Posted on 10/04/2012 3:03:49 PM PDT by drewh
What's a rich space tourist to do? If you want to fly in space, seats are harder to find than a flight out of Chicago's O'Hare airport during a blizzard. So your only option is to bump an astronaut from a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft going to the International Space Station.
ABC News has learned that singer Sarah Brightman, of "Phantom of the Opera" fame, will be the next tourist in space, sometime in 2014 or 2015. To get her seat she had to pay the Russian space agency more than the $51 million NASA budgets on average to send its astronauts to the station.
To maintain its presence in orbit when Soyuz seats are limited, NASA had to agree to commit at least one of its astronauts to spend a year in space, instead of the six months they currently stay. Brightman's trip will be announced in Moscow on Oct. 10.
NASA says a year in space has great medical research benefits. Astronauts spending just six months on the space station in the past have suffered from radiation exposure, muscle mass loss, decreased bone density, and vision problems. The research from a year on the space station will help NASA plan for long flights to Mars or an asteroid. It does mean an astronaut will get booted from a flight to adjust for one less seat
For a singer like Sarah Brightman, who thrilled the world when she starred in "Phantom of the Opera," the inspiration should be out of this world.
Rumors flew earlier this week when author J.K. Rowling told an audience in England she had once been offered a seat on a space shuttle for a couple of million dollars. NASA quickly scotched that story.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
You’re showing everyone your mental capabilities.
I’m done.
Other than killing astronauts, the Shuttle created work for the ISS, and the ISS created work for the Shuttle. After all, it was a government operation. People should be glad that the Shuttle is finally retired. Now if we could finally find a way to retire the ISS money pit.
You think it’s foolish, but people paying for space travel keeps interest up. Many are fascinated by space travel and obviously would pay dearly for something so incredible.
For the record, she is praised for her charitable activities, the most recent being The Brightman STEM Scholarship program (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) launched with Virgin Galactic.
Why do they need to do more research when the solution is obvious? Send humans on shorter missions until spacecraft with better shielding and capable of rotating to create artificial gravity become economical. Until then machines should be used on the longer missions.
The real value of human space travel is inspiration. It contributes very little to science or anything else. The best way to use it for inspiration is to send up more people at a cheaper cost, rather than sending government employees on longer missions.
Thanks for post and good information.
I just noticed that your are a college student. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you, as it is great that you are that young and already a member of FR. At your age, when I was in university, I was much more liberal than you. As you grow older, with more experience, you will realize that people shouldn’t be telling you what to do with your money...or take it away in taxes. Cheers.
a) The decision to end the Shuttle program was made by George Bush in 2004 and b) the Soviet Union fell over two decades ago. We are purchasing rides from the Russians, because Mike Griffin decided to build rockets that NASA didn't need instead of accelerating alternatives to Soyuz.
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