Slashdot Mirror
A $100 Million Trip to the Moon
Kyusaku Natsume writes "Russia's federal space agency will offer a $100m trip to the moon. From the UK Guardian's article:" "We've had the necessary technology for many years, the only problem will be finding someone prepared to pay that much." "
From TFA:Doesn't sound all that great, really...$100 mil for that? I can do that right now for free...in fact, I am doing that right now (sitting in my cramped cubicle, eating Ding-Dongs from the snack machine, and examining the cratered lunar crust.
Oh, and by the way,
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Warning: Dont buy this. The price is does not include a landing. You just fly around the moon and come back. It is clearly a rip off.
I can pay $100 million to go stand on a big rock covered with dust? Sign me up!!!
Seriously though, who in their right mind would pay that?
They can ask that Russian astrologer that sued over the Temple 1 probe for the 'moral damages'.
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com
I find it odd that Russia is at the forefront of commercial space travel. I mean they are capable of it, but I somehow thought that by now a public company could have pulled it off already. NASA f'ing up space travel with it's politics and disillusioning some about it likely has not helped.
Just a boy doing unproffesional IT work that's way above his head.
does it include the return trip?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I am aware that they have sent some robotic rovers, Lunohods ("Moonwalkers"), up there, but no manned flights. It is like if NASA would sell tickets for trip to Mars.
Once you're there getting back will cost another hundred million.
Didn't RTFA
1) Convice Bill to offer "one BILEEEON dollars" for a landing.
2) Get Russians to provide it - one way.
3) Profit!
www.eFax.com are spammers
Hmm...$100 million is a bit too much to ask for a low orbit if you ask me. >_> Maybe if they included a landing and mini tour of the first landing site...Or did the US already claim the Moon as their own so other countries cannot trespass? XD I wonder what made the Russians to suddenly start selling trips to the Moon. *coughfinancescough* =P
I just have to get my plan to hold the world hostage with a giant "laser" off the ground.
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
They posted this idea before.
Looked extremely nice, but there are some problems with this...
Biggest stumblingblock: the heatshield is not up to the increased punishment it'll get when re-entering from a trans-luna trajectory instead of a deorbit from LEO...
But then again, that's only a matter of strenghthening the shield. But then again, that needs testing, and will add serious weight.
So they can't do this tomorrow, the hardware is not tried and tested... Yet...
It may not be easy to find someone willing to pay 100M$ for a trip around the moon. Isn't it waay easier to find 10M people in the world willing to pay 10$ to perhaps win a trip around the moon ? I know I would.
\u262D = \u5350
Can I get a discount if I lose a few pounds?
Seriously though, kids weigh far less and take up less space, what about a donation for a make-a-wish foundation candidate?
Once they get you there, wait until they quote you for the return trip!
-- Scott
Unless you want to say, "Bakinour, we have a problem."
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
So do you get a bag of peanuts on your trip?
-Teiresias
Damn, I'd pay the $100M but I don't think my boss would let me take the week off.
Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
The trip back, priceless
Someday a Slashdot ID of 177180 will mean something.
Maybe GW Bush can buy a ticket for his plan to return to the moon?
Repeat after me: We are all individuals
$100m! That's like 10 cents!!!!
Do they take monopoly money? :D
_Vishal www.squad9.com
This shows how desperate Russia is becoming maintaining its space exploration capability. Russia has neither the rockets nor the spacecraft to support such an offer. I think it makes more sense for them to combine efforts with the EU going forward. The EU has no manned program, but good space technology and relatively deep pockets. Russia has well developed space technology but little funding. It would make an impressive combination.
an ill wind that blows no good
If you intended on paying the 100m, would you need to take one of those physical tests (the simpsons comes to mind...) that would make sure you were able to withstand the forces that come with space travel? I would think that it would be a prerequisite to go through tons of tests in order to actually go on a shuttle.
