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Google's Brin Books a Space Flight

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:04 PM
from the i-can-see-my-house-from-here dept.
Businesses Google The Internet Space
coondoggie writes "Google largely conquered the Earth — now it is taking aim at space. At least co-founder Sergei Brin is. Brin today said he put down $5 million toward a flight to the International Space Station in 2011. Brin's space travel will be brokered by Space Adventures, the space outfit that sent billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi to the station in 2007. Computer game developer (and son of a former NASA astronaut) Richard Garriott is currently planning a mission to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures." Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan, man. I'll be the one on my lawn, green with envy.
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Submission: Google's Brin books a space flight by coondoggie (973519)
[+] Games: <em>Tabula Rasa</em> Promotion To Send Gamers' DNA to Space 90 comments
Bridger tips news that NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, created in part by Richard Garriott, is running an unusual promotion right now. Garriott is going to the International Space Station on October 12th, and he'll take with him a digital record of the DNA of various players and celebrities. The basic plot of Tabula Rasa is that Earth was attacked and humans almost completely wiped out. Garriott's promotion is playing on that idea; the hard drive with the DNA data will be left in orbit "just in case" something happens to humanity on Earth. NCSoft has been running a variety of polls and contests to include further data about humans on the hard drive. The deadline for joining the project has recently been extended to September 29th.
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  • give him more than that (Score:5, Funny)

    by moderatorrater (1095745) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:05PM (#23750317)

    Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan man. I'll be the one on my lawn green with envy.
    I hope you'll be wearing at least a bright red shirt or something, because otherwise you're going to blend right in.

  • Rather too risky for me (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Eravnrekaree (467752) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:08PM (#23750391)
    While this may sound like a nice adventure, going into space, if I had a billion, its the last thing I would ever want to do, because it is so risky. There are a million things that can go wrong, space flight has a high rate of occurance of accidents, when you are in orbit, as well, there is not much anyone on ground can do to help you when you get into trouble. So certainly, it is a huge gamble, and not one I would be comfortable with.

    • Re:Rather too risky for me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nimey (114278) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:24PM (#23750697) Homepage Journal
      Good thing space exploration isn't in your hands, then.

    • Re:Rather too risky for me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:24PM (#23750699)
      And that is one reason you do not have a billion.
    • The fact that he is doing it although it is risky, is probably the reason he has the billion dollars in the first place.
    • If I had a billion I might think about it, but if I 'only' had $5-30 million I could think of things that would give much more satisfaction overall. It would be cool to experience Zero G, see the earth from space, see the stars more clearly, etc, but personally I think I'd probably find SCUBA diving in the carribean much more fun.. you don't have to pee into a bottle when you're in the sea.

            • Re:Rather too risky for me (Score:5, Insightful)

              by Lord_Frederick (642312) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @01:33PM (#23752171)
              Living is about what you experience. Everyone's risk-to-experience tolerance is different. Some people only feel alive and free when they sky dive, while others think it's a silly risk. Some people have full and happy lives doing nothing more than playing scrabble. Space travel is a huge risk for an amazing experience that only a handful of humans have. You could die, but the dead don't feel regret for failing to take a chance on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                by ScrewMaster (602015)
                You could die, but the dead don't feel regret for failing to take a chance on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

                Yes, but if the dead could feel regret they probably would, as in, "Christ, that was stupid. What the hell was I thinking?" That's because most people don't bother to think very hard about their own mortality. If they did, they wouldn't do things like smoke and drive SUVs at a hundred miles an hour with a cell phone jammed in their ear. It's always the other guy that will get smeared. AT least,

  • one step closer (Score:5, Funny)

    by cashman73 (855518) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:09PM (#23750413) Journal
    Google is now just one step closer to founding the Copernicus Center [google.com],... ;-)

  • Green Space Adventures (Score:5, Funny)

    by jason.sweet (1272826) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:09PM (#23750417)
    Kinda offsets driving a Prius, doesn't it?
    • If the shuttle or the soyuz is going up anyway, it's not like paying for a ticket is going to change much. I guess Brin could pay a carbon offset for the fuel required for the delta-v of his mass (~150-250lbs).

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by cashman73 (855518)
        I never really understood the purpose of "buying carbon offsets". To me, it's just a total advertising gimmick. I mean, people aren't actually changing their behaviors and lifestyle choices to live a more environmentally-friendly life. It's basically just a way to say, "Fine! Go ahead and keep polluting the earth and destroying the ozone! But as long as you give lots of money to , it's all ok!"

        • Suppose that the cash goes toward planting trees, research, efficiency upgrades -- something like that. Then it might make sense. But cutting out the middle man might make a lot more sense. I suppose it depends on how much you trust your carbon offset broker.

          Personally, I've yet to hear a compelling case as to why (and to whom) I should be making this sort of donation.

          • Oh, and the hole-in-the-ozone thing, caused by CFC propellants, is very "eighties". Yes, it's real, and yes, it probably going to be giving penguins cancer for many years to come -- but the crisis that in the headlines these days is the greenhouse effect aka global warming aka global climate change. No weird chemicals involved, just regular "harmless" CO2.

