Go for Space

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Eric Andersen shows the way

Eric Andersen shows the way:

You can also find the article at fly me to the moon.

nb.
Had some problems with the blog this sunday, which might indicate that it will be necessary for you to try out the http://mineting.125mb.com/flymetomoon/flymetothemoon.html backup in order to see this story.
Hope it wont be necessary though.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Space Islands - with those kinds of costs?

The spacejumper (flymetothemoon) association initiative is about bringing as many people as far away up in space as cheap as possible. What we can do to help make it happen.
For the time being cost is what is holding us back!
Nomatter how fascinating people think spaceexploration is, somehow enthusiasm cools when the costs are listed. e.g. Nasa audit:
For fiscal year 2000, NASA calculated an average cost per launch of $759 million based on four shuttle launches. Thus, for the four space station assembly flights charged against the limit, approximately half of NASA’s calculated costs ($379 million per launch or $1.5 billion in total) are not reflected in NASA’s fiscal year 2000 accounting. Although NASA capitalized shuttle-related costs for the space station at $441 million per flight in its audited fiscal year 2000 financial statements, NASA officials stated that its more recent calculation of $759 million per launch more closely reflects actual cost.

What we need is to get the cost down!
Especially if are ever going to see a lot of islands in space

And lots of people living in space:


----

With a pricetag of $100 million to bring a tourist to the the moon - it is still way to costly - but it is start -

----
The Guardian also reported on the $100 million plan to kickstart it all:

Russia's federal space agency took a giant leap in the field of cosmic tourism yesterday with the announcement it will offer a $100m (£57m) trip to the moon.
Roskosmos leaked details of the project as Nasa's space shuttle Discovery prepared for launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. A source at the Russian agency confirmed to the Guardian that the technology was in place for a flight to be launched within 18 months of a down payment
The fortnight-long trip would include a week at the International Space Station (ISS) before blasting off to the moon and completing a full orbit 100 miles above its surface.
The only two space tourists so far, American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth, got no further than the ISS for $20m each and no Russian cosmonaut has ever orbited the moon.

A single tourist accompanied by one astronaut could go on each trip in a modified Soyuz-TMA capsule to be launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The tourist would go up in that capsule and spend the first week on the ISS," said the Roskosmos source. "Then a powerful booster like Proton would be launched from Earth with an accelerator block to dock with the craft at the space station."

That accelerator block - basically, an engine with fuel tanks - would then be used to propel the spacecraft towards the moon.

The Soviet Union sent the first unmanned probe to land on the moon in 1959. It came close to launching
a manned flight to the moon but dropped its programme when the Americans got there first a decade later.

Space tourists will not land on its surface but will circle its dark side and orbit close enough to examine its cratered lunar crust. They would live in two cramped modules about three metres across and eat biscuits and food in tubes.

Any candidate for the expedition would have to undergo several months of intensive training at Star City near Moscow.

It is thought the flight to the moon would be a commercial exercise to raise funds for the cash-strapped Roskosmos. Russia's space programme has about a tenth of Nasa's budget and has been struggling to finance the ISS in the absence of the US space shuttle fleet.

A trip to the moon poses far greater technical risks and danger than a relatively short flight to the ISS. The space station is only 220 miles from the Earth's surface in low orbit whereas the moon is almost 240,000 miles away and would take about three days to reach.

But Vitaly Golovachyov, a space analyst at the Trud newspaper, said the mission was realistic. "We've had the necessary technology for many years," he said. "The only problem will be finding someone prepared to pay that much."

Many Russians maintain a fierce pride in the country's legacy of space exploration, which reached its pinnacle when Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in 1961.

American and Russian astronauts were meeting in the Russian capital yesterday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz mission which soothed tensions between the two superpowers at the height of the cold war.

· China will put a woman in space no later than 2010, the China Daily reported yesterday. The world's third country to put a man into space would start choosing pilots, scientists and engineers for its first wave of female astronauts next year.

------

БЕЗУМЕН (translated = crazy)

But we have to start somewhere! :-)

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Space race for tourists - trip to the Moon $100 million

And now its official: a trip to the Moon - $100 million

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The firm that already arranged for two millionaire space tourists to visit the International Space Station is getting ready to sell trips to the moon for $100 million each.

Space Adventures, an Arlington, Va., company, is set to announce plans Wednesday morning for two passengers to ride a Russian Soyuz rocket to the moon and back as soon as 2008. The spacecraft would orbit the moon and not land, according to a company spokeswoman.

The firm arranged for American Dennis Tito to ride a Soyuz to the International Space Station in 2001, followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth, who visited the following year. American Greg Olsen is set to make the third privately-paid trip in October. Each paid $20 million.

The Soyuz doesn't have the capacity to reach the moon in its current configuration. It would have to attach to a booster in low earth orbit or at the International Space Station, according to a Space Adventures spokeswoman.

