Google's Brin Books a Space Flight

coondoggie writes "Google largely conquered the Earth — now it is taking aim at space. At least co-founder Sergei Brin is. Brin today said he put down $5 million toward a flight to the International Space Station in 2011. Brin's space travel will be brokered by Space Adventures, the space outfit that sent billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi to the station in 2007. Computer game developer (and son of a former NASA astronaut) Richard Garriott is currently planning a mission to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures." Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan, man. I'll be the one on my lawn, green with envy.

Comments

Rather too risky for me

[Eravnrekaree]

While this may sound like a nice adventure, going into space, if I had a billion, its the last thing I would ever want to do, because it is so risky. There are a million things that can go wrong, space flight has a high rate of occurance of accidents, when you are in orbit, as well, there is not much anyone on ground can do to help you when you get into trouble. So certainly, it is a huge gamble, and not one I would be comfortable with.

Re:Rather too risky for me

[ScrewMaster]

You could die, but the dead don't feel regret for failing to take a chance on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Yes, but if the dead could feel regret they probably would, as in, "Christ, that was stupid. What the hell was I thinking?" That's because most people don't bother to think very hard about their own mortality. If they did, they wouldn't do things like smoke and drive SUVs at a hundred miles an hour with a cell phone jammed in their ear. It's always the other guy that will get smeared. AT least, that's what we all think until the instant we say "Ah, shit!" and it's all over.

Furthermore, you don't necessarily come back dead from such amazing experiences: sometimes you just come back maimed or paralyzed or otherwise permanently fucked up. For myself, my life isn't so boring that I'd risk spaceflight at the current state-of-the-art, as appealing as such a fantasy might be.

On the other hand, human life does become more valuable the further we get from Earth. I mean, how many have died from spaceflight versus the number of people that are cremated each year in aircraft that prematurely hit the ground. Hell, we mow each other down in cars by the hundreds of thousands every year.

I guess maybe Superman was right after all. Flying is still the safest way to travel.

2nd Generation of the Space Age

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard Garriott will be America's first 2nd generation astronaut and will be onboard with Russia's first 2nd generation cosmonaut - Sergey Volkov. A great way to express the new space age of international cooperation.

sergei's house

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Sergei, when do we get to see your house, and vehicles, and kids, and visitors, on Google Earth? If it's not evil, then you should have no objections. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

yeah I know it's off-topic- I just hate seeing billionaire hypocrites lauded as heroes.

What a waste.

[Last_Available_Usern]

$30 million to go into space. Yea, it's a great adventure [for him], but do you know how much good you could do with that money? I won't bother to seach the web for how many children he could feed or how many mosquito nets he could purchase, but it shames me to think how much good that money could do instead of giving him a slight adrenaline rush and a story for his grandkids. I'm sure someone will reply with a "relative" comment regarding money I and others who are less fiscally successful spend on things like MMOG's and flat panels, but on a person-by-person basis that's a very small chunk compared to the giant barrel of money he's giving away here.

Re:Green Space Adventures

[Firehed]

It's just outsourcing your environmental concerns :)

similar to Everest stats (to year 2000)

[peter303]

Up to the turn of the century about as many people summited Everest and went into space with a similar fatality rate. With pampered guided tours recently, the Everest summits are about triple.

Re:A lot of energy and CO2 for one guy's amusement

[Digital End]

While you are saying that, would you mind disabling your cellphone, gps, tv, and anything else space travel has given you? k thx

Re:Risky business.

[ELProphet]

Most interesting in that line of statistics: no human has died outside the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 1 was a fire on the pad, Challenger hadn't crossed 50 miles, and Columbia was under 50 miles. The Russian space program has similar circumstances. 18 didn't walk out of the craft alive, but all 420 who have crossed into space have made it back inside the atmosphere.

Re:Risky business.

[guruevi]

I would like to see those numbers over the years. I think (wild speculation) space travel would be (on a relative yearly basis) safer than both cars and airplanes. Also compare Russian, European, Chinese and US based space programs. AFAIK most crashes and malfunctions happen on the Shuttle program with the Soyuz program having the lowest cost and casualties.