X-Prize Funder Will Be First Female Tourist In Space

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters has the news that Anousheh Ansari, the funder of the X Prize, has been named as the first female tourist in space. She'll be going up in mid-September after a Japanese entrepeneur was deemed unfit for the trip." From the article: "Ansari, a 39-year-old chairwoman and co-founder of Prodea Systems, Inc., a digital home technology company, will be the world's fourth space tourist. 'Anousheh Ansari has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew,' Space Adventures, working in partnership with Russia's space agency Roskosmos to launch space tourists, said in a statement."

Comments

Insert chauvanistic remark here

[UberG�ber]

...Just don't let her drive.

Gotta say it...

[Anonymous Coward]

The shuttle will now be pulling over every half an hour so she can go to the bathroom and stretch her legs.

Re:Gotta say it...

[megaditto]

Not that funny. Going to the bathroom at zero-G is not pretty. While males have a condom-like urine collection device, females are forced to essentially urinate into a diaper. I guess this is because things like catheters carry a high risk of injury and infection.

Also, it is impossible to have a smoke in space since the matches cannot be lit up.

Re:Gotta say it...

[BrunoBigfoot]

Really? I never would have guessed. I thought the joke was taking stereotypical male complaints about stereotypical female behaviour while road travelling and finding the space travel equivalent. But then again, I am fairly familiar with face-value humour.

Re:Gotta say it...

[redleaf8]

Forget it Google is my friend.

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answer s/970411a.html

The Question
(Submitted April 11, 1997)

My first graders want to know, How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space? I think the potty chair is in place. Is this correct?

The Answer
We have come up with a number of answers to your question. We will let you, as the professional teacher, decide which is appropriate for your classroom and what is best left to the teachers lounge.

I. The Official NASA pages:

A. There is a nice space shuttle web page at: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ Digging in there I found a Q&A Web page. Here's what it says: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/faq/ living.html

6. How do you take a bath, brush your teeth, and go to the bathroom in space?

We do not have a bath or shower on the Shuttle, so we just wash off with wet washcloths, using soaps that you don't have to rinse off. When we brush our teeth, we can either swallow the toothpaste or spit it into a washcloth. Designing a toilet for zero-gravity is tougher. We use air flow to make the urine or feces go where we want, since gravity will not do it for us. You have to be more careful and think about what you are doing with the toilet in the Shuttle.

B. Another colleague pointed out that Johnson Space Center is the home of the astronauts, and they have some web pages dealing with this issue too. (We really know little more than you do about the astronaut program -- but they do.)

Their home page at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/ has links for KIDS, EDUCATORS, and more.

I went to their page: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/more.html and this is what I found:

This used to be under the old FAQ at Spacelink. It has since been removed.

4. HOW DO ASTRONAUTS GO TO THE BATHROOM AND TAKE CARE OF OTHER PERSONAL HYGIENE?
Each Space Shuttle has a toilet that can be used by both men and women. Designed to be as much as possible like those on Earth, the units use flowing air instead of water to move waste through the system.

Solid wastes are compressed and stored on-board, and then removed after landing. Waste water is vented to space, although future systems may recycle it. The air is filtered to remove odor and bacteria and then returned to the cabin.

Astronauts brush their teeth just like they do on Earth. There is no shower on the Shuttle, so astronauts must make do with sponge baths until they return home.

The toilet that was first flown aboard STS-54 is completely new in design and offers new and improved features:

The new toilet features better hygiene, larger storage capacity, greater dependability, and an overall cost savings in maintenance.

-The previous model had a 14-day capacity for storage of waste material. The new model has an unlimited storage capacity.

-The new model features a cylinder system where a plastic bag is placed in the toilet before use. The bag is then sealed and is forced to the bottom of the cylinder after each use by a plunger attached to a lever. A new bag is then placed in the toilet for the next astronaut. When the cylinder is filled, it is replaced by a new cylinder.

