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Space Tourism from UAE
RAK writes "The only company to have sent tourists into space, Space Adventures, has announced plans to develop a commercial spaceport in the UAE, from where it will operate suborbital flights. The project will cost $265 million. The Russian-built suborbital vehicle called Explorer will have the capacity to transport up to five people to an altitude of nearly 100km in space, but the project's schedule is yet to be announced."
For those of you slightly lacking in geography, UAE stands for the United Arab Emirates, a country located on the Arabian Peninsula just east of Saudi Arabia.
... do I get a window seat?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.
It's a good thing they picked such a quiet part of the world. I suppose it's so they can ditch over Iran, which is right across the Gulf, well within missle range.
...that read it as "UAC"?
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
It should be noted that this is basicaly the same story as the article earlier today on "Space Race 2.0 has Begun". It's an interesting story, though, and I don't mind seeing another link on it.
Also, for anybody ogling at the $265 million price for the spaceport, this is also about how much an airport might cost. It should also be noted that the UAE is a country where people are spending $1.8 billion on a chain of artificial islands arranged to look like a map of the world.
Couldn't resist the troll for those who may not know. The UAE is not your typical "Arab nation". In fact, they are quite a bit more friendly with us than many other nations, Islamic, Arabic or not. Here is the State Department's take on the UAE. Actually some pretty interesting information to be had.
I am Homer of Borg. Resistance is Fut.. Mmmmmmmm, Donuts!
I wonder what the particular attraction of building it there is?
Probably 3 main things,
- Cheap fuel
- Wealthy elite prepared to pay
- Cheap labour, with little workers' protection (safe working conditions, etc - this is an assumption on my part)
This must have something to do with Michael Jackson spending a lot of time in the Gulf... http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=entertai nment&id=3819248
Coincidence? I think not.
"Because of Ras Al-Khaimah's unique airport and spaceport support facilities, His Highness' commitment to space tourism, and the close proximity to Dubai, one of the world's leading luxury tourist destinations, makes it a choice location for spaceflight operations," said Mr. Anderson. "As a global leader of tourism, the United Arab Emirates is an ideal location for a spaceport. Suborbital flights will offer millions of people the opportunity to experience the greatest adventure available, space travel. We are honored to partner with His Highness Sheikh Saud."
I know that being nearer the equator is better for launch than elsewhere, so perhaps that helps to cut costs.
But in the future, when the Gulf has less income, due to less oil, won't their economies die? I have a hard time seeing them sustaining anything once the lifeblood of their economy is exhausted.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
A company based in the UAE is currently trying to take over operation of 6 ports in the US, including the port of Baltimore. Needless to say, the local radio talk shows are doubling output of useless banter to "do something" about it.
Less oil doesn't necessarily mean less money for Dubai, at least not immediately. The less oil there is, the more they can charge for the oil that they do have.
That makes about a gazillion assumptions, like "Dubai won't be the first to run out of oil". But basically, even if we're at peak oil, Dubai will probably be very rich for at least another half-century or so. And when you're talking about ultra-luxe tourist destinations, that's well past your horizon of thinking.
From a technical level, the primary reason may be that it's pretty far south, as friends of Russia go. It's roughly on a latitude with Florida. Ideally you'd like something equatoria, but Russia doesn't have many friends in Africa or South America, and none of the countries on the African Equator are particularly safe.
I don't know how the American Military is going to feel about a potential space borne weapon being located in the Middle East, even without explosives the kinetic energy from 100km is more than enough to cause a lot of damage in a populated area.
It may interest you to know that the UAE is quite friendly towards western nations, and still has the respect of more hostile middle eastern countries.
I know that Australia has significant diplomatic and strategic interests there (as long as the UAE wants them around), I'm pretty sure the USA already does as well.
As over 90% of the worlds Oil is found in and around middle east, it is a place floating in surplus money. Though some of these nations have made a mess of their resources by going to war and destroying their economy.
By using UAE as the base, the project team has ensured steady supply of cheap gas for their rockets (or planes?). I hear gas is cheaper than drinking water in the middle east.
