playing golf on the moon (with David Bowie)

Better golfing suits

Good to read that NASA is working on lighter, more flexible astronaut suits. Should make golfing a lot easier: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/ap_070323_nasa_spacesuit.html

Win a trip into space

New Scientist magazine and Audi are running a competition to offer someone a trip into space:

To win this astonishing prize will take some imagination. We want to know what you think is the world's best patented invention, and why. You have up to 250 words to make your case. The judges will be looking for originality in both the choice of invention and the reasoning.

http://www.winatriptospace.co.uk/blogs/patent/index.html?DCMP=OTC-mc_ns

See also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6310000/newsid_6319600/6319605.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm

Another dotcom millionaire heads into space

The billionaire founder of Amazon.com has released the first images of the launch of a private spacecraft that could bring space travel to the masses.A video of the cone-shaped Goddard vehicle shows it climbing to about 85m (285ft) before returning back to Earth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6230245.stm

X-Prize Cup

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6087088.stm

Is it an air show or a circus? A commercial trade fair or simple entertainment?

The X-Prize Cup held on a desert airfield at Las Cruces in New Mexico last weekend was all of these. Now in its second year, it is the premier event for space enthusiasts, attracting tens of thousands of visitors of all ages and a chance for very rich boys to show off some very big toys.

"I have a belief that we have to make space a personal experience," says Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X-Prize Foundation. "For too long it's just been something you've seen on TV. You may have heard about someone who knows an astronaut. Kids have to believe that it is something they can do, something they can aspire to and dream about, just as we did when we were kids."

Anousheh Ansari pips Madonna by 3 years

Let's hear it for Anousheh Ansari who has become - in her own words - "the world's First Female Private Space Explorer & Space Ambassador."

Good to see she's a blogger: "A ray of light filled the capsule and warmed my heart.  I think I was laughing out loud.  The joy in my heart was indescribable…"

Here's her first email from space. And here's her YouTube videos from space!  She's using all the same software as me for her mission!!

Madonna in space

"Did you know Madonna was trying to go to space?" RobB asks me. See http://www.space.com/news/060915_madonna_space.html:

"Taking into account her good physical preparedness and financial capabilities, the dream of (Madonna) Louise Ciccone of a space flight could be realized in 2009," Panarin was quoted as saying.

I suppose it's possible therefore that Bowie might get to the moon before me. Will he prepared to wait for me at the first tee?

$35 million: the cost of a spacewalk

Space Adventures ('Our Mission Is Your Spaceflight') has announced that it's offering a spacewalk as part of a two-week package holiday on the International Space Station. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5204926.stm:

Eric Anderson, president of and CEO of Space Adventures, said his company already had "potential clients" for the spacewalks. Those with enough money would get to "hang out" outside the space station with a trained cosmonaut as a guide, he said. "One and a half hours is about one orbit of the Earth, so they'd see the entire planet," said Mr Anderson. "They'd experience complete daytime and nighttime and watch the planet in its beauty and splendour."

TAKE NOTE: Space Adventures also reckons it'll be offering a trip to the moon some time around 2009! Cost? $100m!

Swedes on the moon

Check out this article in The Register:

Dr. Niklas Järvstråt first pitched the idea of colonising the Moon over ten years ago. His plan is to establish a self-sustaining community "where the great circle of life can be sustained in its entirety by lunar raw materials and where all life-sustaining products will be manufactured in situ"

Feel free to make you own IKEA jokes (or supply them in flat-pack form for me to make for you...)

Kubrick's vision of a space holiday

Found a site that has a few stills from 2001: A Space Odyssey  showing the kind of spaceport we should really have in place by now.

Interesting detail here about Pan Am's predictions about space travel: "Pan Am had 93,000 reservations for           flights that did not exist.  What is even stranger is that           something of a price war went on. The flights were initially           pegged at $28,000 (return), but Werner Von Braun was predicting           regular service by 2000 and Thomas Paine, NASA administrator in 1969,           predicted that fares would drop to $5000 by 1990."

The Space Tourist's Handbook

This book was an obvious must-have, so I was delighted to receive it from Rob for Xmas. It doesn't get a particular warm write-up from  The Space Review (which is rapidly becoming required reading for me), but there's plenty of practical advice about how to get ready for a trip to the moon.

Two sections in the book in particular caught my eye:

1. HOW TO APPEAR NORMAL IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAM

("do not smile constantly", "do not twitch", "avoid looking to the left when answering questions", "avoid use of the royal we" and - this one most of all, I'd imagine - "avoid uncontrollable sobbing").

2. BASIC COMMUNICATION IN HIGH G-FORCE SITUATIONS

"Be Brief. Avoid conjunctions, pronouns and unneccessary adjectives. Do not say, 'Could you please stop the machine now? I'd like to get off'. Rather say 'Stop. Now. Want. Off'"

"Be Concise. Don't force people to decipher complex commands or requests. Don't say "If this centrifuge were to malfunction, in which direction would my body be propelled?'."

"Speak In Short Bursts. Make your point using a single exhalation. Do not attempt to say 'Excuse me [pause]. If I could have a moment [pause]. I'd like to know when this trip will be over.' Rather say 'Time left?'"

This all sounds eminently sensible, but it is going to take me time to talk like this (like an astronaut, that is) and requires quite a lot of practice. Early morning is easy ('Need Coffee' 'Where Towel?') but dinner party conversation is more tricky this way

I'm wondering if I can find examples on DB's albums where he attempts to speak like an astronaut?