Either way, thats a shitload of money, but its also a once in a lifetime opportunity. (atleast if you are getting old already!) Some of us young folk will probably be able to take some "tours" for around 1 million or so within 20-30 years I assume (and hope). By then it will be safer as well, even if I had the money, I doubt I would do this, but give it 30 years or so and space travel will be a *bit* safer, and there may be actual tour shuttles available. so what are the limits? can a 70 year old man willing to pay 100mill do this? what about an obese 25 year old thats just waiting for a heart attack? do you have to be very physically fit? Inquiring minds want to know...
For all the talk about privatizing spaceflight, I find it very odd that the forerunner in private/commercial space development is a government.
And not even an American government. How much farther do we have to go with the reverse brain drain, villification of science, and "outsourcing" of engineering resources before America isn't the scientific frontrunner of the world anymore?
"We've had the necessary technology for many years"
I assume this means they want to fly people using technology that is many years old...
I would buy karma from ebay but I'm not sure I can trust the seller.
Do they take PayPal?
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
It's between 10-11% of my net worth. I might do it.
Is he fit enough to go?
Send him to the moon.
As Jackie Gleason used to say: "To the moon, Alice! To the moon! Bang! Zoom!"
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Alternatively, a cruise usually lasts 1-2 weeks . Which is a better use of your money?
I think that this is an excellent opportunity for somebody who has been putting up lots of capital for commercial space ventures, like Paul Allen, Richard Branson, or Jeff Bezos, to make a very strong statement. That is, to sink a hundred of their plentiful millions of dollars into going to the moon like this, in a rudimentary way, and coming back and saying, "It was worth it. But the next time, I want to go there in luxury, I want my own company to take me, and I want my friends to come along. And I want to show people that it can be a hell of a lot more affordable." Taking that kind of risk and finding out what it's really like (and how it can be improved) would be a great way to put yourself above the competition as a space entrepreneur. "I've been there, folks. And the moon is like nowhere else you can vacation. Spend your cash with me."
And it can't be a bad thing to pump some money into the Russian program like this, even if only for philanthropic purposes. The more major governments make it to space at once and start establishing a major presence, the better. The way it's looking right now, whoever starts doing that first is not going to have much company.
Just checked - I'm only 99 Million 999 thousand and 999 U$ short. Someone here willing to lend me some? Will pay it back within a few thousand years :)
If you read the fine print, Russia will hire George Lucas to create a special-effect driven "Your Trip to The Moon" film for $100 million. So, yes, the technology is there to send you to moon, but you can't pay enough money to actually go to the moon.
I nominate Bill Gates, for this extrordinarily dangerous mission, for it is to be undertaken without any oxygen supplies - we must salute his courage...
Get your own free personal location tracker
Let's hope the person with the money agrees to only pay them when he has safely returned to Earth.
I dont speak Russian is that part of the training for $100M?
Start the countdown. Not to the launch mind you, but to the first person posting a soivet russia joke.
Welcome to Crazy Ivan's Russian Experience!!! Everything is for sale, all offers considered!!!
Please choose one of the following from our "Government for sale" programs:
1) Drive a t-37 tank - $50,000
2) Fly a MiG - $200,000
3) Pilot Nuclear Submarine - $1,000,000
4) Fly to IIS - $20,000,000
5) Fly to Moon - $100,000,000
6) Kill a Chechnian - $50
7) Preside over Duma for a day - $10,000
Or anything else you want to do! Just name it and we'll stick a price on it.
TFA says the offer is to orbit the moon, but not land on it. An important distinction, I think.
-- Brian Berns
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
Suppose (as several people have in just the last few years) that you win the lotto for 200 plus million. The truth is that you could blow 100 million and still be set for life, no big deal. Orbiting the moon is a trip of a lifetime, so why not?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I'll probably qualify next month :-)
Where are those stratospheric IPOs when you need them?
"I'd like a one-way ticket, please."
Will they take a personal check?
Find coupons in Greeley
{
char *pol1 = "** NAME OF FIRST POLITICIAN YOU LOATHE **";
char *pol2 = "** NAME OF SECOND POLITICIAN OR POLITICAL ADVISOR YOU LOATHE **";
printf("What if instead of $50M for a round trip, we got two $25M one way tickets for %s and %s?\n", pol1, pol2);
}
I'll probably get the FB tag anyways. *SIGH*
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
"We've had the necessary technology for many years, the only problem will be finding someone prepared to pay that much."