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The largest number of 'westerners' in the UAE are from Britain. Americans come second.
I was brought up in the UAE actually, and people who havne't been there think 'middle east' and go 'OMG! TERr0r1s+!"
Actually, Dubai is often referred to as the Hong Kong of the middle east. Very liberal, very modern, very rich, and quite tolerant.
- Tempestdata
Nevertheless, having competition in a foreign country may lead to financing for domestic initiatives from the US government. Whether or not that's a good thing is up for debate.
Sorry, but you're wrong. The US has never "remotely attacked other countries", all opperations involved personnel on the ground. If you're talking about total number of wars, I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's deffinitely not the US. Russia/USSR makes a good showing. Here's a (incomplete) list:
Latvian Partisan War 1944-49
Lithuanian Partisan War 1944-52
Kurdish Mahabad Republic 1945-46
Berlin Blockade 1948-9
East German Uprising 1953
Hungarian Revolt 1956
Stanleyville Secession: Congo 1960-1
Berlin Wall Crisis 1961
Prague Spring 1968
Sino-Soviet Border Clash 1969
Lithuanian Students Revolt 1972
Soviet Occupation: Afghanistan 1979-88
Shooting Down of KAL007: 1983
Osh Riots: Kyrgyzstan 1990
South Ossetian Rebellion 1990-92
Soviet Intervention: Latvia 1991
Moldovan Civil War 1991-92
Georgian Civil War 1991
Abkhazian Rebellion 1992-93
Tajikistani Civil War 1992-4
Georgian Civil War 1993-94
Russian Communist Revolt 1993
Chechen Revolt: Russia 1994-6
But the initial poster WAS a doofus. The UAE is an ally, and space-shuttles are rather expensive things to be lobbing at appartment buildings.
Space tourism, human trafficking and slavery - and oil, of course - the modern UAE. What an explosive mixture. Where else do we get that. http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/UnitedArabEmirat es.htm
Uhm, rockets don't use "gas" or "petrol" Ding, but thanks for playing...duh
I was brought up there in fact. I'm currently in california, but you're right. Dubai is a pretty interesting place right now. .a lot of people are making a lot of money. Its a lot more like Hong kong in my opinion than New York though. Atleast its more descriptive of how Dubai makes its money.
- Tempestdata
They're now locked in a massive lawsuit in something like a dozen US States over potential port security, right now, owing to fears that they're going to utterly demolish the (non-existant) port security of America. This space tourism venture is interesting, but there are considerable risks that political hostilities could seriously impact any high-tech operation in the UAE. Also, we are talking about a region that is troubled and definitely outside of the US' "tier 1" for ITAR purposes. It will be interesting to see what happens, but until things improve, I would recommend seeing at a suitably LONG distance.
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)
As over 90% of the worlds Oil is found in and around middle east
What the hell?
North America 16.48%
Central & South America 8.00%
Western Europe 1.16%
Eastern Europe & Former U.S.S.R. 6.13%
Middle East 57.52%
Africa 7.94%
Asia & Oceania 2.78%
Try again?
True.
.. (The current Kings grand father) was known to have once stood up for the Hindus, who have a temple in a region of the city called Bur Dubai. The residents living near the temple started complaining about the sound of the bells from the temple and asked the king to have it moved or demolished.
Sheikh Rashid
The King, shook his head and said "If the bells bother you so much, you are free to move elsewhere".
This is especially significant because, Hinduism, unlike christianity is Idol worship. And Islam is strongly against Idol worship...
I dont think there is another hindu temple anywhere else in the Middle east. There is a strong fundamentalist movement in dubai as well, but there is a deep multicultural base to the city, and moderation is strongly enforced. While going to school there, I had friends who were Muslims, christians, hindus, and sikhs as class mates and friends. No one was targetted for their religion in anyway and it wasn't even considered an issue. There were students of many nationalities.. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Arabs, Iranians, Britons, Lebanese, Egyptians, Chinese, Filipino, Sudanese, Tanzanian, Sri Lankan .
In fact, I think Dubai has a greater cultural and religious mix than the US. The native Arabs make up only a fraction of the population.