There has not been a manned mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in December of 1972. A total of 24 men have traveled to the moon, with half of them walking on the surface.

On July 26th 2005 CNN broke the story about Virgin, Penpal and Atlantic initiative about sending tourists to space.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Forget the Russians and the Americans. The new space race is between the guys from Virgin Atlantic, Amazon.com, and PayPal.

The two-and-a-half years since the last manned NASA flight have seen great efforts by entrepreneurs who want to start providing flights for wealthy space tourists. (Click here for CNN.com's coverage of the space shuttle Discovery's flight.)

Virgin Atlantic won't be flying into space, but a sister company, Virgin Galactic appears to have an early lead, and hopes to offer sub-orbital flights as soon as 2008.

The company has a licensing agreement with aircraft designer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who backed Rutan's effort to build the first privately-financed rocket to carry a man into space, SpaceShipOne. That ship made two sub-orbital trips last fall to win the $10 million X-Prize.

Virgin Galactic is now spending $21.5 million for use of the technology, and plans to spend $100 million to build five of a new version of the space craft, which should each be able to carry six or seven passengers, plus crew, into space.

The flights will be sub-orbital, only giving the passengers about seven minutes of weightlessness and the ability to see the darkness of space and the curve of the earth. The cost for the flight, along with several days of training before takeoff, is estimated to be $200,000.

The fact that the space craft is carried into the air underneath another plane before being launched in mid-air gives it cost savings and safety that can't be accomplished in a traditional ground-launched rocket, said Will Whitehorn, the president of Virgin Galactic.

Whitehorn said it should allow for a successful business model, with about 460 passengers the first year of operation, or about the number of people who have traveled in space since the first manned fight more than 40 years ago.

"We've now signed up 100 pioneer launch customers," said Whitehorn. "We have another 35,000 have registered who said they want to take a flight. We're going to take an entirely different view of leaving the planet's surface."

Competition
But Whitehorn acknowledges his firm isn't the only one making such an effort.

Jeff Bezos, founder of online retailer Amazon.com (Research), has formed Blue Origin LLC, which is also working on the design of a spacecraft and has already bought 165,000 acres of land in West Texas for a spaceport.

Elon Musk, who created the online payment system PayPal, formed Space Exploration Technologies, which is now working on unmanned rocket launches as a way to eventually carry people into space for a fraction of current costs.

Musk and Whitehorn both believe that private competition will bring down the cost of space flight to the point where it is soon affordable for folks who can't spend six figures.

"It is despairing to consider that the cost and reliability of access to space have barely changed since the Apollo era over three decades ago. Yet in virtually every other field of technology, we have made great strides in reducing cost and increasing capability," said Musk in testimony before Congress. He blamed lack of new entrants into the field of space flight for the current high costs.

But Musk's firm, known as SpaceX, is concentrating now on achieving unmanned missions carrying commercial payloads into orbit. Once it has a track record, it hopes to be able to carry as many as five passengers into orbit on a rocket it is now developing. But it has no time frame for those flights.

Whitehorn is careful not to directly criticize NASA for the lack of commercial flights, but he believes the agency's structure has stuck it with old and very expensive spacecraft.

"[The shuttle] is technologically a very 70s and 80s product," he said. "Things have come along leaps and bounds since then."

Space travel agency
So far the only space tourists have been American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth. Both underwent six months of training and paid $20 million to ride in Russian-built Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station. Those trips were arranged by Space Adventures, an Arlington, Va., firm that acts as a tour operator for space trips. It's arranged a third such trip for American Greg Olsen, set for this October.

It has also started to accept deposits from potential customers who want to pay just over $100,000 for a sub-orbital flight. Space Adventures President Eric Anderson said he has collected about $3 million from 150 customers, and that he'll be either the first or among the first to arrange for such flights. He also believes only a few days of training for passengers will be needed for a flight.

"Virgin will spend hundreds of millions to build SpaceShipTwo," he said. "We plan to have more than one kind of sub-orbital vehicle. We've got agreements with several different vehicles. I think over the next five to 10 years there will be many different choices."

But Anderson admits that whoever is first will have an price advantage.

"Once the price is above $100,000, it's for the elite affluent," said Anderson. "But if someone is offering flights right away and everyone else is talking about flying in five or six years, they'll be able to charge a big premium. People aren't going to want to wait."

One of Anderson's customers is Per Wimmer, a Danish investment adviser working for a London investment bank. He's already paid his $100,000 to be among the first customers Space Adventures will put on a sub-orbital flight, and he's sticking with the firm despite Virgin's plans.

"There's always a premium to pay to be a first," he said. "I'd get out tomorrow if I could."