            This is part of the reason that global warming took a while to catch on as something to panic about. It's easy to condemn nasty things like sulfur, le

          • http://www.terrapass.com/projects/ [terrapass.com]

            I buy offsets because I think it's the right thing to do to work towards a solution regarding climate change. Eventually, it'll either be legislated (i.e: required, via a tax on fuel) or the price of oil will go so high that consumption will drop drastically on it's on (i.e. the current situation in the US).

        • Guess you've never heard of plenary indulgences [wikipedia.org].

        • Re:Green Space Adventures (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Firehed (942385) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:56PM (#23751347) Homepage
          It's just outsourcing your environmental concerns :)
        • ^5

          I'm right there with you. My more in-tune-with-yuppiedom friends spoke feverishly about how they 'buy carbon offsets', yet I noted they still drive 10-15mpg vehicles and have poor insulation with all the glamorous wall sized windows to maximize the view of the lake outside their place.

          Paying a 'non profit' to plant a tree will not reduce the amount of energy they consume. Level of consumption is the problem, not just additional trees.
        • Actually, it's pretty easy to understand buying carbon offsets (if you're an intelligent, altruistic human being). If you're the kind of person who enjoys pushing the externalities of oil consumption onto other people, resulting in a tragedy of the commons situation, than you wouldn't see the point of carbon offsets.

          I've reduced my carbon emissions as much as possible in my home, at the business I own, and with my vehicles (2 hybrids and an all electric on the way). Carbon offsets let me offset that last

    • How do we calculate MPG? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Bearpaw (13080) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:22PM (#23750657)
      How do we calculate MPG? Sure, it's a shitload of fuel just to go 213 miles up (*), but then you can coast for ~3 million miles!

  • Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan man. I'll be the one on my lawn green with envy.
    Am I the only one who read that as "I'll be the one on my green lawn with envy?"
    • You must be new here - I for one know that in Soviet Slashdot Meme-phrase, green is people, and lawn envies you!
  • Chalk me up on someone who is quite jealous of S. Brin over this! I mean the vast richest he has _earned_ is of no concern to me. The fact that he gets to not only go into space, but he gets to be tagged with being the first person in space via a private venture is enough to make even the modest geek envious. Thanks for helping the door for the rest of us to follow you through in the future though.

    I hope to follow the same path someday and pay for myself to float around for a few days in space ;) - Then

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by dreamchaser (49529)
        Simony went up on a Soyuz. We're not talking about the same thing with Brin. If things go as planned he'll get there via a privately owned and operated flight. It will still be a Soyuz but it won't be owned and operated by any government agency. Hence it's the first private spaceflight.

        • Re:Now THAT is a vacation - I for one am jealous (Score:4, Informative)

          by everphilski (877346) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @01:29PM (#23752109) Journal
          It'll be flown by a Russian commander, out of the Russian launch complex in Balkinour.

          Call it whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy, but it's a Russian rocket, piloted by a Russian commander, launched out of a Russian spaceport. I guarantee you communications are run through Korolev. Space Adventures purchased a flight, not the flight hardware. This is not privatized space travel. Look to small companies in the southeast US - SpaceX, XCOR, Armadillo, Blue Origin if you want to see "private spaceflight"

      • Re:Now THAT is a vacation - I for one am jealous (Score:5, Insightful)

        by PCM2 (4486) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @01:35PM (#23752191) Homepage

        I could give a shit either way. Do you know how many people you could HELP with $5 million, like real bonified food on the table for dinner kind of help?

        It's not like the money just vanishes into thin air, you know. Sergei gives it to someone else, who ends up giving it to someone else, who gives it to someone else, who gives it to someone else... and so the economy rolls on. You could argue that spending the money does a lot more good for society than just leaving it in the bank.

        BTW, why are you sitting there reading Slashdot when you could be volunteering at your local homeless shelter?

  • Oh yea duh... but waiting for all the modules to be installed should make it even more fun. I wonder what it would cost to make a space walk? Gotta get going on that web3.0 killer app.

  • A lot of energy and CO2 for one guy's amusement (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Subm (79417) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:29PM (#23750791)
    It would be great if he would spend at least a comparable amount of money to plant trees or something else to help the environment for the amount of CO2 and other pollution he's going to cause to be put into the atmosphere.

    I guess he has the right to pollute all he wants, but launching yourself into orbit dwarfs the effect on the environmental most people would ever cause. People get the value of protecting the Earth from viewing it from space. Usually that perspective ends up happening afterward. I hope Brin gets it beforehand.

    "...From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse of space. It gave me the feeling of really wanting us all to take care of the Earth. I got more of a sense of Earth as home, a place where we live. And of course you want to take care of your home. You want it clean. You want it safe."
    -- Winston Scott, two-time shuttle astronaut

    "You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday. ... We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don't think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I've had traveling in space."
    -- Eileen Collins, first female space shuttle commander.

    I'm sure he has friends who read Slashdot. If you are one of them, could you ask him to think and do something about how his actions will affect the rest of us?

