If you had $20 million, would you be a space tourist?

[GregBurch]

I hope so. I wouldn't also want to become space tourist when I suddenly had 20 million €.

When I had 200 million, I would spent 20 million for this dream. But otherwise, I have my priorities currently more on more conservative things:
- Buy a good house
- Put money aside for the education of my children
- Put money aside for my final days
- Invest money in founding my own small spaceflight business.
- Invest little money in a traditional metal plate for my business, to keep it grounded well.
- Use the remaining money as economic reserve for running my business and work on making sure that my children will one day fly into space as part of their everyday life.

Honestly. 20 million for being a payload is not what I consider spaceflight. I would have no objections flying into space for becoming some sort of low earth orbit plumber, but just for the sake of being there, it is not what I consider something to be proud of.

I'm just joking here, but do they remove part of your body there in Germany or something? You know, the part that makes you want to jump up and down and do fun stuff?

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm just joking here, but do they remove part of your body there in Germany or something? You know, the part that makes you want to jump up and down and do fun stuff?

Not really. But do you think 20 million € is still fun?

Also: Like Volker Pispers (German Cabaret artist) lately said: "The people who invented the Endlösung, are no subcompact car drivers!"

 

[GregBurch]

Not really. But do you think 20 million € is still fun?

It's all relative. I'm fortunate enough to be personally fairly prosperous. But $20 million is more than I could possibly spend for a week of adventure on the ISS. But if I had $200 million, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Also: Like Volker Pispers (German Cabaret artist) lately said: "The people who invented the Endlösung, are no subcompact car drivers!"

Damn, that's cold, mein freund.

 

[Urwumpe]

It's all relative. I'm fortunate enough to be personally fairly prosperous. But $20 million is more than I could possibly spend for a week of adventure on the ISS. But if I had $200 million, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Yeah, same here. But just 20 million? 20 million is today the money, a typical top manager earns in one year. And that not even because of his performance.

Damn, that's cold, mein freund.

cold and deep black like a supermassive black hole. Just like good satire has to be.

 

[Moonwalker]

...I wouldn't even enter a nuke plant for 10 minutes. Astronauts are even classified as radiation workers.

Me too

But this is interesting. The effective radiation exposure the Apollo 11 crew had to deal with for exmaple was about 6 mSv for the whole flight although they even flew through the Van Allen Radiation Belt (which took about only one hour after Trans Lunar Injection). The effective radiation exposure to a person here in Germany is about 4 mSv per year. I think a short stay in low Earth orbit shouldn't be too unhealthy for you. But for the guys and girls onboard the ISS it's different when they have to stay for about 6 month.

By the way, did you know that down here on Earth you get a higher radiation exposure from coal mining (especially surface mining) and use of coal rather than from nuclear power plants? :huh:

 

[GregBurch]

Yeah, same here. But just 20 million? 20 million is today the money, a typical top manager earns in one year. And that not even because of his performance.

Well, the pyramid gets steeper as you get closer to the top. If someone had gone back and told me when I was 20 years old how much I'd earn per year (even adjusted for inflation) when I was 50 years old, I'd have said, "Damn! I'm going to be rich!" I'm in the top 98th percentile of income in the US, but I'm not "take a trip to the ISS-rich."

But there are still probably 50,000 people in the world who are. It doesn't take that many to build a business.

 

[pattersoncr]

Me too

But this is interesting. The effective radiation exposure the Apollo 11 crew had to deal with for exmaple was about 6 mSv for the whole flight although they even flew through the Van Allen Radiation Belt (which took about only one hour after Trans Lunar Injection). The effective radiation exposure to a person here in Germany is about 4 mSv per year. I think a short stay in low Earth orbit shouldn't be too unhealthy for you. But for the guys and girls onboard the ISS it's different when they have to stay for about 6 month.

By the way, did you know that down here on Earth you get a higher radiation exposure from coal mining (especially surface mining) and use of coal rather than from nuclear power plants? :huh:

That's a good example of how poorly radiation exposure is understood by most people. I have another, I spent six months deployed on a nuclear submarine, spending probably 8 hours out of every 24 in the engine room less than 50 ft from a critical reactor. Given that I probably recieved less exposure during tha period than my wife did when she flew from Hawaii to Japan to visit me.

Airline pilots get far more zoomies then us nuke submariners

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm in the top 98th percentile of income in the US, but I'm not "take a trip to the ISS-rich."

You are lawyer - if you would earn less, I would be deeply discouraged using your services.

For Lawyers and Tax accountants, the look at their personal wealth is usually a good indication of their success.

 

[Moonwalker]

Airline pilots get far more zoomies then us nuke submariners

It's even assumed that cockpit and cabin crews have an aggravated cancer risk, especially crews of long-haul flights (higher altitudes). On the flight engineers instrument panels of the Supersonic Concorde there even was a radiation meter installed. Flying at 58.000 to 60.000 feet MSL heightened the risk of too much radiation caused by solar storms which are not really predictable. At some value they had to lower the flight altitude (also to prevent loss of nav & com signals). But this never happened during the 27 years of Concorde

PS: But slowing down the aircraft happened sometimes when the TMO (temperature of maximum operation) was reached caused by a too "warm" static air temperature. The TMO for Concordes skin was +127°C by the way. Basically the nose got that hot while the aircafts length increased up to about 12 inches which enabled the flight engineer to put his hand between his intrument panel and the wall right next to it only during supersonic cruise. So the Concordes cabin also had to be cooled instead of warmed like on "conventional" airplanes. It was an amazing peace of engineering. Always operating at its limits. Taking off always with full power and reheaters on, while arriving at the John F. Kennedy Intl. with enough fuel for just one landing attempt. I get too much off topic and too much dreaming of this bird again...

