Laaaaaaaaaaance!
May. 29th, 2002 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyOkay, it doesn't directly mention Lance, but it talks (positively) about 'space tourists'.
My mom belongs to several astronomy groups and gets the Moon Miners' Manifesto and the Moon Society Journal.
(note: article from issue #155, May 2002)
In Focus: Opening of Space Tourist Era is for Real. Where to From Here?
Those of us forty or older may remember the excitement over the maiden flight of Space Shuttle one, the Columbia -- and the even greater excitement over its second flight. It was, in fact, the second flight, not the first, that confimed that we had a 'reuseable' vehicle (well, an 'overhaulable' one at least.) In like manner, I personally got a higher high from finishing MMM(note: Moon Miners' Manifesto) #2, than from getting out the maiden issue. The point is that the first time something is done or achieved often turns out to be the last time -- in other words, a 'fluke'.
There was a lot of excitement in the space enthusiast community when Dennis Tito, after many NASA-imposed roadblocks, succeeded in making it to orbit in April 2001. Space tourism was here, said many. Not so fast! But a year later, we have Mark Shuttleworth following in Tito's footsteps and bringing back some respectable souvenirs to boot! Now, at last, it seems that we can be confident that Space Tourism has a foot in the door.
I say a 'foot' because, as Ben HJuset of the Minnesota Space Frontier remarks, "When I can book a flight on Orbitz.com, don't need to pass a physical and do a year of training, and you get complimentary drinks upon boarding station, then we can start to use the T word." Indeed, what we have here in "guest astronaut assignments to the International Space Station" is not the ordinary tourism of casual relaxed change of pace, but a "working vacation," with a lot of prior training. Nore is this an entirely new category. we have long had "working vacations" here below: "Windjammer" Cruises and archeological "digs" being instances.
Yet, thanks to the zealous conversion of the Russians to the cause of private enterprise, out of sheer economic necessity, and to begrudging and belated compromises by our more socialized space program(who'd have thought!), the door to repeated working guest astronauts willing to pay the steep price does now seem to be propped open. And they might start occuring on a semiannual basis.
Ironically, it is the U.S. government itself that left the door open to civilians visitors to ISS when it canceld the X-38 Assured Crew Return Vehicle program, forcing reliance upon the Russian Soyuz craft. A Soyuz arrvies at the station for a sit month visit twice a year, and each time it has an otherwise empty seat. (This is only one example of how U.S./NASA cutbacks will have the unintended effect of commercializing ISS.)
Bringing Down the Price of Space Tourism
$20 million smackers is a lot to pay for even a "once in a lifetime" experience. Yet there are enough people out there with that kind of money and that kind of free time, to guarantee that even at that price, not too many Soyuz seats will go unfilled. It would seem that the Russians need not worry about pressure to reduce prices anytime soon. So how do we get off this dime?
A week-long visit to the International Space Station is, when you think of it, a rather ambitious level at which to jump start space tourism. In fact, that is not how we thought it would start. The X-Prize program, which has yet to produce one viable spacecraft, was supposed to open the door to suborbital hops, the kind of threshold crossingpioneered by Mercury capsule astronauts Alan Shephard and Gus Grissom in 1961, and by a X-15 pilot Joe Walker twice in 1963. To be offically considered to having reached the edge of space, all one has to do is reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, 62 miles, however brief the stay (International Aeronautics Federation.)
(note: then they talk for five pages about other related things.)
Also, my name:
Your name of Diana makes you easy-going and refined, but detracts from your physical vitality. You desire all the finer things in life--lovely clothes, home, furniture, and environment. However, procrastination is your worst enemy, and you find yourself lacking the ambition to make your dreams a reality. People are inclined to take advantage of your sympathetic, tractable nature. You naturally attract people with problems who seek your understanding and advice. You can give good advice although it is unlikely that you would follow it yourself. You would be most successful in situations where you can use your skills in diplomacy in handling people, but where you are not under pressure or required to carry responsibility and make decisions. It is difficult for you to be individual and make your own decisions, for you lack self-confidence. Your desire for sweet, rich foods could cause overweight, circulatory problems, or weakness in the kidneys.
