Thursday, February 16, 2017

Fly to the Moon with Russia for $120 Million in 2020

The Russian KosmoKurs company is a private enterprise and they're offering suborbital flights for $250 grand but, better yet, you can go all-out Neil Armstrong now.  I'm not sure if they will land you but they will get you there.  All for only $120 million so do start your Wall Street pyramid scheme soon.  (Pravda:  Russia names price for tour into space)


Generic picture of a Russian spacecraft which has nothing to do with any in the article

- Pravda


Check out the minimal requirements (i.e. after the money):

A candidate will be allowed to fly into space after all procedures related to the payment, three-day training and medical examination are complete accordingly. Up to six space travelers will be able to stay in space for 15 minutes (of which 5-6 minutes - under the condition of weightlessness).

- Pravda

The flight is advertised as sub-orbital but achieves the same altitude as Yuri Gagarin.  It would sure be one massive thrill ride for quarter of a million bucks but it seems more like a glorified roller coaster on which you may die.


If you go to space, Junior Astronaut, don't you want to drive?  John Glenn bitched hard about being 'spam in a can' when he was told the Project Mercury capsules would be controlled from the ground.  If the astronauts weren't driving then they weren't willing to go.  NASA relented and now there are spacemen and spacewomen all over the place.

Ed:  I want to go to the Moon and I don't need to drive.

Well, you need to find $120 mil and go for it.  Going to the Moon is more than a thrill ride since there's plenty of time to be driven as poetic you will ever get by things most people never see.

Ed:  are we headed for the lament about no artists in space?

You already know it and NASA has to be multi-disciplinary when they only have, at most, a dozen astronauts in-flight at any given time.  Artists are often knowledgeable in multiple fields beyond their art but that doesn't usually mean a degree in medicine plus one in engineering.  The astronauts are brainiacs from another dimension.  Check out their qualifications sometime.

Ed:  where the hell is a poet going to find twelve million dollars when he can't even afford to wash his underpants?

That's because he sits on a grassy hillside with a verdant landscape in front of him, filled with noble trees, sweetly singing birds, and floored by multi-colored flowers when he turns to his beautiful blonde girlfriend beside him to ask, "What rhymes with garbage?"

Note 1:  stolen from a Playboy cartoon from who knows when

Note 2:  'washing his underpants' refers to a Freshman English poem which contained a line about 'pee stains on my underwear' and that unforgettable work has stuck with me (Illinois EDU: Gregory Corso: Online Poems)

Ed:  it's magic!

Maybe you laugh but I believe he has a gift for a twisted imagery and he ain't D.H. Lawrence but he's not bad.


Ed:  so how is a poet going to get into space?

We will get artists into space even if it takes levitating the entire stage and surrounding it in some kind of force field.  Eventually we will hear what it's like from an artist's standpoint.

Ed:  or sooner if he or she has $120 million.

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