-The previous model relied on air flow to pull the waste to a holding tank. None of the waste was separated as it is now. The new system provides better hygiene conditions. There was no way to empty the old system. When it was full, it simply could hold no more waste materials. It had a 14 day capacity.

-The new toilet also provides an odor-free environment. The old model did not.

-The opening in the lid of the toilet was increased from 4" to 8", allowing for easier handling of the plasti

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space? Unless we're going to have stories over the first green eyed person in space and the first left hander etc. ad nauseam. Why pick this person out as exceptional?

Re:Hmmm

[pedantic bore]

Well, she is darned exceptional.

But you're right, the sexist spin of the article is both disgusting and archaic -- but easily explained. "Nth space tourist" doesn't get a headline; "First female space tourist" does. Given that these companies are trying to promote space tourism, they are likely to issue press releases with whatever hook will help get them published. "First space tourist with green eyes", etc. might not play in Peoria, but I bet we'll see "First grandma space tourist", "first cancer survivor space tourist", etc sooner or later.

Re:Hmmm

[kfg]

Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space?

Well, it was 1963, you have to make some allowances for the attitudes of the time. Eileen Collins was the first shuttle commander after the Columbia disaster and Ansari will be the 40somthingth woman in space.

KFG

Re:Hmmm

[FleaPlus]

But you're right, the sexist spin of the article is both disgusting and archaic -- but easily explained. "Nth space tourist" doesn't get a headline; "First female space tourist" does.

Indeed. I actually tried submitting this story to slashdot a few days ago, but I didn't emphasize the "first female space tourist" angle. This was rejected, along with a later variant. For the curious, here's the text of my submissions. The submissions also include links to some better articles, and Anousheh Ansari's official site. For those of you who are curious, the links also contain photos of Ansari:

X Prize Donor to Visit ISS

The BBC reports that engineer-entrepreneur (and Iranian-American) Anousheh Ansari will be the next self-funded visitor to the International Space Station. Anousheh Ansari is known for her multi-million dollar donation to the Ansari X Prize and her company's funding of plans to build private spaceports in Singapore and the UAE. She will launch to the ISS on a Russian rocket next month.

The BBC reports that engineer-entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari will be the next self-funded visitor to the International Space Station. Known for her multi-million dollar donation to the Ansari X Prize, she will launch to the ISS on a Russian rocket next month, fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. Ansari recently discussed her hopes for Bigelow Aerospace -- which successfully launched their private space station prototype this summer -- to provide a better-suited destination for an increased number of commercial astronauts in the future.

Re:Hmmm

[smallpaul]

Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space?

No. Women (especially Iranian women) have greater hurdles to their accomplishment. So the article highlights that she's done something unique by overcoming those extra hurdles. It is only sexist to highlight this if one presumes that these hurdles are innate and not imposed. Second, such a media event could encourage young girls to reject sterotypes and study science and business. This could help increase the pool of engineers and entrepreneurs. Third, because men tend to be dominant in society, one tends to assume things like that the funders of the X-Prize are likely to be all men. Correcting this misperception helps to dispell the underlying stereotypes. So I think it is good to publicize this aspect.

Re:Hmmm

[spaceyhackerlady]

Well, it was 1963, you have to make some allowances for the attitudes of the time. Eileen Collins was the first shuttle commander after the Columbia disaster and Ansari will be the 40somthingth woman in space.

In 1963 everything to do with space was A Big Deal.

At the time of Mercury and Gemini a number of women quietly tried out to be astronauts. They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space. The 20 year gap between Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride included U.S. president Nixon signing legislation mandating equal employment opportunity for all U.S. federal government agencies. There were no exceptions, so NASA was dragged kicking and screaming in to the 20th century.

...laura, who meets Shuttle height requirements but would need to lose some weight

Re:Hmmm

[kfg]

In 1963 everything to do with space was A Big Deal.

I remember.

They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space.

Bloody goddam shame, but then at the time it was a big deal that Jackie wore pants. There were less well known women who got assaulted for doing the same, as I was once assaulted for letting my hair grow long.

People are funny critters.