You've got to be joking! I'm prepared to pay that much.
Of course I don't have it, but if I did, or even close to that amount, I would certainly accept the offer. And I bet everyone on slashdot feels the same!
Another bright side: it's never been so easy to turn money into history.
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
"Seller is A-one first rate! That really was the real moon right outside my window. Really the authentic item."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
For $100 million, they better do better than just a pass around the moon!
:)
... (that is, if I had it).
For example, the Russians on board had better be some REALLY hot Russian babes (like those mail order brides they are always advertising)!
For $100 million, I'd want to be the first guy to have a three way in Space! (with 2 hot women - of course). I also want the exclusive rights to reproduce and sell the video
For that matter, would I be the first guy to have sex in Space?
I mean, seriously, if they're not landing on the moon, they had better give me something to do for two weeks. Two weeks in Space would get boring after the first few days if I had nothing to look forward to other than flying around the moon and (hopefully) landing (in one piece). They'd have to provide some serious entertainment for me to fork over that kind of cash
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
During the Cold War, the Soviets would have done this in a heartbeat, no matter what the cost, if they had the capability. Saying they can do it now, for only a hundred million dollars, when they have never done it before, just sounds untrue.
Yes the Russians build one of the best throw away capsules ever made. Yes they have done some wonderful things in space. But there is a big difference between Earth orbit and going to the Moon. Even if you're not landing there.
Space travel involves HUGE infrastructure that is much more expensive to set up and fund than just the cost of a single launch. This is one of the reasons private space travel has not "taken off" yet.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Send Paris Hilton please!
"the only problem will be finding someone prepared to pay that much."
Doesn't Putin wanna go? Somebody tell him it's hip.
I would like to tell you that the capsule is the Soyuz, which is OK, but the booster will be the Proton, which is NOT man-rated because it's liquid hipergolic fuel loads are extremely poisonous! The kazakhs, who lease Baikonur base to Russia do complain about this every now and then when an ELV fails and falls back onto the steppe.
But Russia has only this type of booster for the job, latest version has 27 tons to LEO lift capacity, which is enough for a quick Moon roundtrip. There is no way an R7-family booster (any upgraded, safe Soyuz) could do that.
So if you decide to go please have a very big life insurance. In 1968 russian cosmonauts protested to Brezhnev to make a daring soviet lunar round-fly, before the damn yankees can get there. They proposed using the same Proton ELV + Soyuz capsule equipment, but the Party denied their request because it was deemed to dangerous. If you consider how cheap life was behind the Iron Curtain, you can get the picture I guess.
That's my 0.02 euros.
Guys like him are needed in such a sitation :-)
Hooray, Ubuntu on the moon!
I mean the russian mob is capable of doing this, yes?
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Hey Taco...
How bouty changing the title from "To the moon" to "around the moon".....since that is what the Russians are actually doing instead of landing ON it.
I thought it cost $100K:Kg to send matter into Earth orbit. Even in rubles, that's only 1 ton, isn't it? If the human weighs about 100Kg (including dried food), does it really take only 9x as much matter to support their life for the trip?
Oddly, that puts the human payload in approximately the same ratio as MP3 compression.
--
make install -not war
It might be easier to find someone willing to pay that kind of money for a private, small but luxurious compartment, big enough for two, and a short, orbital or perhaps even suborbital trip with a couple of hours of weightlessness.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I took a ride in a Russian APC once. A BTR 80 I think it was. Transfer case screwed up. Brakes failed. Had problems shifting. Take a ride in space? No freaking way.
MadOgre.com
Uhm, you're forgetting our friends the taikonauts. I do understand the Chinese not doing this though - their manned missions don't have a very long history, and they wouldn't probably like selling vacation flights on the commercial market. It wouldn't look very good, would it?
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
they should do the world a great service and take up Lance Bass and the rest of his NSync buddies and drop them on the dark side. :-)
When I read the title for this posting and then the first line my thought was, "Go to the moon for $100 million? Sure, I'll go. Where do I sign up?"
