Russian space tourism update

An RIA Novosti article today reports that “more than 10 people” are interested in buying seats on Soyuz flights, following in the footsteps of the five orbital space tourists to date. “We are holding preliminary consultations with them, and there are no Russians among them,” said Roskosmos spokesman Igor Panarin. He also confirmed past reports that the cost of s Soyuz flight was going up from $20 million to $21.8 million, although many news reports of Charles Simonyi’s ISS flight pegged the cost as high as $25 million.
Russian space tourism update

For $250,000, you too can slip the surly bonds of Earth to say, `I do'

Weddings atop mountains and waterfalls. Weddings while skydiving and bungee jumping. Weddings inside mines and caves.

Yawn.

It's high time for people to expand their horizons and look beyond this world for marriage inspiration.

Cindy Cashman has. The professional speaker and self-help pocket book author from Lakeway, Tex., hopes to be the first person to get married in outer space.

Surely that's the final frontier for getting hitched.

It could happen as early as 2009. Cashman, 48, has an agreement with a Oklahoma-based company called Rocketplane, which is trying to pioneer spaceflight for the general public, to be one of the first regular folks shot into space.

For her, though, the trip will be extra special. "To go someplace where very few people have gone, and see the curvature of the Earth, and be weightless, and to look into the eyes of the man I love and say, `I do,'" she says in an interview, "this ties it all together: the excitement, the adventure, the opportunity of a lifetime!"

Rocketplane XP, the airplane-like spacecraft in which she and her fiancé will exchange vows, will use its jet engines, then its rocket engine to propel its passengers almost vertically beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a parabolic trajectory.

At its 100 km apogee, they'll be in outer space, free from the shackles of gravity, gazing at Earth's bright contours below.

Actually, there won't be time for that. They'll have just three to five minutes before they fall back into Earth's grip. Quick, the vows! "Do you take this man...I do! Do you take this woman...I do!"

Cashman and her 55-year-old beau, Mitch Walling, a pilot for regional airline American Eagle, also won't be able to stand for the ceremony. For safety reasons they'll have to stay belted to their seats. But he'll probably be able to kiss the bride.

A space wedding was bound to happen. Wherever humans have brought themselves, they have also brought their most celebrated institution. The whole idea of the "extreme wedding" was born out of the idea that the more arduous the journey, the more special the bond.

So far, couples aren't clamouring to have their weddings in space. This may be partly because of the cost. Even though Rocketplane and its competitors, such as billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, are set to expand space travel beyond the rarefied astronaut, it won't be available to the masses: Each ticket will cost about $250,000 U.S.

That hasn't stopped Virgin Galactic from collecting $25 million in deposits so far. One woman has even mortgaged her house to be able to go.

Virgin has had a number of inquiries from couples who want to fly to space together. One couple, George Whitesides – head of the U.S. National Space Society and, as of last week, an advisor to the company – and his wife Loretta, say they want to have their "honeymoon" in space.

Cashman says the idea came to her as a random thought that just popped into her head while she was meditating.

It wouldn't be out of character for her. She has already tried flying upside down with an aerobatic pilot.

The problem was that, at the time, she didn't have a fiancé. Not even a boyfriend.

Fortunately, she was enrolled in a dating service and was meeting singles in cyberspace. After going through 32 guys, she met Walling.

Not long after, he popped the question – at high speed on a motorbike. She was over the moon, and told him she'd like to head that way to get hitched.

"People think we're crazy," Cashman says, "but others just expected this from me."

All systems are go, it seems. There's one problem, however. If they wed in space, where on Earth would they officially be married?

One aviation lawyer told an Austin newspaper that there is "no body of law or jurisdiction that exists in space to confer recognition on a marriage ceremony."

Toronto family lawyer Steven Bookman disagrees. He compares it to couples who marry in, say, Las Vegas, or on a beach in the Caribbean or, in the case of landed immigrants, back in their native countries. If they're legally married in those places, they're considered married here.

"It shouldn't be any different" in space, he argues.