KFG

To all you geeks knocking her

[BiggerIsBetter]

I don't recall people having this attitude when Shuttleworth went up, so why all the smartarse comments just because she's female? She's done more with her life than most of you ever will. Mad props to her, she's worked hard to make this happen.

Re:To all you geeks knocking her

[BrunoBigfoot]

Perhaps they consider Shuttleworth to be more Shuttle-worthy.

Would you go?

[legoburner]

If you had the spare $20million knocking around, would you head off to the ISS or would you wait for the cheaper, (safer?) Virgin Galactic service to start trips to 100km up? Virgin costs $200000 per trip... is the ISS trip worth 100 times more?

Personally I'd sooner go for 100 trips on Virgin Galactic. Maybe when the ISS is complete it will be more tempting, but only when the Disney fun modules are complete and equipped. (Not to mention the italian restaurant module).

Re:Would you go?

[starbird]

There is a huge difference between a suborbital hop lasting 15-20 minutes, and a 1 or 2 week stay in microgravity.

20million is cheap.

Re:First post, man.

[SigILL]

I GOT FIRST PoST!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111

From space?

As a woman, I gotta say "Cool!"

[Mistshadow2k4]

But as a nerd, I gotta say "It would be even cooler if she were going to head a project afterward to make a great, totally free Linux distro".

Gotta say...

[owlnation]

OMG!!!!11!! Space Ponies!!!1!

photo caption contest

[sunhou]

Surely someone will have a good description of this photo of Anousheh Ansari.

Re:What the

[khallow]

Because she paid 20 million USD to be there. Come on! That was easy.

Enomoto ain't going?

[Megane]

It was only last week, but I'm surprised that I hadn't heard in the "usual places" (slashdot, digg) that Dice-K (check out that picture!) got grounded. Damn, now we don't get to make jokes about Otakus! In! Space! Rumor had it he was planning to wear some sort of costume while up there.

Trivia: it was only revealed a few months ago (because that's now long it took Neil to realize it) that translator Neil Nadelman came up with that nickname.

She Deserves This

[Rob Carr]

Anoushe Ansari funded the X-Prize. She deserves this, and yet she's paying for it -- again helping to grow the private space industry.

Even more entertaining, she's a lot of people's worst nightmare:

• The Muslim extremists are horrified that a woman is accomplishing so much...and not having to walk 10 paces behind the Soyuz on the way to orbit.
• The Christian extremists are horrified that a woman is accomplsihing so much...and not having to walk 10 paces behind the Soyuz on the way to orbit.
• The Iranians are horrified because it's showing their people what the West and a modern lifestyle can provide.
• George Allen is terrified he'll forget and refer to her as "Macaca".
• The American loonies -- how long until the paranoid "They shouldn't allow Muslims on the space station" screaming starts?
• Slashdot readers are horrified because she's a beautiful, intelligent woman who wouldn't go out with them, if they could even get the courage to ask her out in the first place.
• I'm horrified because I blogged about Ms. Ansari going 4 days ago and never thought to submit it to Slashdot.

Godspeed Anoushe Ansari. I hope you have a great time.

Ansari

[Laser Lou]

I think that's great; between the X-Prize and this, she spends her money on things that are worthwhile.

Attractive too...

[BlueCoder]

Nothing more to say, she's hot.

What? No terrorist jokes?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

All the jokes so far, at least the ones modded up have been about her being a woman. Big deal, chicks in space, it has been done before people. Won't someone think of the children? What we should be worried about are the terrorists! She's Iranian and we all know they are part of the axis of evil terror boogey-people, so:

1. Will the TSA make her take her shoes off before boarding the rocket?
   
2. At rocket school did she go to the how to pilot a rocket classes, but skipped the ones on landing?
   
3. Where was she when the Challenger blew up?
   
4. Did Osama promise her 72 male virgins in the afterlife?
   
5. Does she have ID? Terrorists never have ID, so that will keep the rocket safe.
   
6. She better not bring a water bottle on board, she might make a bomb out of water and blow up the space station.