- Tempestdata
..another man's ICBM.
What you don't realize is, His Highness really hates being called that. Just like when Princess Leia got pissed at Han, he keeps going, "will you stop calling me that?" but since nobody's trying to get in his pants the way Han was, they never stop, they just keep it going 'cause they know it eggs him on.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
He might put you on His no-fly list for your insolence. :)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
I used to hang out there as a kid, playing Pac-man and Donkey Kong. And later on, Golden Axe. It's very exciting that they're expanding their franchise to UAE, especially since I had thought they had gone out of business. Although the wisdom of building a $265 million video arcade is questionable.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Another important attribute of a potential spaceport, aside from being near the equator, is to have a large body of water to the east of you, because usually you're going to be launching eastward (to take advantage of the Earth's rotation). So the UAE also benefits from having an eastern coastline. It doesn't have to be a particularly large body of water; just enough so any spent rocket stanges can be dropped off into the ocean. Alternatively, large stretches of empty land can also work.
Bruce
middle eastern nation into space based on bought plans and oil money?
Too bad...
Maybe this will help to take some of the attention off the astronauts and put it back on the engineers who actually work and develop these technologies.
Yeah, we're getting a spaceport in New Mexico too. Seems some people really must think this whole space tourism thing is really going to take off... http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060216_spacep ort_update.html
Remember that error from Windows 3.x days? :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Would you prefer he be called the Chief Executive Officer? VP Country Development perhaps? Chief Desert Nation Architect maybe? Mr President?
Incorrect- Muscat alone has two Hindu temples [http://www.indemb-oman.org/indo_oman_community.sh tml%5D. And there are numerous "unofficial" temples in the various labour camps of construction companies.
From what I've heard though, the cosmopolitan nature of dubai is not unique to it in the region- Muscat has it, albeit on a much smaller scale, and from what my friends in the region say, Kuwait, Doha and Manama aren't too different.
The UAE might be friendly towards us, but it has a sketchy history when it comes to terrorism. As mentioned, our current administration is trying to sell them 6 of our largest ports. That purchase, however, has been blocked by a 7-member bipartisan group in congress because of the country's terrorist activity. Here are some of the things they mention:
- The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
- The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.
- According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.
- After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts.
Check it out.
Be sure to run that schpiel by the judge, next time you're in court and don't feel like calling him 'Your Honor'.
A-Bomb
Sure, but rocket fuel is usually derived from the energy in crude oil.
"altitude of nearly 100km"
As the standard definition of space is 100km, doesn't that mean they're not actually going into space? It's just a high altitude flight, not spaceflight. (They could be using the lower US defn, but no-one else will pay any attention to them if they do.)
Guys, are you sure about calling it 'Explorer'?
Sounds a bit 'crashy' to me...
How can you burn karma if you have none, Anonymous Coward?
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Heck - that alone would be reason enough for some neocon dumbass to go invade them - just out of spite... It's like straight out of Syriana...
"You want to know what we think of you people? We think 100 years ago you were living in tents and chopping each other's heads off, and in another 100 years, that's exactly where you're going to be. Now, on behalf of my company, I am happy to accept your money."
Sometimes people are so pathetic.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
void
Actually, UAE stands for Universal Amiga Emulator (or some slight variations depending on who you ask). Those Arabian folks really should quit hogging the namespace ;)
I've just come back from the UAE and what they are doing to that country id incredible. They are doubling the capacity of the existing 90 million person per year airport and building another capable of handling 150 million. They have one of the world's biggest ports and expanding control of other international port facilities. Meanwhile the whole country is being developed as a commercial hub. UAE don't have much oil compared to Saudi or Iran and are using the money from what they have to develop as a trading hub. Other countries could learn from this example of self-investment.
