Draft Guidelines for Space Tourists

IZ Reloaded writes "Draft guidelines for space tourists have already been written in the United States." From the article: "A paying customer will now be able to fly into space once he has been informed and accepts the risks of space travel. There are several factors to take into account, depending on whether a passenger is taking a speedy "pop top," up-and-down, suborbital voyage, versus climbing onboard space machinery to roar off into orbit for an extended stay."

Comments

U.S. Behind Russia?

[bigtallmofo]

Russia has had guidelines for their paying space tourists for a number of years:

1. You must have a pulse (optional)
2. Your check for $20,000,000 must clear before you launch whether you are a popstar or not.

classy

[aendeuryu]

For one, if you are in a critical crew position, your health problem could endanger the life of others. Secondly, on an orbital mission, your health problem could cause the mission director to have to make a difficult choice, Diamandis said, between your possible death or ending a billion dollar mission early, presuming that returning to Earth could save your life.

Good to know the lawyers are getting a head start writing their closing arguments.

Re:Guideline

[fronthead]

And don't forget your towel!

Passenger Licenses?

[Tekgno]

What would be the best way to manage the medical requirements for travel?

Would a sort of license work? This would save being rechecked for frequent flights.

Wake me in a few years, until then, I'm going back to playing EVE online.

Re:Passenger Licenses?

[igrp]

Would a sort of license work? This would save being rechecked for frequent flights.

To be honest, I don't quite see why would should impose any licensing restrictions for passengers.

I mean we don't require a people to be certified to drive a race car - you don't even need a driver's license to do so. And you can certainly injure or kill yourself in a race car. And even when there are restrictions on who can perform a given sport (eg. you need a certification to go scuba diving in most places), that's usually a self-imposed rule. As far as I know, there is nothing illegal about scuba diving without such a certification (I could very well be wrong though).

Requiring mandatory medical check ups for crew members - sure, I'm all for that. But if you're a passenger and you decide you want to shell out the money for a space flight, even though you're not really in good shape, then, well, that's your problem. As long as you understand what you're getting yourself into (and I'm quite sure they will make your sign a waiver), I don't see why the state or the federal government should get involved in that.

Look at it this way: if I'm an 80-year-old guy with a heart problem, I probably shouldn't ride any rollercoasters. But the government certainly isn't stepping in to prevent me from doing it (yet).

Research boon

[FidelCatsro]

I can strongly imagine that a major beneficiary of said services will be the Universitys and privately funded research projects .
Once this has properly taken off (bad pun) with regular orbit or sub orbital flights, the benefits of having cheap reqular orbital research opertunitys is grand for smaller projects who could not afford to pay for time on one of the NASA missions or simmilar.
This could herald in a new era in more than just rich recreation , if this is as sucesful as i can only imagine it will be , then im sure we will now begin to progress at a far greater rate in these areas.

ps: this joke just writes itself here on slashdot "virgins in space "

That was quickly followed by Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines, taking the wraps off Virgin Galactic. He plans to fly patrons into suborbital space within the next two or three years aboard a fleet of five passenger spaceships now under design by Scaled Composites. In licensing SpaceShipOne's technology, Branson wants to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service.

Re:Guideline Number 1:

[Anonymous Coward]

Take the metal tab and insert it into the buckle. Pull tightly across your waste.

That's a good idea. You don't want shit flying around once you're in free fall. :P

Please Keep:

[raynet11]

Notice you must be at least 4ft 5in tall to ride. 1. Please keep your arms and legs in the vehical at all times 2. There is no eating, drinknig , or smoking while the ride is in operation. 3. Remain seated until the ride has come to a complete stop. 4. Exit to the left, thank you for riding space mountain.

What is "space," anyway?

[fronthead]

Doesn't it seem a little bit pointless to just do one of those "pop top" flights into "space" since "space" is kind of an arbitrary thing? I would think it kind of an expensive indulgence just for some dubious bragging rights. Orbit I can understand; really really high and back down, not so much.

Re:What is "space," anyway?

[16K Ram Pack]

I know a lot of people who go holidaying in all kinds of exotic locations. What do they do there? Exactly what they'd do somewhere closer to home - sit on a beach.

I think there are plenty of people who just want it for the bragging rights.

Ah the land of free..

[Anonymous Coward]

..wants to take over space too eh?

Anyway the rules:

Rule 1: Please don't take photographs of the spy satellites.
Rule 2: No one is to visit the moon landing place, until NASA checks out the first flight to there.
Rule 3: There will be no sex in space thanks.
Rule 4: All taxes must be fully paid before departing.
Rule 5: No snack food is to be released into zero G.
Rule 6: No smoking near the hydrogen gas.
Rule 7: Intoxicated individuals will be flushed out the airlock.
Rule 8: Please shake carefully when using the toliet facilities
Rule 9: Any use of the Klingon language will result in a severe beating
Rule 10: One way tickets shall no be sold, even to cult members.

get bent?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Why is it now "officially" allowed. Last time I checked the US was NOT the world and no one but them has to stick to any rules they make unless supported by an international agreement or group.

Hmmm

[Bad to the Ben]

I wonder what the inflight movie will be? How bout "Apollo 13"?

No but I...

[raynet11]

Flight Eng: System failure level 2 switching to main aux for overide.
Passenger: No its just a faulty sensor , shutdown tank three no overide needed.
Flight Eng: Are you sure?
Passenger: Yes proceed with the shutdown.
Flight Eng: Check , shutting down tank three
Whew, they didn't tell us you were an AE
Passenger: I'm not , but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night..

Death

[Lord_Dweomer]

I really hope this doesn't all get shut down prematurely after the first person dies. I mean, I don't mean to be a Negative Nancy, but when this is first getting off the ground (no pun intended), there WILL be deaths, and they most likely will be very gruesome (think explosion, suffocation, or decompression).

This is one time though that I hope the lawyers DO get heavily involved just so that one lawsuit doesn't bring this whole fledgling industry down in one fell swoop.

In the wider context of Adventure Tourism

[the packrat]

I wonder whether this was put together taking into account the recent, varyingly successful, lawsuits against earth-bound adventure tourism operators who provided white water rafting and rock climbing and who, despite all the no-liability clauses in their paperwork, manage to surprise the world by killing their customers periodically?

Given that at least some of those lawsuits were successful (if memory serves), one wonders how much value escape-from-liability contracts really have, unless the US signs a bill similar to the no-lawsuits-of-fast-food-providers into law. Even then, they'd still be taunted by various international courts.