Slashdot Mirror
Hawking to Take Zero Gravity Ride
An anonymous reader writes "Well-known cosmologist Stephen Hawking is preparing for a once-in a lifetime trip. His goals are for even higher ground, but right now he's readying for an April zero gravity ride aboard NASA's 'vomit comet'. His ultimate goal is to take a ride on one of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic flights, and this is a 'test run' for that more rigorous experience. Though complex math ain't no thing for Dr. Hawking, his interests here are purely inspirational. 'Hawking says he wants to encourage public interest in spaceflight, which he believes is critical to the future of humanity. "I also want to show," he said in an e-mail interview, "that people need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they are not disabled in spirit."'"
Does this mean that anyone can get to go for a ride?
I was under the impression you had to have a certain level of fitness and stamina.
I also cannot get the thought of the south park kid shouting "Timmmeh!" whilst riding the shuttle.
liqbase
He's getting ready for his new album and is shooting video on these flights
http://www.mchawking.com/
back in the day we didnt have no old school
ion-booster propelled wheelchair jokes in 5... ;)
4...
3...
2...
1...
IGNITION!
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
...I find Hawking's life an immense inspiration. Rock on dude, show the world what a man can do, even if almost completely paralized! FTW!
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Says it all really.
Fry: Stephen Hawking! Aren't you the guy who invented gravity?
Hawking: Sure, why not.
End transmission.
While I respect the man, I'm a bit baffled by things like this "he wants to encourage public interest in spaceflight, which he believes is critical to the future of humanity."
The "future" covers a huge amount of time, so I'm not sure we need to take interest in space exploration *now*. If I was the one spending money, I'll put most of the credit into Drexler's style nanotechnology research, once we 'master' nanotechnology, then tackling space exploration makes sense as either:
- at best a space elevator becomes possible and space access cost are reduced a lot,
- at worst a space elevator is impossible, but the improved materials should still reduce the cost of space access a lot and the payload themselves would be lighter.
I mean, holding the same office as that Newton guy probably does not mean much. ;)
Some people think he's not that great as can be seen in the video The Hawking Paradox.
"all broken things dream of repair" - chris letcher
No. There is absolutely no difference between free fall in a gravitational field and absence of a gravitational field. This is the famous Equivalence Principle of General Relativitiy. This link gives more detail: http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/252/gener al_relativity.html
So there exists no difference at all between free fall and zero gravity. As for your second point, no experiment can distinguish between the two cases. So no observation can differentiate between the two.
Its got less letters he has to type. I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually "0 g" he typed.
Stephen Hawking, using 1337speak.
I've been on that flight (courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which got to show video of me losing my lunch in return). It's a lot of fun. I hope Professor Hawking enjoys his ride.
Anyone who wants to can go on Zero G's flights, as long as they don't have a medical problem that gets in the way - and they have a doctor on staff who goes over your medical history before you go. All it takes is $3750.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
In space, he will be able to throw his chair
Well, to be fair, with an incredible amount of brilliance, so he can find a job where physical work is almost entirely unneccassary. It's not like he's an average guy just making it in the world. Sort of like ol Chris Reeves. All his story really means is that if you're extremely rich, you can expect to get treatments that far exceed what others would get. And since all the effort he puts into that directly helps him, I guess the most you can say is that he's not a wimp.
Anyhow, I didn't mean to be downer, and Hawking is obviously a very impressive person, but he's hardly a role model for the disabled... because he's a man of near singular abilities. If Kobe Bryant had been born in the ghetto, he can hardly be a role model to your average poor kid, because none of them could ever become wealthy by being great basketball players because they don't have his abilities. You see?
Relax I just want some peanuts.
Uh, not to be picky, but my work chair doesn't have arms.
is Hawking a real physicist?
Either that, or his voicebox computer is the first instance of AI.
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
FTFA:
"On April 26, Hawking, surrounded by a medical entourage, is to take a zero-gravity ride out of Cape Canaveral on a so-called vomit comet, a padded aircraft that flies a roller-coaster trajectory to produce periods of weightlessness. He is getting his lift gratis, from Zero Gravity, a company that has been flying thrill seekers on a special Boeing 727-200 since 2004 at $3,500 a trip."
Zero Gravity is taking him up... NOT NASA. It's NOT the Vomit Comet (NASA's plane).
From a better article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17156385/page/2/
"Parabolic flights can pose a risk of motion sickness or more serious health effects, but Zero Gravity's flights have been structured to minimize the risk. During a typical flight, Zero Gravity's "G-Force One" jet makes a gradual transition to weightless parabolas, and provides significantly fewer bouts of weightlessness than NASA's "Vomit Comet" jet. "
"Dictator Flakes. They WILL be delicious."
Come on, you have to be kidding me. 2g for 25 seconds? That's hardly stressful at all. +2g in an aircraft is a LOT different to doing essentially -1.28g decelerating in a car. For starters, +ve g-forces are a lot easier for the body to tolerate than negative. Fighter pilots do up to about +10g for short periods, but only about -4g. I've done +5g for 30 seconds in an aerobatic spin, and ok, it does feel a bit heavy, but it's no problem. Even with Hawking's condition, 2g certainly shouldn't pose any threat.
And it's not as if the vomit comet suddenly goes from 0g to +2g - the climb-out from the parabolic arc is somewhat gradual, so the occupants settle to the floor fairly gently. Plus I guarantee he will be under someone's close scrutiny, and they'll be sure that he's close to the floor before the end of the ride.
No scientist with or without Hawking's celebrity status is without fault. Regardless of how many thumbs up or thumbs down his various works have gotten, I think he has at the very least helped publicize science in the eyes of the common man. In a world where creationism and religious fundamentalism can try to squash science and somehow often succeeds, we as a race need books such as A Brief History of Time to at the very least get people interested in science and start asking questions. Questioning everything and anything is probably the most profound act we can do and its great that people don't agree with his theories. Is he deserving of his status? Maybe, maybe not, but I would take him over any religious nut any day of the week.
For a scientist, being proven wrong is no big deal and often just as important as being right. It's just another factor in his/ her continuing work. Being wrong does not make you a bad scientist. Einstein's 'Cosmological Constant' anyone?
Hawking has been wrong numerous times (it usually costs him a case of wine). Quite often he actually prove *himself* wrong.