That being said, $100 million to simply fly around the moon without actually stepping on the moon is not, in my opinion, worth it. For that price I want to bounce around and take pictures with my Olympus camera (if for no other reason than to get Olympus to start making their OM line again).
Oh yeah, and moon rocks. Lots of moon rocks.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I think you could find 10,000,000 people who'd fork over $10 for a chance to orbit the moon.
...Unless the downpayment is more than--25, 50--$1.43.
So... I click on the moon.google.com link you posted.
Nice, nice... not thrilling, but nice... then I zoomed in on the Apollo 11 landing site. Still nice, not thrilling but nice...
so I zoomed in all the way to see how good the resolution gets.
All of the sudden... Yikes! the moon turned yellow and looked like cheese... Not surrender monkey Brie or boardshead gouda either but aparantly the surface is clearly some type of swiss cheese.
I was not prepared for this revelation! My day has now been wrecked by the likes of the google crew...
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
Did they say how much it would cost to come back to Earth? It's like at the Grand Canyon, mules cost $5 to take you down and $50 to take you back up.
Space tourists will not land on its surface but will circle its dark side and orbit close enough to examine its cratered lunar crust.
I'll do them one better. I will only charge $99 million to let people see the dark side of the moon. Just stand in my back yard, look at the moon, and whatever portion is dark, that is the dark side of the moon. (Offer not valid during full moons.)
I think what they mean is the far side of the moon, which is never visible from Earth (because the moon rotates at the same rate that it revolves). The far side is illuminated as often as the near side; for instance, it is fully illuminated during every new moon.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Does this conjure visions of the N-1 for anybody else?
China and ESA also have the capability. The US and Russia are not the only countries in the world to have the industrial and scientific knowledge to reach space.
The guy who circles the Moon will have a chance to see (and possibly take photos) to prove or disprove if the US lunar landings were fake.
But maybe if he/she is american, NASA/CIA will force a contract not to disclose that information or die.
Maybe even the russians will force him/her to sign, regardless of nationality, because they have common interest with USA in the global Flat Earth / Hollow Earth cover-up 8-)
Written under a tinfoil cap. The truth is out there!
I am interested in what technology exactly they are planning to use to get to the moon. The N-5 (G-5 or super booster, the Russians answer to the Saturn 5 didn't exactly make it to the moon when they tested it, in fact, it never made it out of the atmosphere with out self destructing due to the buggy KURD system the were using. The R-7 (the one that cares the souze capsule) does not have enough thrust to take several men (I'm sure they wouldn't send you up by yourself) to the moon and back.I only see this working if they have a new vehicle capable of sending a comfortable 3-4 man rated capsule to the moon.
And when I read the article title my first thought was "I wonder how much to get back?"
Now that's where the money is!
$200 million.
Russians orbiting the moon is the same reason Apollo 11 actually landed on the moon.
NASA thought 1). Russians were going to send men to orbit the moon
2). The rest of the world may interpret this as being "first" to the moon.
This was during the space race and Russia had beaten us in every other category: 1st in space, 1st space walk, etc.
Ignorance is not a crime; neither should it be a way of life
Congress control $ = inmates run the asylum
I think you could find 10,000,000 people who'd fork over $10 for a chance to orbit the moon.
I'm guessing that you're thinking of a lottery system. This is okay, I might plunk down ten clams for the long shot at the long shot.
However, I propose an alternate approach. I'll bet you could 10,000,000 people who'd fork over $10 for a chance to send one particular person to the moon, and not bring them back.
Only question is, who's the lucky* winner?
-kgj
* N.B., I didn't say good luck.
-kgj
100 million also gets you a couple monthes traning at "space city" their training camp... and it's a fortnight trip. You get a whole week as the ISS, which would be sweet I'm sure. Then the trip to the moon. As well as being known as the third space tourist and the first to go to the moon.
The only thing that would suck is you're likely going to spent that time with only russians, so you'll have learn their language. That and the Tang.
Alice Smith, you just one 100 million dollars in today's drawing, what are you going to do next?
"I'm going to the moon!"
It's nice to see all the derogatory comments by the jealous Americans.
which is a good thing imo, considering China's determination to reach 'super power' status.