The challenge is, where would the marriage be registered? "It would seem to be the (jurisdiction of the) person that owns the actual craft you're getting married on," Bookman says.

Cashman still hasn't decided who will perform the ceremony. There's still one empty seat in the four-person vessel should she find someone. But that may not be necessary, Bookman says.

"The captain of a ship has the authority to marry people outside of the jurisdiction of the country where the craft is registered," he says.

"I'm sure he would have to authority to marry them and it would be recognized everywhere."

http://www.thestar.com

U.S.A. Billionaire Heads to Space Station

A Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan Saturday, sending Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station.
Climbing on a column of smoke and fire into the clouds over the bleak steppes, the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule lifted off at 11:31 p.m. local time, casting an orange glow over the Baikonur cosmodrome and dozens of officials and well-wishers watching from about a mile away.
The capsule turned northeast and moved downrange before entering orbit about 10 minutes later. It was scheduled to rendezvous with the station Monday.

Among those bidding farewell was Simonyi's friend Martha Stewart, who watched the launch from a location separate from other spectators.

After seeing Simonyi off for final preparations, Stewart spent the final hours before the launch aboard another mode of transportation common to this part of Kazakhstan's steppes - a camel.

"The ride was excellent," she said.

Inside the capsule, Simonyi and cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov grinned for the onboard camera, gave the thumbs-up sign and batted at a toy black cat hanging from rope - a token of good luck chosen by Kotov and named after his two children.

Simonyi, a 58-year-old native of Hungary, paid $25 million for the 13-day trip, the fifth such paying "space tourist," or "space flight participant," as officials prefer to call them.

"I think for Charles it is a dream come true," said Victoria Scott, a friend who watched the liftoff as others drank champagne toasts and chanted "Charles! Charles!"

In a posting on the blog he intends to maintain while in orbit, Simonyi said he spent his final day getting a haircut and a therapeutic massage and watched a traditional showing of a classic Soviet-era war film.

There was no mention of Stewart on the blog, but Simonyi did make reference to one of the lesser-known, last-minute traditions for cosmonauts heading into space - urinating on the tire of the bus transporting them to the launch-pad.

Three days after arriving at the station and greeting its current occupants - Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronauts Miguel Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams - Simonyi will treat the crews to a gourmet meal, chosen by Stewart, in honor of Cosmonauts' Day, the Russian day commemorating Yuri Gagarin's historic 1961 flight into space.

The menu includes quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots.

Simonyi had said he would bring with him the paper computer tapes that he used decades ago when he first learned programming on a bulky Soviet machine called Ural-2. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 and eventually worked at Microsoft Corp., helping to develop Word and Microsoft Excel before founding his own software company.

While at the space station, Simonyi will be conducting a number of experiments, including measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms inside the lab.

He is to return to Earth on April 20 along with Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria.

---

Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz contributed to this report from Mission Control in Korolyov, Russia.

Mars rover finds "puddles" on the planet's surface

The report identifies specific spots that appear to have contained liquid water two years ago, when Opportunity was exploring a crater called Endurance. It is a highly controversial claim, as many scientists believe that liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars today because of the planet’s thin atmosphere.

A new analysis of pictures taken by the exploration rover Opportunity reveals what appear to be small ponds of liquid water on the surface of Mars.

If confirmed, the existence of such ponds would significantly boost the odds that living organisms could survive on or near the surface of Mars, says physicist Ron Levin, the report's lead author, who works in advanced image processing at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin in Arizona.

Along with fellow Lockheed engineer Daniel Lyddy, Levin used images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's website. The resulting stereoscopic reconstructions, made from paired images from the Opportunity rover's twin cameras, show bluish features that look perfectly flat. The surfaces are so smooth that the computer could not find any surface details within those areas to match up between the two images.

The imaging shows that the areas occupy the lowest parts of the terrain. They also appear transparent: some features, which Levin says may be submerged rocks or pebbles, can be seen below the plane of the smooth surface.

Speedy evaporation?