Well that's easy then. By your logic, the US can start slaughtering people in, say, Ohio and Kentucky, just for kicks. Followed by invading Canada and Mexico because they're neighboring countries, AND Canada is a NATO member, therefore the US has the "legal obligation to maintain the law" within it's borders, right? The USSR had no right even to prevent members states of its own union from seceding (and was ultimately unsuccessful in doing so), let alone to interfere within the borders of neighboring states. Only a true lunatic could declare that it's ok to invade bordering nations, but not ones half the world away. By your logic, Germany did nothing wrong when it attacked its neighbors in the 1930's, and the US and Canada were the aggressors in WW2 because they had to cross an ocean to join in the fight. In short, you're a whack job. Sit down before you fall down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman are two of the nicest and most progressive countries in the Middle East. I lived in Oman for about seven months, and I am still amazed at the change that has happend in 30 years (the Sultan is pretty unique among rulers). Much of the rest of the Mid East feels like it is a world apart.
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
The Italians were the first to sell automobiles to the Gulf, in an effort to make themselves look better.
...the tags.
Perhaps he figured that they were redundant?
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Oh and the US did not massacre the Apaches and the Comanches inside its own border and btw the US has invaded both Canada and Mexico . Go read your history. None of the so called Eastern European revolutions were natural ones . They were all instigated with external CIA funds. In any society you can find enough deadbeats and disaffected people . If you have a competitor nation willing to throw enough money at them all kinds of seccesionist and DAWN movements will break out. And BTW why does the US maintain an embargo on Cuba which is strangling the poor nation? It is all very well to say communism doesnt work when you economically strangle the communist countries. Th fact of the matter is at the end of WW2 the US had a strong economy as the US had not really fought in WW2 just supplied materials while the USSR was pretty much devastated with most of their young men dead. From that position the fact that the USSR was able to go toe to toe with the US a country with a much larger population and hence an economy just shows that communism is much more efficient than capitalism. The only thing you get in capitalism than in communism is the obscene rich. People mentally are still serfs and they need to see a supra rich class of society if only to dream that they may become like that some day (even if they have no chance of actually breaking into the old boy's club) This is something they dont get in communism hence eventually all communist systems fail. What it comes down to is Communism assumes peole are basically good and want the best for their comrades. Capitalism assumes people are selfish greedy and will screw over whoever they can for a quick buck. Unfortunately for human society capitalism is a better representation of human nature. One day when humanity has matured from its animal instincts we might actually get a proper communist system running. Till then people will continue to ruin their lives running the rat race of capitalism. Tell me do you actually believe a CEO does 500000 times more work than a janitor in a day? If not how do you justify a CEO getting paid 10 million a year and a Janitor 20000 a year. Capitalism is not a fair system. It gives a disproportionate amount of society's goods to those at the top. As a result a capitalist society has to keep those at the bottom constantly distracted. So sometimes its the Nazis, then its the Reds, then its Red China, then its Islamic fundamentalist with sideshows on abortion,gay marriage and a whole lot of irrelevant issues while noone pays attention to the fact that why does the top 1% of the American population own 90% of America's wealth? Even the Roman empire at the height of its decadence had not managed such a concentration of wealth in the hands of such a few. America today is a society of the deal maker and the contacts. It doesnt matter how good you are or how hard working you are- its all about who you know or who you can convince to back you. The only way open for someone to rise up is to become a part of the system which keeps propagating the riches of a few. Brilliant but poor young people do this by becoming lawyers and managers for the entrenched rich. Meanwhile an illusion of Democracy is maitained while everybody knows noone who is not already a millionaire can be elected US President anymore. At the same time wars are started to protect this wealth. The cost of the war is paid in blood by the poor and in taxes by the fast dissapearing middle class but the benefits are reaped by the rich. Further the life of the middle class is limited. The Middle Class was created as an example to those in the Communist countries as to how the working man could lead a high standard of living. It was very successfull as the communist societies brokedown as everyone talented wanted to emigrate to the US and become a part of the middle class but now that there are no more true communist countires left (China is the ultimate example of crony capitalism) the middle class is no longer needed and is being squeezed out of existence. You can push the revolution only so many
**Life is too short to be serious**
:D
I only wish I could mod your post "funny".
Good day sir.
There is nothing wrong with funding space tourism with oil profits. At least they are obtaining their oil supply in a civil manner.