The last thing we need is China AND Russia economically able to operate (militarily) in space.
China is more worrysome than Russia at this point tho, but the 2 together would be very alarming.
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
You are right: I knew they were working on it, but I couldn't remember if they had actually launched anyone. (Same with the European Space Agency: have they actually lauched a human?)
'Sensible' is a curse word.
Branson likes lotteries. Perhaps someone who knows him could suggest it to him. Get a few big names on board, that would buy a few thousand tickets and it would soon snow ball. Perhaps B Gates could buy a few tickets - hell he could fund it on his own, after he has cured the world of AIDS of course.
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
About ESA - they have had a lot of "spationauts" (we never say that in swedish, we just call them astronauts as well). But as far as I, and the wikipedia page I conveniently linked, know, they haven't actually been launched with ESA rockets, like the Ariane. They have all been sent up with russian or american space ship - that's why I didn't really mention them. You don't really have the technology unless you have all of it, right?
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
The hook is that beverage service is not even included. By day 3, they expect to be able to charge you another $100 million for each can of Coke. And it won't even be real Coke, just some weird Uzbekistan knockoff named 'Koke'.
(Please imagine unintelligible Cyrillic characters between quotes. I am poor and cannot afford to waste my few precious real Cyrillic characters in Slashdot posts.)
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
I don't know, but you would be the first Slashdotter to have sex.
Whoever forks over the $100 Million will get far more in $100 Million in publicity and media access.
Think about it, when you bring up the name "Shuttleworth" what do folks know about the guy? They know he was a space tourist and somehow technical. That kind of name recognition is valuable to folks that know how to use it.
Shameless self-promotion here, but I've started a lottery for this trip.
Not A Sig
Why in the world would you fly into space with an organization that talks about "the dark side of the moon"?
"Do not cash until July 27th 2105"
The dollar will be almost worthless by then and a Bigmac will cost a couple hundred grand.
Sources say NASA will soon be offering $800 Million trips back from the moon for stranded Russian tourists.
Damn, that would really max out my credit card...
Oh well, what the hell...
Is that's the one-way ticket price. In Russia....
So just what can I get for my 478,000 miles added to my frequent flier account?
Well, Russia is fast turning into the ultimate capitalist country, while the US is slowly sinking into socialism. When Russians decide to do something, they go for it with heart and soul. Russian tourist trips to the moon??? Who woulda thunk it? If they would untie Lenin's body, he would be spinning at 10,000 rpm in his grave...
Oh well, what the hell...
sorry flyer!!
They charge you $200 Million to bring you back.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
I guess I need to count exactly how many people have actually orbited around the moon.
The following are the flights and crew of who made it to the "far" side of the moon.
Apollo 8:
Frank Borman
James Lovell, Jr.
William Anders
Apollo 9: (was only in Earth Orbit to test the Lunar Module...never made it to the moon)
Apollo 10:
Eugene Cernan
John Young
Thomas Stafford
Apollo 11:
Neil Armstrong
Michael Collins
Edwin Aldrin Jr.
Apollo 12:
Charles Conrad, Jr.
Richard Gordon, Jr.
Alan Bean
Apollo 13:
James Lovell Jr. (2nd trip)
John Swigert Jr.
Fred Haise Jr.
Apollo 14:
Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
Stuart A. Roosa
Edgar D. Mitchell
Apollo 15:
David R. Scott
James B. Irwin
Alfred M. Worden
Apollo 16:
John Young (2nd trip)
Thomas Mattingly
Charles Duke, Jr.
Apollo 17:
Eugene Cernan (2nd trip)
Ronald Evans
Harrison Schmitt
So in all told, 24 people have made it to do a similar kind of trip, and 12 have made it to the surface of the moon. And 3 lucky bastards made it to the moon twice in their lives (although Jim Lovell didn't have too much fun on that 2nd trip).
Yeah, a trip to the moon through the Russians would still make you one of the first 50 people to get so far away from the Earth in all of history.
Imagine if even a fraction of that money went to outer space exploration.
(or schools, roads, healthcare, etc...)