Levin and other reasearchers, including JPL's Michael Hecht, have published calculations showing the possibility of "micro-environments" where water could linger, but the idea remains controversial.

“The temperatures get plenty warm enough, but the Mars atmosphere is essentially a vacuum," says Phil Christensen of Arizona State University, developer of the Mars rovers' mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometers. That means any water or ice exposed on the surface evaporates or sublimes away almost instantly, he says.

But, he adds, "it is theoretically possible to get liquid water within soil, or under other very special conditions". The question is just how special those conditions need to be, and whether they ever really are found on Mars today.

If there were absolutely no wind, says Christensen, you might build up a stagnant layer of vapour above a liquid surface, preventing it from evaporating too fast. “The problem is, there are winds on Mars… In the real world, I think it's virtually impossible," he told New Scientist.
Simple test

Levin disagrees. He says his analysis shows that there can be wind-free environments at certain times of day in certain protected locations. He thinks that could apply to these small depressions inside the sheltered bowl of Endurance crater, at midday in the Martian summer.

He adds that highly briny water, as is probably found on Mars, could be stable even at much lower temperatures.

Although the rover is now miles away from this site, Levin proposes a simple test that would prove the presence of liquid if similar features are found: use the rover's drill on the surface of the flat area. If it is ice, or any solid material, the drill will leave unmistakable markings, but if it is liquid there should be no trace of the drill's activity.

Levin’s father Gilbert was principal investigator of an experiment on the Viking Mars lander, which found evidence for life on the planet, although negative results from a separate test for organic materials led most scientists to doubt the evidence for biology.

Journal reference: R. L. Levin and Daniel Lyddy, Investigation of possible liquid water ponds on the Martian surface (2007 IEEE Aerospace Applications Conference Proceedings, paper #1376, to be published in IEEE Xplore)

Smooth surface

The smoothness and transparency of the features could suggest either water or very clear ice, Levin says.

"The surface is incredibly smooth, and the edges are in a plane and all at the same altitude," he says. "If they were ice or some other material, they'd show wear and tear over the surface, there would be rubble or sand or something."

His report was presented at a conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and will be published later this year in the institute's proceedings.

No signs of liquid water have been observed directly from cameras on the surface before. Reports last year pointed to the existence of gullies on crater walls where water appears to have flowed in the last few years, as shown in images taken from orbit, but those are short-lived flows, which are thought to have frozen over almost immediately.

Space Tourist Charles Simonyi to Chronicle ISS Flight in Book

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Charles Simonyi, who recently returned to Earth after a 13-day space odyssey, said Monday he was planning to write a book about his travel into orbit.

Hungarian-born Simonyi, 58, told a news conference in Budapest that he planned to compile the writings he had done in space and posted on his Web site into a book.

"I think there will most definitely be a book," he said, without specifying when it might be published. He said he still needed to review his notes.

"Although the Web site is almost a book it has not been edited as such," Simonyi said in his native Hungarian, though with a slight American accent. "It has lots of entries, which have all been written by me, but I need some more blog (space) because while I was up there I took notes which now have to be processed."

Simonyi - a software engineer who helped develop Microsoft Word and Excel - paid US$25 million to accompany two cosmonauts aboard a Russian rocket that launched April 7 for the International Space Station.

Simonyi was the fifth such paying "space tourist" to ride Russian rockets to the international space station, after Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari.

Briton Helen Sharman in 1991 took a trip to the Soviet station Mir that she won through a contest, and a Japanese journalist traveled to Mir in 1990 with a ticket that reportedly cost US$12 million.

Simonyi is the second Hungarian astronaut ever to enter space. Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas, who was also at the news conference, spent almost eight days in orbit in 1980.

Simonyi left Hungary as a teenager in 1966, first living in Denmark before moving to the U.S. state of California in 1968. He obtained U.S. citizenship in the 1980s.

"Although I am known as Charles Simonyi, I was born here in Hungary as Simonyi Karoly," he said. "I have never forgotten about Hungary, where I came from; the memories of my mother country are kept deep in my heart."

