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.'"

Comments

NASA not informed?

[Zouden]

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?

$15 million for a thrill?

[pedantic bore]

I can't help but feel that there's something morally wrong with spending that much money on something that lasts a few minutes, can't be shared, etc., while back in the real world people are starving, school budgets are shrinking...

Re:$15 million for a thrill?

[Tim C]

Taken to its logical conclusion, none of us here should be spending the money on an internet connection, computer, console, TV, etc. Sure, none of those things on their own are very expensive, but taken as a whole over the whole population, it adds up.

My £15/month for my ADSL connection, for example, would feed a family or two in the poorest parts of Africa, and yet here I am...

Re:$15 million for a thrill?

[suffe]

It's not like they are taking a pile of $15M and setting it on fire. I would assume that most of the cost related to this will go back in to the economy in one way or another. Labor costs for constructing the EVA suit, material costs, labor costs for digging the material out of the ground et cetera. In other words, the money will just be allocated to some other place in the economy. Recommended reading would be Macroeconomics 101, Velocity of Money and perhaps something by Modigliani or Friedman.

Now as for the price of the additional rocket fuel (not included in the $15M) is a completely different matter. Now that is, literally. burning money.

Let me introduce you...

[celotil]

From the summary:

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.'"

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.

Re:Lease back

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, all they'd need to do is sell about 3,000 of these EVA packages to begin to break even..

The ultimate experience

[Frightening]

"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..

Re:Sure, destroy the environment for your kicks

[BlacKat]

Over-reacting much?

Last I heard the space tourists didn't go up on a special launch just for them, they went up on a mission that was already scheduled... so the fuel would of been burnt anyway.

As for the travelling around the world... you just come of sounding like a jealous jerk with that little rant... dotting feces around the landscape... oh yea, that is going to have an impact... unlike the millions of animals doing exactly that daily.

I hope you drive some nice fuel-efficient vehicle... or better yet bike/walk everywhere after that rant... or do you need to pop down to the gas-station and fill up your SUV now? ;)

Re:Sure, destroy the environment for your kicks

[lawaetf1]

Wrong, wrong, my good chum.
Space tourism is a whole new industry that's completely separate from the tag-along flights that Mark Shuttleworth, et al, did. Have you heard of Virgin's space tourism program or have you been living in a cave for the last 3 years with your sunglasses on and your fingers in your ears?
And the fuel wouldn't have "been burned anyway" as you so blithely put it. There's a very exact ratio of pounds of fuel needed to get 1lb into orbit.

As far as traveling abroad, yes, I'm a little disappointed that I can't bounce around the world to my heart's content. I can *afford* to but I can't in good conscience set fire to a few dozen barrels of fuel so that I can feel "travelled." I'll read a good book and let my imagination roam if need be.

I don't drive (or own a car), don't buy new clothes or other crap unless I need to. Hell, I even feel a bit guilty about my profession. Every time I rack a new machine for one of my clients for some generally worthless web site I think about the thousands of pounds of coal (or gas or whatever) that it took to create and ship this shitty little 1U and that it will cause to be burned in its lifetime.

Your comparison of human waste to animal exemplifies your misunderstanding of the situation. An environmental system can handle, and even needs, waste products to maintain balance. But when you have thousands of people in a certain area at the same time, year round, the system can no longer handle the excess and the result is -- pollution. Ditto for our rampant consumption of fossil fuels. A few forest fires here and there were easily absorbed by the global system but our current carbon output is way, way beyond the system's ability to maintain homeostasis.

I'm not saying we should all stay inside and refrain from any activity at all. But we do need to realize that our planet is at a crisis point right here. I'd love to go into space and be able to cup God's handiwork between my hands. But I have too much respect for what's here to indulge myself in such a trip.

I just ask that we try to be a little more thoughtful about our actions. The pursuit of happiness is important but it should not come at the expense of our home.