There's an article over on MSNBC with more info about the moon trip proposal. It turns out that the mission design is basically the same one that Constellation Services International, a small California space firm, proposed to the Russians last year. It seems that the Russians have just taken the proposal and blown off CSI. You can see the older article about CSI's design (with a diagram showing how it'll work) here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6558855/
From the newer article:
NBC News space analyst James Oberg wrote about the Lunar Express concept eight months ago: As laid out by Constellation Services International's Charles Miller, the passenger would first be brought up to the international space station aboard a modified Russian Soyuz craft. Then the Soyuz would make a rendezvous with a booster-equipped logistics module that has been sent into orbit separately. The beefed-up craft would make an elongated figure-8 course around the moon - not landing there, but slingshotting around to return to Earth.
Oberg was amazingly prescient when he wrote, "The obvious question is what would prevent the Russians, or some other international space business, from simply stealing the idea and blowing off Miller and his associates."
In an e-mail exchange with Oberg, Miller was "sorry to say" that CSI was not involved in the Russian round-the-moon project, reported by Moscow-based Channel 1 (in Russian) as well as the RIA Novosti news service.
Instead, the news reports say that Russia's Federal Space Agency and Energia, the prime contractor for much of the country's space hardware, are working on the project. Channel 1 says proceeds from the two-week, $100 million tour package would go toward building Russia's next-generation spaceship, the Kliper.
I read in "Dose", a free publication in Canada that, "one small snag in the plan might be that cosmonauts don't even have the kind of technlogy that would take them to the moon and back. The Russian news agency Novosti reports that even cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, doubts that Russia's space program has the equipment to take a civilian to the dark side of the moon."
Orbit the moon for 100mil?
I don't even care that Russia has a habit of blowing up or otherswise losing payloads. I gotta die somehow, and doing it on the way to or from the moon beats every other scenario by such a stupendous margin.
And if the trip were successful I would have orbited the freakin' moon!
If I were a bazillionaire I would be wiring the money today.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
Thanks for the reality check. The United States has forgotten just how many people died to explore and settle North America. Being on the cutting edge is dangerous. But there are huge rewards for the successful and huge payoffs to those of us left behind. Those pioneers that take the big risks expand our envelope and we get huge benefits from that.
Do you think the celebs and incredibly wealthy are really going to stand for a cramped tube and baggie meat?
I have a feeling we will see X-hibit (the rapper/host of Pimp My Ride) adding spoilers, lamborghini doors, and LCDs all over this badboy rocket.
Picture Soul Plane but worse.
I bet they could find 1 million people willing to pay for a $100 lottery ticket. Or 5 million who would pay for a $20 lottery ticket. Sounds like a good deal to me... I'd have a better chance of orbiting the moon that winning the state lottery.
If we could make it a one-way trip, I'm sure that we could get several groups to come up with that kind of money. The passenger doesn't have to be willing, do they?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
If Howard Hughes were still alive he could have done it with a bunch of wood and about 50 million dollars... a bunch of wood and about 50 million dollars... a bunch of wood and about 50 million dollars... a bunch of wood and about 50 million dollars... a bunch of wood... Q-U-A-R-A...
Who could i kidnapp that has that much money available for ransom?
for free wallpapers, visit Sargosis.com
They're selling a product/service they don't have. Can you imagine someone doing such a thing? - DR http://icold.blogspot.com/
That is so funny I almost posted non-anonymous. Thanks!
Fry : Where are we going?
Leela : Nowhere special. The moon.
Fry : The mo - the moon? The moon moon? Wow! I'm going to be a hero, like Neil Armstrong or those other guys no one ever heard of.
Fry : Can I do the countdown?
Leela : Huh? Oh, sure. Knock yourself out.
Fry : Ten. [ship takes off]
Fry : Nine. [ship reaches the moon]
Leela : Okay, we're here.
Fry : [quietly] Eightsevensixfivefourthreetwooneblastoff.
Narrator: The story of lunar exploration started with one man - a man with a dream.
Animatronic Ralph Kramden: One of these days, Alice. Bang. Zoom. Straight to the moon.
Leela : Wow! I never realized the first astronauts were so fat.
Fry : That's not an astronaut, it's a TV comedian! And he was just using space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife.