Editor's note: You can visit Charles Simonyi's Web site at www.charlesinspace.com.

Experience microgravity on a commercial parabolic flight.

In April of 2001, Dennis Tito became the first traveler to pay for a trip to space with money out of his own pocket. He decided to do it and then just did it. That's what tourism is all about. His flight, and the subsequent one by Mark Shuttleworth, forever removed the giggle factor from discussions of space tourism.

In October of 2004, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne won the X PRIZE and thereby started a new race to develop the first vehicle that will provide suborbital space rides to paying customers. Suborbital generally refers to an up-and-down ( i.e. mostly vertical) flight that reaches an altitude of around 100km or more but does not go into orbit around the earth.

Market Studies by NASA and many other organizations have shown that there are sizable markets for space tourism, both suborbital and orbital, and that the markets will grow rapidly as the cost of sending a person into space drops from current levels.

Adventure tourism, such as trips to Antarctica or Mount Everest, has long been a profitable business. This can involve packages with prices as high as $100k range and even higher.
Though you commonly hear talk of "space joyrides for the rich", the development of space tourism will follow the normal course of development seen for most all consumer technologies and services.

Tourism itself began as something only done by the very rich.

Passenger flights on airlines were initially very expensive. VCRs, DVDs, PCs, etc. all started out as very expensive "toys". Eventually competition and economies of scale (i.e. mass production) take over and prices drop to the level the middle class can handle.

Before orbital rides are widely available, suborbital flights will be the most common way to ride into space. Going to 100km or so, one can see the horizon out to 1000km or so and clearly see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.

In October of 2004, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne won the X PRIZE and thereby started a new race to develop the first vehicle that will provide suborbital space rides to paying customers. Suborbital generally refers to an up-and-down ( i.e. mostly vertical) flight that reaches an altitude of around 100km or more but does not go into orbit around the earth.

Market Studies by NASA and many other organizations have shown that there are sizable markets for space tourism, both suborbital and orbital, and that the markets will grow rapidly as the cost of sending a person into space drops from current levels.

Adventure tourism, such as trips to Antarctica or Mount Everest, has long been a profitable business. This can involve packages with prices as high as $100k range and even higher.
Though you commonly hear talk of "space joyrides for the rich", the development of space tourism will follow the normal course of development seen for most all consumer technologies and services.

Tourism itself began as something only done by the very rich.

Passenger flights on airlines were initially very expensive. VCRs, DVDs, PCs, etc. all started out as very expensive "toys". Eventually competition and economies of scale (i.e. mass production) take over and prices drop to the level the middle class can handle.

Before orbital rides are widely available, suborbital flights will be the most common way to ride into space. Going to 100km or so, one can see the horizon out to 1000km or so and clearly see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.



The billionaire Richard Branson in September 2004 announced a contract with Burt Rutan that gave him funding to design and build a 5-8 passenger vehicle - unofficially referred to here as SpaceShipTwo. SS2 will safely and routinely fly above 100km for a cost of about $200k per seat.

Within a month of this announcement, Virgin Galactic already had 7000 people expressing strong interest in buying tickets to ride on the vehicle when it becomes available. The current goal is to begin flights in 2007.

The company Space Adventures also has had over 100 people place deposits, or pay the full $98k price, on a suborbital craft as soon as one become available. In the meantime, this company and others offer rides on MIG-25's that go to 25km in altitude.

You can also train for spaceflight by experiencing microgravity in Russian plane flying parabolic trajectories. The company ZERO-G in October 2004 began offering such rides in the US for $3000 per person. The first 20 flights were already sold out before they began regular service.

If you can't pay for an orbital trip, perhaps you can win a ride. There are now several contests in which the winner will go into space.

There have been announcements of several "Survivor" type reality format TV programs in which a group of contestants will struggle through several weeks of cosmonaut training and the winner going to the International Space Station. However, so far none of these programs have reached the production stage.
For the time when orbital flights become lower in price, there are companies designing space hotels where you can enjoy microgravity sports and great views of earth. The company Bigelow Aerospace will begin launching prototypes in 2005 of its inflatable space habitat and will launch a full scaled version that can be manned by 2010.

