Slashdot Mirror
Tourists To ISS Two At a Time Starting In 2012
Matt_dk writes "The US firm Space Adventures said on Friday it will be able to send two space tourists into orbit at once from 2012 onwards, on Soyuz spacecraft. 'We have been working on this project for a number of years,' said Sergey Kostenko, the head of the company's office in Russia. Each Soyuz will carry two tourists and a professional astronaut. One of the tourists will have to pass a year-and-a-half training course as a flight engineer. Space Adventures has been authorized by the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos to select and contract candidates for space tourist trips." Meanwhile, the AP has a look back at the delays and disappointments in the commercial spaceflight industry since Burt Rutan captured the Ansari X Prize 5 years ago — no space company has yet announced a date for commercial availability.
Prepare to be modded to oblivion.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
no space company has yet announced a date for commercial availability.
According to the summary, Space Adventures just did.
And that's how you do it folks. Take a product that people are already climbing over themselves to pay deposits on, and then hype it some more, and back up that hype with an unrealistic schedule. When you go one year over that schedule, people might forgive you. When you go two years over people start wondering what the hell is taking so long. When you go three years over.. well, hello Duke Nukem Forever, can I have my deposit back please?
How we know is more important than what we know.
Not that trips to the grand canyon are any better, but still.
Sounds like the first space hotel is up there already; it just doesn't know it yet.
Demented But Determined.
This rampant discrimination against siamese twins is finally coming to an end.
See subject line above. ^^
I mean all that pesky science stuff, who needs it right? Let's turn ISS into Disneyland in space instead. We can run a competition to choose who gets to go up there and dress up as a fucking mouse.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Stealth Godwin Sig - Sehr Gut!
I change sigs often, this one fit my Godwin first post yesterday. It drew a parallel with a hero of the ditto-heads, so last I checked it was a troll again.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
It's good to see that a few fortunate (i.e., very rich) people will get the chance to go out into space. But when will space travel become as cheap as driving to the corner store? The problem with space travel is that the aerospace industry is still using the same chemistry-based propulsion technologies that first gave us the ability to fly. Using rocket propulsion for space flight is dangerous, primitive and extremely expensive. There is no way we are going to colonize the moon or the solar system beyond with chemical rockets.
Be of good cheer, however. The aerospace and energy industries will soon undergo a seismic paradigm shift. A recent reevaluation of our understanding of the causality of motion leads to the inevitable conclusion that we are immersed in a huge lattice of energetic particles. Soon we'll have vehicles that will move almost anywhere at tremendous speeds, negotiate right angle turns without slowing down and without incurring any damage due to inertial effects. Floating cities, unlimited clean energy, earth to Mars in hours, New York to Beijing in minutes. That's the future of energy and travel.
The Problem with Motion
Great, we pay taxes to support this nonsense, so the Russians can make a few bucks. Really brilliant. We need to go back to a good unmanned space program and do real science. The space station is a waste of money. ;-( BB
nt
Haven't quite made up my mind yet, but my vote's definitely going to either Jessica Alba, or Scarlett Johansson.
So if I buy a ticket and perform the tasks of a flight engineer, do I get a discount?
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
I don't know why anyone is making plans beyond 2012, we all what is coming...
The hand picked military man works for the SGC and so they have the room to do this as the ISS is for show.
The parent is an interesting post and it is relevant to space travel.
By 2012 you will be death.
and/or space flight insurance is cheaper from those machines at the spaceport.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'll be buying my ticket before the Dec 21st launch...
I find it intensely amusing that the only commercial space flight companies that can actually put people into space for money, are the ones who outsource the actual business of launching rockets to a foreign government, using equipment designed by communists.
To me it has exposed serious weaknesses in the corporate model of organization. Space travel just doesn't seem like something they can do, at all, whilst larger governments have been doing it competently for years. Sure, there are corporate contractors for government funded space missions, but they are kept on a very tight leash. It could be that higher-level organization is not something you can get from institutions built around artificially inflated self interest.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Give them Frontal Lobotomies. Then they become neo-cons.
The coming Salmonella Vaccine was all based on what was learned in space. Without that knowledge, then the vaccine would not have happened. Next.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I have $10 that says the first pair up tries to have sex. No seriously. Everyone has been curious about the physics and nature of it in zero-G I got $10 that says that a couple is going up there and a whole lot of note taking going on. I'd even pop an extra $5 one that a university or two will even chip in.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
It's not that private companies are inherently incapable of doing space travel. The fact is that space travel simply isn't profitable, and therefore, there's no reason for private companies to do it. This is also why the various prize programs to encourage space technology development are not really having that much of an impact. The companies with the most experience with this kind of thing (your Boeings, Lockheeds, etc) have already figured out the cost/benefit situation here, and have rationally decided not to bother. Until someone can figure out how space can be made profitable, all the X prizes in the world aren't going to have much of an effect. And ironically, if we do solve the profitability problem, you wouldn't need the X prize any more.