Narrator: No one really knows when, where, or how man landed on the moon...
Fry : I do!
Narrator: ...but our Fungineers imagine it went sometihg like this.
[Animatronic whalers emerge from a lunar lander]
Animatronic whalers: [Singing] We're whalers on the moon.
Animatronic gophers: We carry a harpoon.
Animatronic gophers, Animatronic whalers: But there are no whales, so we tell tall tales and sing a whaling tune.
Fry : That's not how it happened.
Leela : I don't see you with a Fungineering degree.
I remember hearing stories from a professor in college about the Russian space program. Supposedly at one point they had their electricity shut off (forgot to pay the bill...?) and were tinkering on their rockets by the light of propane lanterns. At another point, a serious rat infestation was discovered in the wiring in their version of mission control.
And let's not forget poor Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the pilot of the first Soyuz-1. His capsule's parachute malfunctioned and he hit the ground at ~500 mph. http://www.space.edu/projects/book/chapter20.html
Yeah, I'll wait for the movie...
Government's view of the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
1: Give them enough acid to think they are on the moon.
2: Profit.
Wait...why don't the people from slashdot band together and create the first open source space program?
Most of the people who read and participate are highly qualified professionals. And there must be at least a hundred million viewers. If everyone donated a few dollars to a community fund, and had our top engineers, programmers, scientists, and whatnot all working together, i'm sure that we'd actually be able to rival NASA for the supremacy of space.
think about it, we'd be able to have many people reviewing our plans almost constantly, looking for errors in design plans, code, and even economic ideas. We'd be able to find the cheapest and most available materials. Most of the world's top people are already right here.
for example, if everyone donated just $5 and there are even 50 million people helping out, thats 250 million dollars to use to create a space program thats active 24/7.
i'd pay that...
for free wallpapers, visit Sargosis.com
If I had $100 million, I'd probably design and build and fly my own rocket, not pay someone else to do it. I'd have much more fun doing it that way.
Let's call Hanko the rapr. of the Russian Space Agaency, the conversation would be something like:
ThosLives: $100 ?? We could almost buy our own ship for that !!!
Hanko: But who's going to fly it, kid! You?
ThosLives: You bet I could. I'm not such a bad pilot myself!
... I expect THE MOON ON A STICK!
o n-stick.jpeg
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/moon-
I see Bill Gates calling them:
:0)
I'll take five hundred flights, please. Thank you very much.
Here is the key quote:
We have very close and intensive contacts with our American colleagues not to know about such activities on their side. Even if we are not involved in joint scientific activities, we still exchange information. This is why I am absolutely sure that nothing like this did ever take place on board [the] space shuttle. Neither did we, the Russians, ever conduct sex experiments in flights.
The article you linked was very interesting. Kudos to you for posting it. However, according to the arcticle, he may yet get to be the first.
Dude, how do you even hold a job if all you do is FP on slashdot all day. Seriously, what is your occupation I think I may need an application..
I know I would. .. and imagine she wins.
Imagine your *grandma* would
3.243F6A8885A308D313
How else do you think the Russians could pull this off?
save $100 million on my moon fRight(TM) package currently $19.99 plus shipping and handling.
was that their largest rocket at the time, the N1, had a bad habit of blowing up on the pad. They tried twice to launch it. The first time it got a few thousand feet up and exploded. They worked on the problems and a few days before our Apollo-11 launched they put TWO N1's on launch pads. They would try launching an unmaned one first, and if it worked they would have tried to beat us to the moon with the second.
The N1 had something like 36 engines on the first stage. A few seconds into the launch a computer glitch shut down ALL of the engines, except one. The rocket fell back to the pad and exploded with a force of a small nuke, taking out the second N1 on the other launch pad. The blast killed workers on the ground in the block house, and our sensors that detect underground atomic testing went off alerting the CIA.
That was the last the the Russians tried to go to the moon. They are reported to still have a moonship and an N1 rocket on display someplace.
...government pays YOU to off spammer!
(Would not be entirely surprised...)