See this slide presentation by Sam Coniglio at the Space Tourism Society for a nice overview of the possibilities for future space tourism.

If you would like to travel in space in spirit only, then send a token of yourself, e.g. your name or DNA sample, on a space probe.

See also the section on Astronomy Tourism that involves trips to see eclipses, Aurora and other astronomical phenomena.

Space Tourism Personal Spaceflight for you ...

Experience microgravity on a commercial parabolic flight.

In April of 2001, Dennis Tito became the first traveler to pay for a trip to space with money out of his own pocket. He decided to do it and then just did it. That's what tourism is all about. His flight, and the subsequent one by Mark Shuttleworth, forever removed the giggle factor from discussions of space tourism.

In October of 2004, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne won the X PRIZE and thereby started a new race to develop the first vehicle that will provide suborbital space rides to paying customers. Suborbital generally refers to an up-and-down ( i.e. mostly vertical) flight that reaches an altitude of around 100km or more but does not go into orbit around the earth.

Market Studies by NASA and many other organizations have shown that there are sizable markets for space tourism, both suborbital and orbital, and that the markets will grow rapidly as the cost of sending a person into space drops from current levels.

Adventure tourism, such as trips to Antarctica or Mount Everest, has long been a profitable business. This can involve packages with prices as high as $100k range and even higher.
Though you commonly hear talk of "space joyrides for the rich", the development of space tourism will follow the normal course of development seen for most all consumer technologies and services.

Tourism itself began as something only done by the very rich.

Passenger flights on airlines were initially very expensive. VCRs, DVDs, PCs, etc. all started out as very expensive "toys". Eventually competition and economies of scale (i.e. mass production) take over and prices drop to the level the middle class can handle.

Before orbital rides are widely available, suborbital flights will be the most common way to ride into space. Going to 100km or so, one can see the horizon out to 1000km or so and clearly see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.

The billionaire Richard Branson in September 2004 announced a contract with Burt Rutan that gave him funding to design and build a 5-8 passenger vehicle - unofficially referred to here as SpaceShipTwo. SS2 will safely and routinely fly above 100km for a cost of about $200k per seat.

Within a month of this announcement, Virgin Galactic already had 7000 people expressing strong interest in buying tickets to ride on the vehicle when it becomes available. The current goal is to begin flights in 2007.

The company Space Adventures also has had over 100 people place deposits, or pay the full $98k price, on a suborbital craft as soon as one become available. In the meantime, this company and others offer rides on MIG-25's that go to 25km in altitude.

You can also train for spaceflight by experiencing microgravity in Russian plane flying parabolic trajectories. The company ZERO-G in October 2004 began offering such rides in the US for $3000 per person. The first 20 flights were already sold out before they began regular service.

If you can't pay for an orbital trip, perhaps you can win a ride. There are now several contests in which the winner will go into space.

There have been announcements of several "Survivor" type reality format TV programs in which a group of contestants will struggle through several weeks of cosmonaut training and the winner going to the International Space Station. However, so far none of these programs have reached the production stage.

A commercial space habitat prototype built
by Bigelow Aerospace.

For the time when orbital flights become lower in price, there are companies designing space hotels where you can enjoy microgravity sports and great views of earth. The company Bigelow Aerospace will begin launching prototypes in 2005 of its inflatable space habitat and will launch a full scaled version that can be manned by 2010.

See this slide presentation by Sam Coniglio at the Space Tourism Society for a nice overview of the possibilities for future space tourism.

If you would like to travel in space in spirit only, then send a token of yourself, e.g. your name or DNA sample, on a space probe.

See also the section on Astronomy Tourism that involves trips to see eclipses, Aurora and other astronomical phenomena.

Woman Space Tourist Fulfills Dream

Anousheh Ansari at the Russian Space Center in Star City, outside Moscow, Aug. 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

"Looking at my background, (everyone) can see sometimes the impossible can be possible, and dreams can come true."

