Space Tourist

Mawson Lakes residents are well placed to view the cosmos. We have the Adelaide Planetarium right on our doorstep. But what if you want to get up close and personal with space, to look down and see our blue/green planet from on-high.

For just US$200,000 you can book a flight on Virgin Galactics, “Spaceship Two” that will take you on a suborbital flight to 100km above earth.

But if the high “g” forces, the price, and the risk of sitting on tonnes of explosives and riding a rocket into space don’t appeal to you then you will be pleased to hear there is another way.

Spanish company “Zero2Infinity” plans to take people into near-space in 2013 for just $145,000 in a high altitude balloon with a pressurised capsule. The balloon will only take you to 34km above earth, not the

100km of the Virigin Rocket, but the company’s founder says he feels the defining experience of space travel isn’t the vomiting, the weightlessness or the g-forces. Rather it’s the “overview effect” – the blissful sense of connection that astronauts report after gazing down at our blue planet from above.

For more info www.inbloon.com

Source: New Scientist Dec 2011 #2844