Is it round trip, or is it just the one way fare to the moon??? Take them up to the moon for $100 million, then demand $1 billion for the trip back home! Better read the fine print first ;-)
I'm sure we can raise $50m for a one-way ticket pretty quickly
Too bad it's not 100 million rubles. That's like 20 bucks
It's about $419/ mile to join a pretty exclusive club compared to $45K per mile to get into orbit. Quite a deal for the right dotcom or software billionaire looking for something unique to do next.
For an extra $100m, they'll make sure you survive the journey and also get back in one piece.
It's too bad Jackie Gleason isn't still around, otherwise he could finally make good on his "To the moon, Alice, to the moon!" threat.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Russians never managed to build the rocket engines powerful enough. Several tests ended in disaster, with many space program personnel killed. They lost the moon race, and that says it all.
I bet any money you have to bring your own on flight food from home.
That quote was actually the only thing that stuck from that post for me...
Lovely to see them play together again a few weeks back...
Now that's something I'd contribute $10 towards. I'm sure many other Americans would do the same.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Over at http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/050727_mro _prepare.html
, they describe the Mars Recon Orbitor which weighs about 2 tonnes, and NASA is sending to Mars... abit farther than the moon. I wonder if NASA could use the Atlas to send the $100MMan to the moon if they wanted to?
"NASA researchers tout the MRO spacecraft as the largest orbiter aimed at Mars in the last 30 years. Standing about 22 feet (six meters) tall and spanning 44 feet (13 meters) wide, it certainly outsizes the agency's other red planet orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey. The orbiter weighs about 4,806 pounds (2,180 kilograms), but came in about 112 pounds (51 kilograms) underweight allowing engineers to fill that weight with additional propellant, extending its flight lifetime out to about 2014."
..bright screens for bright people, but now I've got to wear sunglassess.
All I can say is; if I had the money, even if it were all the money I had, plus some I had to borrow, man, I would go. I bet there are plenty of billoinaires that would do it. I mean what's a hundred mill to a few billion?
Why not just outsource our manned spaceflight program? We can just fire all the NASA guys, except a couple to write requirements docs.
P KW_SITZE/Golf_interior.jpg
:-)
- Buy the computers at Fry's
- Infosys can do all the coding
- China can mass produce whatever we want to send
- Taiwan can aggregate everything into one cylinder
- The ruskies point it toward the moon and let 'er rip
- Fedex can ship the lot to Russia
Oh, and we need to add a couple of these seats:
http://www.recaro-nao.com/PICS/SUBMENUE/PRODUKTE/
We could do all the Quality Assurance on launch day
in nasa dollars...
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars."
I wonder if boy-toy N'Syncer Lance Bass can raise enough money this time around to make his dream come true.
Y'know, if someone pays $100M for a trip like that, you get 100 miles away from the moon..I'm thinkin' that for that sort of money, it ~ought~ to include a moonwalk. Or at ~least~ a spacewalk.
"Dude! I just got back from orbiting the moon...and I didn't even get a moon-rock. Crap."
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
You get 1 million people to put in a $100 lottery ticket, bamb! Yes, $100 price tag is pretty big for one ticket, but remember, this lottory would be world-wide, so the market's also pretty big.
Russia's previous attempt to put something into space?
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
Since you don't land, how can you be sure you get there? For all you know, the windows might just be LCD displays and they play a movie from one of their earlier unmanned moon missions. They did enough of them. You think some rich kid with a few hundred million to blow on a thrill-ride is going to tell the difference?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Really, in this case "blowing ten million" is about the same as saving people and funding research.
For a mere ten million, one would help brilliant starving Russian scientists to keep the second biggest space program on earth alive, which helps them to prop up America's bizarrely unbalanced space program so it can do space research. The $100 million for the moon trip is even better. With that, the pressure would be off them for quite a while.
The only sense in which one would be "blowing" it is that instead of investing the millions in something where one would get dividends, as such a rich person normally would, he or she would be investing it in something where there is no monetary reward for the investor. It reduces the investors total worth, but the money certainly doesn't disappear!
It's more like a charitable donation to Russia, with a moon ride as the incentive.
Read John Walker and take note of his figures, he is the guy that wrote autocad. http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/rocketaday.html/
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet