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Walk in Space for $15 Million (Plus Airfare)
avtchillsboro writes "A NY Times article has details on a news release by Space Adventures Ltd. (SAL). SAL has previously provided space trips to three wealthy individuals for (US)$20 million. The article announces the $15 million EVA 'upgrade', and quotes SAL chief executive Eric Anderson, who says that the plan has been approved by the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation; but the article also says that NASA has not been informed." From the article: "Fewer than 450 people have traveled to space, and the club of spacewalkers is even more exclusive. Just 151 people have stepped outside the relative safety of their craft to greet the void with only a visor to separate life and death. 'Spacewalk is the ultimate experience that we've managed to invent as humans,' said Tom Jones, a former astronaut and spacewalker who is an adviser to Space Adventures. Being outside the craft when 'there's nothing between you and the ground below but empty space,' he said, is 'incomparable.'"
I wasn't aware that NASA had to be informed about EVAs in space. If the Russians want to allow it, who's to stop them?
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
$15 Million for the space walk but you better have the $100 million if you hope to get back in!
We can send Billy Gates to space almost 3333 times;D
For the holidays. I make about $28(US) an hour, and usually clock in 80 hours per pay period. It would only take me fifteen thousand six hundred twenty-five paychecks to get there, according to Google. Wewt!
Over 450 people have been to space, and 150 have walked in space, but did you know that no-one has ever eaten hot chilis in space?!!
Yes, for only a few dollars more you can be the first* to:
- Sing "I did it my way" while orbiting the equator ($15m)
- Take part in a Rheingold-approved smart mob from 150m up! ($16.5m)
- Experience the dark side of the moon ($50m)
- Dig for diamonds and gold on the surface of the moon ($350m)**
- Dare to try "extreme reentry", just you and a suit and a chute ($5m)
- Do the 'No HAL!' space dance ($30m)
- Learn to patch an inflatable space station using chewing gum and frozen urine ($22.5m)
- Take guitar lessons in space ($32m)
- Conceive your next baby in space ($40m for two)
* Alien visitations not included.
** Precious items recovered from the lunar surface are the property of the tour company.
My blog
"...that the plan has been approved by the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation", who, according to another source, a Mr.Satan, would gladly sell your soul to the devil for the right price, no questions asked.
Since space adventures are (apparently) doing so well with their business perhaps they should buy the ISS. NASA doesn't really need to own it anyway.
They could lease back a couple of permanant spots in the station from the new owners and establish an arrangement for safe harbour in the case of a shuttle failure, at least until 2010.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It's not unusual.
I don have the 15, shit I consider myself fortunate because I am not exactly poor, but come on...
Is this an ad or something? What do I care that the richest people in the globe can do something I can never do(tm)? Is this some kinda trick to make me realize how much better they are or something?
I don't get it.
And I don't need an specialiced company for nothing: for big enough amounts of money you can do WHATEVER you want, yes, I mean it, forget about laws, ethics morals and such, that is just for the lowly like us.
Only news here is that there is a company making it possible (translation, getting the profits).
Is strange there is no company to "realize your forbidden fantasy", or maybe there is but is not anounced in the local channels of course...
When I was a kid, it took billions of dollars and the resources of a superpower to do a space-walk. Now any pre-IPO Google employee can afford it! Exciting times we live in.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Is there any way for a person born into the 'middle class' of American society (access to education, minimal crime suburban living) to make 20 million, much less 35 million, before they are too old to go to space? Let's arbitrarily choose a cutoff age of 60.
I can think of ways that a person MIGHT be able to accumulate this much wealth (I am ommitting exceptional cases, like being one of an enormous number of computer scientists to invent an effective search engine, or doing whatever it takes to be selected as corporate CEO) , but markets change over a person's career fast enough that there's just no way to know.
For instance, the highest paying profession today that a person can take a known route to (there's no known route to becoming a corporate CEO or Donald Trump of real estate) that I can think of would be a specialty surgeon. But, that's in today's market : a surgeon is just a highly skilled technician, the reason salaries are so high is because of the extremely large workload and limited supply of surgeons. (for instance, if a surgeon made the average salary of $200,000 a year but worked 80 hours a week, they only make about 50 bucks an hour. Numerous other jobs make that much money, just noone works those hours)
It is doable : if the person finished their education at 30, they have 30 years to make 15 million dollars. TODAY in some specialties, like orthopedics, the average salary is several hundred thousand. Prudent investment, with decent interest rates, might mean a person would only need to invest about 5 million 15 years earlier, and receive the average overall historical rate of return for the stock market.
No guarantees...but it sounds doable.
