[extropy-chat] Fly Me 'Round the Moon

[Olga Bourlin]

Don't forget to take your Dramamine:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8BTF8QO0.html

Thursday, August 11, 2005 - Page updated at 1:27 AM
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Company to sell trips around the moon

By LINDA A. JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending 
"tourists" up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: 
rocketing people around the far side of the moon.

The price of a round-trip ticket: $100 million.

The first mission by Space Adventures could happen in 2008 or 2009 and is 
planned as a stepping stone to an eventual lunar landing by private 
citizens.

"For the first time in history, a private company is organizing a mission to 
the moon," Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said at a Manhattan news 
conference Wednesday, a day after space shuttle Discovery safely returned to 
Earth. "This mission will inspire countries of the world, citizens ... our 
youth."

Anderson said he already has prospective "private explorers" who are 
interested in the trip and could afford the ticket.

The initial travelers would be the first to orbit the moon in more than 33 
years, according to the Arlington, Va., company. Only 27 people have ever 
made such a journey.

The trip, aboard a modified Russian spacecraft, will offer the chance to see 
the Earth rise from lunar orbit and a view of the far side of the moon from 
an altitude of 62 miles.

The far side of the moon has a special appeal, Anderson told The Associated 
Press in an interview, because it takes most of the hits from asteroids, 
meteorites and other objects from deep space. That results in many more 
craters than on the side seen from Earth.

"It's much more interesting to look at than the near side," he said, adding 
that the lunar orbits will be done when the far side is illuminated by the 
sun.

Space Adventures plans to offer multiple trip itineraries aboard Russia's 
Soyuz TMA spacecraft. One possibility is a 5 1/2-day lunar flight and up to 
21 days at the International Space Station; another is a nine-day mission 
with three days of free flight in low-Earth orbit and the rest flying around 
the moon. In both cases, the spacecraft would dock with a booster, carried 
up by a separate launch vehicle, to propel it to the moon.

The Soyuz was originally designed for lunar missions, although none ever 
occurred. Anderson called it the most reliable craft in the history of space 
travel.

It has 10 cubic meters of crew space, about the size of a large SUV. The 
cosmonaut and two passengers will sleep in reclining chairs, said Nikolai 
Sevastyanov, president of rocket maker Rocket and Space Corporation Energia.

Space Adventures has a partnership with the rocket maker and the Federal 
Space Agency of the Russian Federation, through which they have sent 
American businessman Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth on a 
Soyuz for stays on the space station.

The next mission is slated to send a team up to the space station for 10 
days starting Oct. 1. One of the crew members is Gregory Olsen, a New Jersey 
scientist who has been training for the mission in Russia on and off since 
2004.

"Who wouldn't want to go to the moon?" said Olsen, 60, a surprise guest at 
the news conference. "I'm really interested, but one flight at a time."

Modifications to the Soyuz will include altering its docking system and 
installing an 18-inch window so passengers can take high-resolution photos 
of the lunar surface.

___

On the Net:

http://www.spaceadventures.com



Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company