When the world's first female space tourist met the media on Wednesday in Moscow along with her fellow crewmates, she got a lot more questions than the real astronauts.

Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari is scheduled to blast off for the international space station in mid-September, along with America astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.
The launch is currently scheduled for Sept. 14, but it may be changed to accommodate a flight by the American space shuttle Atlantis. The launch of Atlantis, which was supposed to have happened last weekend, has been delayed due to storms in Florida.

Whenever she gets under way, Ansari will be fulfilling a lifelong dream.

"Every since I can remember, it's been in my heart and in my soul. I've always been interested and fascinated by space," she said. "Ever since I was a child, I always used to gaze at the stars and wonder what's out there in the universe, and wonder if there are others like me, pondering the same questions somewhere else out there."

Ansari, who was born in Iran and emigrated to the United States as a teenager, will be acknowledging her roots by wearing both American and Iranian flags on her flight suit.

She's paid more than $20 million for her 10-day trip — money she made in the telecommunications business. Ansari may be the first woman to pay for a trip to space, but she's hoping to be a role model to young people of both genders.

"Looking at my background," she says, everyone "can see sometimes the impossible can be possible, and dreams can come true."

Ansari's dream will be coming true a little sooner than she expected. A Japanese businessman was scheduled to fly on September's mission, but he was bumped from the mission last week after failing a medical test. How did Ansari feel when she got the call saying she could fly instead?

"I had to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, and I'm not sleeping, and it's really happening," she said. "Obviously, it was a big surprise."

Ansari, an electrical engineer by training, is now trying to pioneer space tourism for the masses.

Her family helped sponsor the so-called "X Prize," which was an award for first privately-funded, reusable spacecraft. That prize was won by Burt Rutan's creation SpaceShipOne in 2004. Ansari is now working on development of a new spaceship that would be used solely to fly civilians into orbit.

"I wanted to also use this [trip] to inspire and promote interest in space exploration and other sciences and technology for our youth, because I believe that's very necessary for the future of our race," she said.

The Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos, has always been strongly in favor of space tourism, but NASA, its U.S. counterpart, has had its doubts. Now, with the fourth paying passenger on her way, NASA seems to understand that space tourism is here to stay.

"I think it's important for agencies like Roskosmos and NASA to do what government agencies did for commercial aviation, which is to help promote — to plant the seeds for the industry to take off on its own," explained Lopez-Alegria, Ansari's crewmate. "I think Anousheh's flight, as well as the X Prize that she was involved in, are both good examples of how to do that."

This trip is just the start for Ansari. She's part of a team working to develop a private spacecraft to ferry civilians into orbit — but that's still many years away.

"Given the opportunities, entrepreneurs can come up with very clever, cost-effective ways to achieve space flights, with existing technologies," she explained.

For now, she'll be traveling the only way she can ... on a Russian rocket, with NASA's support ... helping many people to eventually go where she now boldly goes herself.

By Beth Knobel
(CBS) This story was writen by CBS News Moscow bureau chief Beth Knobel

First Space Tourist To Blast Off Into Space

Five days away from his blast-off into space, Dennis Tito, set to become the first space tourist, left Moscow for the cosmodrome of Baikonur, in Kazakhstan Monday, saying he was the "happiest man in the world."

The 60-year-old businessman, who has paid the Russian space agency 20 million dollars for the privilege of making the trip, and his fellow Russian cosmonauts are to receive their final instructions before taking off on Saturday at 0737 GMT, officials at the training center near Moscow said.

Tito joins Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yury Baturin on the flight that will dock with the International Space Station orbiting around the earth two days later.

"I spoke to Dennis just before he was due to leave for Baikonur and he told me felt he was the happiest man in the world," Sergei Kostenko of the U.S. firm Space Adventures told AFP.

Tito's wife, his two sons and his daughter are also due to travel to Baikonur to see off the "first space tourist," Kostenko said.

Tito is due to return to earth, landing in the desert of Kazakhstan, on May 6, a defense ministry official told AFP.