Lawyers also have a good shot. If you cashed in on just one million dollar settlement every 2 years, making the 30-40% contingency, plus collecting fees for other smaller cases, a lawyer could make the money. Potentially, much sooner : represent the parents of a crippled child because some deep pocket entity made a preventable error, and 30% of the 10 million dollar settlement is yours. Invest it, and plan on going to space in 15 years. Only a tiny fraction of the lawyers in this country ever collect on something that big, I suspect, however. (I don't actually know if this is the case)
All of this assumes many things, 30 years ago (1976) no-one could have predicted that commercial space flight would be available for 15 million dollars. Most people would have probably assumed it would be much, much cheaper and more common, actually. Or un-available.
I wonder what other unique life experiences can be had for 15 million. I can't think of anything that costs more than a million, actually. An enormous mansion or private jet doesn't count, that isn't unique enough.
What? A bit like skydiving? Or jumping off the ground?
From the summary:
Man, meet Infinity. Infinity, meet Man... Can I get you two something to drink? Perhaps a scotch, or some champagne?
I think we should send our politicians into space, and I don't mean this as some sort of crass joke about death in a vacuum. We should send up these "World Leaders" and let them see just how small, how fragile our Earth is, how little blue-green haze separates us from the infinite donut, or is it a soccer ball?
I've had dreams of space, vivid, lucid dreams of being out in the infinite with nothing separating me from the universe - not even a space suit, cause they're dreams you know. I've filled my head with enough pictures of Earth to imagine the sight of our space-faring home, looping and winging it's way through the Big Black in it's slightly off-centre orbit around Sol, our system of planets and star meandering along with the rest of the third arm.
I'd love to see it for real. I know I probably won't in this life-time, so reincarnation is a nifty thing to wish upon for now.
The politicians have the money and the resources though. They should go up, climb out of our gravity well and look upon the Earth, see just for themselves what it's like to stare down at their countries and feel the wonder of covering the United States of America, or Australia, with their palm, to blot out the United Kingdom with their thumb.
They need to feel that wonder, that awe of seeing where we all live and realising that it's a tiny place in the universe, and we should really be focusing our war efforts on peaceful resolutions, scientific colaboration, and a joint effort to get out into our own galaxy, at least, and see if we can really make something of ourselves, rather than squabbling like children in the school yard.
I'm sorry, I have no real point, I'm rambling.
Te Quiero, Puta!
How many commercial products can I carry up there? I'd think that the licensing on pictures of me doing air guitar in space with a big ad for some online casino would probably be in the 6 figures at least, and for a network tv ad like a super bowl ad, i could probably come close to making back my investment to go up there.
stuff |
This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Nice ideas. I've decided to patent them all so please add $1m to all your listed prices, for royalty payments. Thank-you.
Also I am patenting:
Accessing a database in space.
Running a webserver in space.
Using a mobile phone in space.
Listening to music in space.
Swinging on a swing in space.
Plus many others...
I'll probably be modded down for this...
You have to take risks, work your butt off, and be a little lucky.
Did you see the recent article on the 10 dumbest internet sales ideas that made money?
Does that give you a hint?
Look, there are many successful people who had a great many stupid ideas. The nice thing is that the stupid ideas they had are usually forgotten, unless they already are rich and then they get ridiculed for awhile until their next big success.
People constant rant that the middle class has no chance. Well that is bunk. Hell you picked lawyers and such (with unrealistic views of what the majority get into) and many of them came from middle class families. Lots of doctors are the same way.
Do you have what it takes to dedicate 8+ years to learn a trade, and then another 8-16 to be very successful at it?
Most people don't. That is what separates those who make the transition from lower/middle/upper to the ranks of millionaires. Many people reach a level of contentment. They are happy and see no reason to push. For others its a dream worth obtaining.
Got to love some of the typical whine responses I saw, about how wasteful it is, especially throwing out the guilt card. I don't what is worse, posters throwing the guilt card or race card. Seems the whiners always have a deck to play with. Yet society doesn't move on without people having dreams and the incentive to get there.
There probably are a lot of HS/College students this day looking to go to space. Many will plan for it and only a few will succeed. A lot of that success is from hard work and dedication. Sure luck will help but if you count on it you are already half way to failing.
The common thread among the guys we label "the owners" of the company I work for is that they put in more hours than most people imagine. Two of them are over 75 and they still "work". The spend their freetime alright, but they still work. Yet they got where they were because they did put in the hours. Do you have what it takes to put in 60-80 hours a week for dozens of years?
So, middle class or not, a spacewalk is possible for almost anyone. The key is making it happen. Hell, who knows, by the time you have the money needed you probably will have found something else to do with it. You might even be one to shut the whiners up by dedicating large amounts to hunger!
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...where they'll make damn sure the common man can never afford to go!
I wonder if Mark Shuttleworth (Thawte, Ubuntu, ...etc.) will go up one more time just for the space walk.
From what he said, being in space was something he always dreamed about.