Incredible adventures

Incredible adventures might be the company we are looking for:
Don't leave the money to your kids! Wouldn't you rather take a space flight?
...Incredible adventures :-)
They have lots of appealing stuff:
A zero g trip, competition for Virgin galactica or the the full monty. Where obviously the full monty is what you would like to aim for:
"The total cost of an Incredible Orbital Space Adventure can range from $15 million to $25 million, depending on the mission profile
David Beckham or Paris Hilton might end up having such a trip - but others should try as well ! :-)

Motivation - why we need the space jumper initiative

NASA is a great organization. They do a splendid job in bringing mankind
closer to a world in space. And they have certainly given us a lot of
memorable and wonderful moments.

But - there is a but - back in 1969 you wouldn't have guessed that
it would take at least 40 years before someone would again walk on the Moon.
Somehow things do proceed a a very moderate pace. Which is kind of
weird considering that the whole might of the worlds only
super power is behind NASA.

Somehow you wonder . Why don't they just increase the budget by a
tenfold - increase the Shuttle fleet from 3 to 30 - fly all the time and
go to the Moon next year?
I am sure they would like to - And I am sure they could. But somehow
thats not the way it is. Perhaps, budgets will go up a bit in response
to a Chinese space effort - one could hope. But then again perhaps not.

And meanwhile time is ticking away- what about our generation? are we
going to see a base on the Moon? And what about a mission to
Mars? Are we going to see that?
Sure we run up and down to our local Congress man - and he/she might
understand or he/she might not.
In the end you begin to think - to kind of quote Kennedy -
ask not what the space program can do for you,
but what you can do for the space program.
The space program needs People who are outside the reach of politicians, who
answer to all sorts of other agendas (than the space effort).

In the end it might need people like you and me!

So what can we do?
At a first glimpse - not much - NASA has that multi billion budget -
the best minds when it comes to space technology -
Again - its all very well - but we want them - and ESA - to go faster.
How can we help?

What if we all send these organizations $20 ... it would add up you know -
if we are talking millions of people here - wouldn't that boost things ?
Somehow, you are sceptical - it would just be another drop in the
ocean -
What we need is something where a limited amount of money collected
from people who can spare say $20 dollar - really again will galvanize
a feeling that things are possible - that all of these things that we want to see,
that they are actually going to happen.

This is what this (SPACEJUMPER/ flymetothemoon) is all about - coming up with a plan - that
can re-establish that feeling of "CAN DO" for all of us who wants
to see it happen - not in a 100 years - but beginning right now.

The grand vision - with ordinary people living and working in space -
affordable and with a purpose - be it space tourism, or
business of some sort.

Lets join the effort in figuring out how!

-Simon

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Setting up the blog - the humble beginnings....

It all started with the story that the company behind
energiya
would now offer a trip to the ISS (a week stay there) followed by
a round trip around the Moon for $100 million.

Thats not a lot of money :-)
With a little luck you should be able to collect this over the internet (or at least we could be internet based as a start).

The details leading up to setting up such a site will be developed through emails and on this site in the coming months.

For now the broad picture is as follows.

We want to help the space effort.
Spaceturism is great fun - but unaffordable for most people right now.
We want to set up a sight that will help promote it - and give the chance to
a number of people without the 10 year astronaut training, fantastic health or fabulous wealth.

The plan in very broad outline:

Set up a of website - lets call it flymetothemoon - where people
can donate money to this project.
Something along the line of the planetary society - but much more gung ho.

People should be able to donate say $20 dollar, for which
they will become members of the association, have their name on the site,
along with (possiblely) picture and a list on how their skills will
help the space effort.

A steering committee of 5 people (Jan and Simon + 3 other people,
lets say one from Tucho Brahe planetarium, one european and one american) -
will then decide which of the association members (those who have paid,
will go to space) - they cannot choose themselfes or friends or family.

In order to make a proof of concept - the steering committee will
as soon as the funds are available send one out to try out a
Russian Jet, followed by a ticket on Virgin Galatica - and
in the end a trip to the ISS.

In the final version with the trip to the ISS - National Geographic or
likewise will be contacted for a 1 hour documentary where the names
and some highlighted pictures of all the contributors will be shown
in the buttom of the screen - people should have a real sense of helping this
under way.

It is a non profit organization - but should it survive this far -
the steering commitee should have opportunity to ask all
members of the association - on completion of the ISS trip -
to buy stocks in a gung ho spacecompany for the same amount of
money as their entry fee to the association - before the
stock is introduced to the public.
The legal details of all of this is to be work out.
Such a company should also be non profit in the sense - that
it purpose would not be to make anyone rich but to promote
space adventures, but in an economically viable way (otherwise it wouldnt
be a company ...).

Hiring people for the various task as the money begins to flow will
be the job of the steering committee - so people of the committee
should obviously be interested in exploring space as their concern 1,2
and 117.

On danish Tv there was once a Tv program called "first danish astronaut" -
as this things gets going similar stunts along with the website might
be considered.

All the details of all of this is to be worked out in the coming months.

-Simon