Stephen Hawking Will Travel To Space (skynews.com.au)

Professor Stephen Hawking says he is planning to travel into space on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. From a report: The physicist and cosmologist, 75, said he had not expected to have the opportunity to experience space but that the Virgin boss had offered him a seat. Discussing the meaning of happiness on Good Morning Britain, he said: "My three children have brought me great joy. And I can tell you what will make me happy, to travel in space. I thought no one would take me but Richard Branson has offered me a seat on Virgin Galactic, and I said yes immediately."

Comments

Is Hawking up for the rigors of spaceflight?

[xmas2003]

Awesome that Stephen Hawking gets a chance to go into (the edge) of space, but is he up for the rigors of Spaceflight? Zero-G shouldn't be an issue, but some positive G's on the way up and way down. Hopefully this has been thought through ...

Re:Is Hawking up for the rigors of spaceflight?

[Baron_Yam]

With his disease, he should have been dead decades ago. Even without it, I wouldn't have expected him to be around too much longer. If he wants to die unaware after blacking out due to high G acceleration on the off chance he'll get to see the Earth from space and has the opportunity to do it... good for him.

I wouldn't insure him on his trip, but I wouldn't stop him, either.

Re:Is Hawking up for the rigors of spaceflight?

[MobyDisk]

I don't think Virgin Galactic's flight plan involves nearly the kind of g forces one experiences on a rocket. It's basically a plane that goes really really high. Take a look at the flight plan for SpaceShipTwo, which was the previous generation.. (The image came from here)

I really don't know what I'm talking about, so this might be TOTALLY wrong, but: It says it accelerates to 2500mph over 70 seconds. 2500mph divided by 70 seconds, in meters per second, is about 1.5Gs.

Re:Is Hawking up for the rigors of spaceflight?

[reboot246]

I think he will be okay. He's a tough old guy who has lived for decades with a disease that would have killed a lesser person. I hope he enjoys every minute he has left before he leaves us for good.

Such Charity

[WrongMonkey]

It is very generous of Richard Branson to offer a free flight on his imaginary spaceship. And to do so in such a discreet manner surely means this is not a ploy get free headlines for his struggling company.

Re:Good on Mr. Branson

[Tablizer]

at 75 and with his health issues

Since his days are numbered, maybe he figures it's worth the risk, and being the first civilian to die in space maybe has a record-book appeal to it. Go in style. Beats the nursing home.

Re:What exactly has he accomplished?

[MightyMartian]

He applied QM to black holes to determine that they inevitably must radiate energy, and thus are finite and will eventually evaporate. Why Hawking Radiation has yet to be observed (darned hard), it's one of the first critical examples of how Quantum Mechanics would effect a Classical system (in this case, a black hole, a singularity born out of General Relativity). So yes, it's pretty darned important.

Re:What exactly has he accomplished?

[pseudofrog]

If nothing else, he's been an effective popularizer of science. A Brief History of Time has been a tremendous success, and it's served as inspiration for many of today's scientists while teaching the public a bit about how the world works. Pretty cool.

Saying he has "a disability" is a massive understatement. The man's body has been effectively useless for decades now, serving only to keep his brain ticking and providing a cumbersome and exhausting means to slowly communicate. But he continues to engage the public and maintain a sense of humor. So that's something.

Sure, he's a celebrity. But he's also done some great things even if you discount all of his scientific accomplishments. He's served well as the face and (robo-)voice of science for a while. I think he's worthy of a short jaunt up to space.