 

[Spicer]

Wow, this conversation really evolved. The wife was totally ok with it. But since we were spending money that doesn't really exist, I don 't know if that means anything.

With the whole situation. I would love to feel the exhiliration of sitting on top of a rocket waiting for the countdown. I would love to feel weightless for more than two seconds on a roller coaster. I would love to feel the g's build up on a re-entry. (In Soyuz, now...possibly a whole lot with a ballistic re-entry) I would love to have the experience of living and working in space for even a little while. That's been one of those personal dreams since I was a kid...unfortunately that will probably never come true.

Also...If being launched from 0-17500 miles per hour in 8 minutes isn't about the most extreme thing that exists...I don't know what is.

 

[Linguofreak]

Wow, this conversation really evolved. The wife was totally ok with it. But since we were spending money that doesn't really exist, I don 't know if that means anything.

With the whole situation. I would love to feel the exhiliration of sitting on top of a rocket waiting for the countdown. I would love to feel weightless for more than two seconds on a roller coaster. I would love to feel the g's build up on a re-entry. (In Soyuz, now...possibly a whole lot with a ballistic re-entry) I would love to have the experience of living and working in space for even a little while. That's been one of those personal dreams since I was a kid...unfortunately that will probably never come true.

Also...If being launched from 0-17500 miles per hour in 8 minutes isn't about the most extreme thing that exists...I don't know what is.

Plenty of things are more extreme, but the trick is finding a pastime both extreme and surviveable.

For instance, I would love to blow a nuke up under myself and launch myself into the stratosphere, but I wouldn't survive long enough to enjoy the experience (or suffer from it, for that matter). About the closest I could possibly get is Orion (the propulsion system, not the capsule), and fat chance that anything like that will ever be launched.

There are a whole lot of things that would be a whole load of fun if you could survive them, such as jumping off a hundred story building onto solid concrete without a parachute. The impact would be fun if it didn't reduce your internal organs to raspberry jam.

 

[simonpro]

I couldn't be payed $20 million to ride any modern day spacecraft. I could say good bye to what genes I've got and any idea of off-spring forever due to the radiation. And Zero-G is too crippling. I value my health too much for that. I wouldn't even enter a nuke plant for 10 minutes. Astronauts are even classified as radiation workers. With that amount of money I would only consider investing in working on developing an un-manned private spacecraft/Satellite. I'd probably be making it into a pegasus launcher capable payload.

Zero-G isn't crippling. Space Tourists are only up there for a week, and unless you're a fundamentally unhealthy person this won't do you much in the way of harm.
The radiation isn't a major problem either (again: You're only up there for a week). Yeah you'll get a bigger dose than you would sitting on earth, but not that much bigger.


Also, nuke plants are about the safest places to be in terms of radiation. I was at Idaho National Lab a few weeks ago and the radiation inside the buildings there is actually lower than it is in the middle of Idaho Falls (the town). Same thing happens at the (now decommissioned) Barsebäck nuke station in Sweden. The radiation dosage there is substantially lower than the dosage I'm receiving sitting in my office just now while I type this.

 

[James.Denholm]

Is that 20 million tax-free?

The effective radiation exposure to a person here in Germany is about 4 mSv per year.

That makes me wonder what it's like in Australia. Ozone is for sissies! :lol:

I'm in the top 98th percentile of income in the US, but I'm not "take a trip to the ISS-rich."

You are lawyer...

Wow, I would have never picked you as a lawyer, Greg! You seem far to nice and scociety-contributing to be someone who tears apart inocent people in a courtroom.

 

[ar81]

So you pay 20 million to be a cannonball, get into a case and if lucky you get a small window? Then you use a space toilet and be confined in a space station/submarine and finally you collide with atmosphere, hoping that you won't burn.

 

[Urwumpe]

I would have no problems traveling inside a submarine, as long as it has fast Internet access and can load my daily dose of Coffeine.

 

[Spicer]

So you pay 20 million to be a cannonball, get into a case and if lucky you get a small window? Then you use a space toilet and be confined in a space station/submarine and finally you collide with atmosphere, hoping that you won't burn.

Absolutely! For now, there isn't any other way to get into space. Even if you ride on the shuttle, you have very little visibility during launch, and relatively little room for living.

 

[ar81]

Absolutely! For now, there isn't any other way to get into space. Even if you ride on the shuttle, you have very little visibility during launch, and relatively little room for living.

But if you go to space, why would you remain inside the station? Why not going to Mars or at least take a space walk? That would be the heck of a touristic experience.

Being a cannon ball is hardly touristic. It is like going to rafting and be inside a plastic bubble, hanged from a tree, watching the river.

Beng a cannonball is what we can get today. But I see much more excitement in space tourism if the proper stuff is invented.

 

[silent_protagonist]

As others have said, if i had only $20 million, I wouldn't blow it on a space ticket; there are much more important things to do with that kind of money. But if I had $200 million, yea I'd spend 10% on a trip to space (although I'd hope that by the time I had $200 million the price would have come down a bit).

 

[Spicer]

For the sake of the conversation, I would love to go to Mars. I would love to go to the moon, but an orbital flight is a much easier ticket to buy, relatively. An orbital/station flight costs millions of $$$. A flights to the moon costs billions of $$$'s, a flight to Mars might cost 100's of billions of $$$.

If I won the lottery for, say $100 million ,(Which is a sum that is frequently surpassed) I could pay for an orbital flight with that. There is nothing other than an economy like the U.S., Russia, or now Europe or China that could pay for trips to the moon.

Mars-we haven't gone there. No one probably will for another 25 years or so.