. one day maybe we can all do this. Most likely it will be way past our time. If I had the money I would do it. Dim
string sig = llGetSig("dimentox"); llSay(0,sig);
So my lifetime goal of visiting space got one step closer...
Now all I need is to register sendmetospace.com, and wait for 20 million $1 donations to my PalPal account.
Better tell my fiancee to buy those bungee cords for the zero-G "research".
Gee... I wonder how long until we get the first Space's Mile High Club members...
What was the effect of all those accounts sent back by Lewis and Clark and other early European-decent explorers in North America? The more people found out, the more they wanted to go there. Lots of people died trying to get there and trying to make a living, but they kept coming and built a society like none before it.
science is a religion
Whoa! What incredible insight on US international relations. Are you some disgruntled Iragi, Palestinian, or Taliban? Too bad. I'm taking a liking to looking for idiotic comments from you. Makes my day. Thanks!
Did they find any of the Timex watches from the last shuttle ride to be "still ticking". Just curious. Might make a good ad for Timex.
"Takes Mach 12 and a 20,000 foot drop. Yup, still ticking"
However, NASA has yet to be officially notified or to give formal approval, so there are still some speed bumps in the road map Didn't get it last two times, don't need it this time. The USA likes to think they own the planet, but it ain so.
Maybe it's lurking beneath my threshold. There must be an explanation.
Alexandre http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
Imagine if Richard Branson got in on the act? "Virgin" atlantic is indeed a misnomer for an airline offering horizontal beds .....
..... He's certainly mad enough to try.
Perhaps he's been working on a secret project to build a rocket to travel to the Red Planet {matches the corporate colours, after all.....} Actually, in space there probably is no law against, erm, powdering one's nose *sniff* *wink*
On the other hand, we have to remember this is the person who can't even get a hot air balloon to stay up. What chance has he got with a spacecraft?