Space Tourist

No this isn’t the movie, Total Recall where then actor and not governor Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a plot where he ended up on the red planet. This is legit- well sort of – chance to go to Mars.

Last month, the U. S. celebrated the 40th anniversary of the moon landing in grand style. National and local TV news station, newspapers, websites and blogs and celebrated what was arguably the greatest technological achievement of this century.

I remember as a kid watching Apollo 11 on a black and white television and seeing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin making their historic leaps for mankind. Since then many conspiracy theories have been thrown around.

But, most people believe in the reality of the moon walks rather than the sound stage theory, which brings me back to my point that you now have a chance to go to Mars, in a way.

NASA is letting people sign up to put their names on a microchip that will be embedded in the Mars Science Laboratory rover that will be launched in 2011. It may not be a Mars walk, but it’s better than a kick in the pants or a poke in the eye. In fact, way better.

So why not sign up and get your name on Mars? You’ll make history when you do.

Chinese astronauts walked in space for the first time this past weekend. But did anyone notice? Noticeably absent was reporting from the mainstream media. There has been no Larry King special, no hoopla, just yawns for only the third nation in history to take a step out of the blue and into the black.

Zhai Zhigang, the commander of China’s Shenzhou VII spacecraft took a short walk in space for less than 15 minutes this past Saturday. The 68-hour voyage saw the spacecraft climb to 215 miles above the Earth’s surface. It was just 5 years earlier when China had its maiden spaceflight.

Taking off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, the astronauts took the first steps towards building the Chinese space station of the future. Now, normally, I would reserve this blog for information about the space tourism industry.

But, China stepping into space for the first time is a big deal, a really big deal. It complicates the space race by putting another superpower at the table in regard to science, technology and military applications plus the possibility of the Big Red State entering the space tourism industry in a few years as well.

The Russians and Americans may have greatly this event with a big ole yawn. But, who will be yawning a few years from now when China has more people in space than Disney has riders at Space Mountain? Hey, it could happen.

This is the first post in the wonderful and sometimes wacky Space Tourist blog. Hopefully, many more posts will follow over the years. This blog is about space travel in general and space tourism in specific.

Space tourists will be covered first as the rich and notable who can afford the multimillion dollar trip, and then as prices come down as those brave souls who wish to take a peak at Earth from low earth orbit. Sit back and enjoy the ride!