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Incomparable? I guess the guy has never heard of base jumping... 300 kilometers above the ground? What a pussy..lol
Do you think 10 million people would pay $20 USD for a year long raffle at chance to walk in space ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Ten thousand for a 1 day trip plus all the training, etc.? Twenty years? Fifty years? Think how far we've come in the last 10 years w/computers. Space technology hasn't progressed much and it needs to take a leap soon. I really hope it's within reach for us all before we're gone. I think it will happen because of all the commercial interest that is generating new and creative designs. I'd like to be in Star Fleet at some point.
Do or do not. There is no try. --Yoda
"Spacewalk is the ultimate experience that we've managed to invent as humans"
Ha! Author obviously doesn't own a GeForce 7900GTX, and/or he's never tried pot. There is nothing like pot..
I'll need another penny jar now. Ah well.
So, what, did they finally add an S2 engine?
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
While I am all for man exploring the universe and getting off this lovely rock (we could use an off-site backup of our species), I find space tourism to be utterly repugnant. It's a gross example of environmental destruction in exchange for personal fulfillment. How many thousands of gallons of fuel will be ignited, leaving exhaust to circle the globe, so that some rich ponce can float about for a bit and subsequently be the toast of his next Manhattan cocktail party..
/rant
"Yes," he'll nod to his circle of gawkers, "when you're up there you come to appreciate what a marvelous planet we have, what an oasis of life in the sterile expanse of space." And everyone will murmur appreciatively, thinking themselves in the presence of a wiser man. Nevermind that this patrician ass has singularly done more to damage the world than 99.99% of the population.
I hold those who travel to the far corners of the world to a similar but lesser degree of contempt. "Oh, you climbed Kilimanjaro? How lovely! Good for you! That was only a few hundred gallons of fuel beween the flights, drives, campfires, etc. Plus as an added bonus you were able to dot the landscape with your feces! Now do give me a smug rundown of all your travels so I can be thoroughly impressed!"
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
In Soviet Russia, the Darwin wins YOU.
In other news, NASA launched a three year program to explore MySpace.
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Let me see, we need a force to bring the swing back to the center.
:)
Well I could attach a spring to the bottom of the swing and to the floor.
Yay, I'm a genius!! Do I get the patent now?
Or even better, you could just swing from side to side by pulling on the chains! Oh wait, someone already patented that.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
If I had that kind of money I wouldn't pay $15mil to boost Russia's economy. Instead, I'd invest in Scaled Composites space endeavors, and as part of the agreement for that investment I'd require several rides. By doing that, not only would I be earning a return down the road, I'd get a few joyrides, be involved in new technology rather than getting a joyride in 40+ year old technology, and helping to ensure that private space flights become commonplace and more accessible to all. Do you think Russia is going to put that money into R&D on better technology?
But then again, Russia's space tours cater to those who have more money than vision or intelligence.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Just 151 people have stepped outside the relative safety of their (space)craft to greet the void with only a visor to separate life and death.
Only a visor? I think this number is off by 151.
:wq
Every week I spend a dollar on a hope and a dream and buy a powerball lottery ticket. This week the jackpot is 116 million. If I were to win, and take the lump sum payment which is 58 million. Then subtract 50% for federal and state taxes which leaves me with 29 million. not enough for the 20+15 million to go spacewalk.
Remember, the Powerball Lotto is not "a fair bet" until the jackpot approches $300M, or so (taxes not included).
You already seem to have a firm grasp on the time value of money and the tax issue. Just thought I'd toss in a buck of cold odds.
("Fair Bet" defined as expected payout = cost. E.g. 1/142 millionth of a dollar per dollar wagered.)
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Technically, you are better off spending, say $52 on lotto tickets on one draw where the prize is "big", rather than one per week, when the prize is way too low vs the odds.
1 ticket = 1 chance in 142 million, 2 tickets = 1 chance in 71 million, etc... assuming you don't pick the same numbers on each ticket, of course :-)
BTW - in Vegas, I think they only look to see if you have over 20$ in play... then you get free drinks. I figure I make about $6/hr playing video poker, with what I am willing to wager. It is not a loss, but not better than flipping burgers. However, it is much better than most people do in Vegas. I'm with you, I'd prefer to spend money to see Penn & Teller or something, not watch it dwindle on losing propositions.
Lottos (and Slot Machines) are crappy games, odds-wise, but they are worth a buck, once in a while, if you can afford it, but no more than that. If it was your day to get hit by lightning while being stung by a bee - maybe you will win, you'll need it to pay the hospital bills...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Actually, there is a view that space tourism is the key to making space flight affordable. Space tourism - unlike satellite launches, or science - can grow to a large number of launches per year. Therefore economies of scale can come in to play. According to this article http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/public_choice_e conomics_and_space_policy_realising_space_tourism. shtml space tourism is the key to economically viable space travel.
Low cost to orbit made possible by space tourism then opens up the really interesting space opportunities.
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.
You are gay!
...that was Pat Boone!