Also, some people mention Googling their names. I already know that there's a Diana butterfly. Wonder if there are any other Diana animals/plants.
My mom belongs to several astronomy groups and gets the Moon Miners' Manifesto and the Moon Society Journal.
(note: article from issue #155, May 2002)
Those of us forty or older may remember the excitement over the maiden flight of Space Shuttle one, the Columbia -- and the even greater excitement over its second flight. It was, in fact, the second flight, not the first, that confimed that we had a 'reuseable' vehicle (well, an 'overhaulable' one at least.) In like manner, I personally got a higher high from finishing MMM(note: Moon Miners' Manifesto) #2, than from getting out the maiden issue. The point is that the first time something is done or achieved often turns out to be the last time -- in other words, a 'fluke'.
There was a lot of excitement in the space enthusiast community when Dennis Tito, after many NASA-imposed roadblocks, succeeded in making it to orbit in April 2001. Space tourism was here, said many. Not so fast! But a year later, we have Mark Shuttleworth following in Tito's footsteps and bringing back some respectable souvenirs to boot! Now, at last, it seems that we can be confident that Space Tourism has a foot in the door.
I say a 'foot' because, as Ben HJuset of the Minnesota Space Frontier remarks, "When I can book a flight on Orbitz.com, don't need to pass a physical and do a year of training, and you get complimentary drinks upon boarding station, then we can start to use the T word." Indeed, what we have here in "guest astronaut assignments to the International Space Station" is not the ordinary tourism of casual relaxed change of pace, but a "working vacation," with a lot of prior training. Nore is this an entirely new category. we have long had "working vacations" here below: "Windjammer" Cruises and archeological "digs" being instances.
Yet, thanks to the zealous conversion of the Russians to the cause of private enterprise, out of sheer economic necessity, and to begrudging and belated compromises by our more socialized space program(who'd have thought!), the door to repeated working guest astronauts willing to pay the steep price does now seem to be propped open. And they might start occuring on a semiannual basis.
Ironically, it is the U.S. government itself that left the door open to civilians visitors to ISS when it canceld the X-38 Assured Crew Return Vehicle program, forcing reliance upon the Russian Soyuz craft. A Soyuz arrvies at the station for a sit month visit twice a year, and each time it has an otherwise empty seat. (This is only one example of how U.S./NASA cutbacks will have the unintended effect of commercializing ISS.)
Bringing Down the Price of Space Tourism
$20 million smackers is a lot to pay for even a "once in a lifetime" experience. Yet there are enough people out there with that kind of money and that kind of free time, to guarantee that even at that price, not too many Soyuz seats will go unfilled. It would seem that the Russians need not worry about pressure to reduce prices anytime soon. So how do we get off this dime?
A week-long visit to the International Space Station is, when you think of it, a rather ambitious level at which to jump start space tourism. In fact, that is not how we thought it would start. The X-Prize program, which has yet to produce one viable spacecraft, was supposed to open the door to suborbital hops, the kind of threshold crossingpioneered by Mercury capsule astronauts Alan Shephard and Gus Grissom in 1961, and by a X-15 pilot Joe Walker twice in 1963. To be offically considered to having reached the edge of space, all one has to do is reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, 62 miles, however brief the stay (International Aeronautics Federation.)
(note: then they talk for five pages about other related things.)
Also, my name:
Your name of Diana makes you easy-going and refined, but detracts from your physical vitality. You desire all the finer things in life--lovely clothes, home, furniture, and environment. However, procrastination is your worst enemy, and you find yourself lacking the ambition to make your dreams a reality. People are inclined to take advantage of your sympathetic, tractable nature. You naturally attract people with problems who seek your understanding and advice. You can give good advice although it is unlikely that you would follow it yourself. You would be most successful in situations where you can use your skills in diplomacy in handling people, but where you are not under pressure or required to carry responsibility and make decisions. It is difficult for you to be individual and make your own decisions, for you lack self-confidence. Your desire for sweet, rich foods could cause overweight, circulatory problems, or weakness in the kidneys.
Also, some people mention Googling their names. I already know that there's a Diana butterfly. Wonder if there are any other Diana animals/plants.