    • Re:A lot of energy and CO2 for one guy's amusement (Score:5, Insightful)

      by khallow (566160) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @01:11PM (#23751711)
      Alternately, we could stop giving in to global warming hysteria and recognize that there are carbon producing activities more important than eliminating positive carbon emissions. Space tourism, for example, easily meets this weak threshhold. Yes, sending rich guys on joy rides in space is more important than token gestures of support for environmentalism.
  • If you live in Michigan and still have a front lawn that hasn't washed away, consider yourself lucky.

  • Risky business. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dzimas (547818) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:37PM (#23750955)

    I'm jealous and also quite in awe of how brave people are to venture into space. Some sobering stats on manned space flight: 18 of the 430 people who've ventured into space didn't make it back alive. Of course, quite a few astronauts and cosmonauts have flown more than once, but I calculate that the shuttle's overall fatality rate is running at around 1.8%. IOW, the chance of dying is about the same as my chance of winning $10 in this week's 6/49 Lotto. I hope he has a fantastic trip and that he blogs about his experience.

    Would I be willing to venture into space if given the chance? I'm not sure. I'd love to have the opportunity to consider it, though.

    • Well, as someone who said above I don't see the point for that kind of money, if I could do it for free then I'd definitely consider it. I do vaguely remember hearing about a Soyuz blowing up though? The benefits would probably outweigh the cost if it cost up to 1000 pounds for me, but over that I wouldn't consider it worth it :p
    • Up to the turn of the century about as many people summited Everest and went into space with a similar fatality rate. With pampered guided tours recently, the Everest summits are about triple.

    • Re:Risky business. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ELProphet (909179) <davidsouther@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 11 2008, @02:25PM (#23753115) Homepage
      Most interesting in that line of statistics: no human has died outside the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 1 was a fire on the pad, Challenger hadn't crossed 50 miles, and Columbia was under 50 miles. The Russian space program has similar circumstances. 18 didn't walk out of the craft alive, but all 420 who have crossed into space have made it back inside the atmosphere.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by guruevi (827432)
      I would like to see those numbers over the years. I think (wild speculation) space travel would be (on a relative yearly basis) safer than both cars and airplanes. Also compare Russian, European, Chinese and US based space programs. AFAIK most crashes and malfunctions happen on the Shuttle program with the Soyuz program having the lowest cost and casualties.
  • I thought the Russians announced that they were no longer doing the space tourism gig, and that space tourism was going to be the realm of private industry from that point forward.

    I know he's booking through a separate agency, but the Russians are still hauling the meat in the seat.
    • Mark Shuttleworth
    • Charles Simonyi
    • Richard Garriott
    • Sergey Brin

    Earth or not, the geek are sure inheriting space!

  • $5 Million Is Just The Beginning, Though (Score:4, Funny)

    by Illbay (700081) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @03:20PM (#23754035) Journal
    Since the cost of fuel has gone up, NASA has started adding surcharges on everything.

    For instance, now you get only one carry-on bag free of charge. Any extra bags cost $100,000 apiece.

    You no longer get free beverage service on the shuttle. Soft Drinks are $3,000 each, beer and wine $5,000 and mixed drinks are $10,000.

    If you want an in-flight magazine, that'll be an extra $4,000.

    Pretty soon, only the really wealthy or business customers will be flying to the ISS, at these prices.

    • Re:What a waste. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by khallow (566160) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:41PM (#23751041)

      I'm sure someone will reply with a "relative" comment regarding money I and others who are less fiscally successful spend on things like MMOG's and flat panels, but on a person-by-person basis that's a very small chunk compared to the giant barrel of money he's giving away here.
      Yes, this usually is the nail in the coffin for this sort of argument. Why should you expect someone else to donate any extra cash they happen to have when you aren't willing to? It does strike me as odd that you go ahead with the argument even though you already know why it's flawed.

    • Re:What a waste. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nemilar (173603) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @12:46PM (#23751147) Homepage
      You're acting like the Russians are just going to take his dollars and burn them in a furnace, or that somehow those dollars are going to be taken out of circulation, never to be used for anything ever again.

      Realize that his $30 million is going to be spent by the Russians; on the development of new technology, on fuel (and hence, on employees of the energy companies), on paying engineers and scientists; on all the things required to maintain a space program.

      If you want to support an industry - and most people on slashdot probably believe the space industry is one worth supporting - the best thing you can do is to buy their product. That's exactly what he's doing.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by blahk_lyte (1305925)
      Well, to be honest, it isn't your money to spend. The man busted his ass to give him self the life he wanted. If he wants to spend his money by taking a rediculously expensive vacation, then good for him. Richard Garriot has done a lot in revolutionizing one of the biggest markets on the gamefront with his ideas and I can guarantee you he deserves it. I have worked with him in Austin on the UO project and he deserves it. [/end opinionated rantflame]

    • According to google.org [google.org] Google has donated $33 milion from AdSense adverts to more than 850 nonprofit organisations in 10 countries throught the world.

      The Make-A-Wish [wish.org] foundation has received more than 25% of all the online donations from Google.

      Google has given more than 30% of all the yearly donations to the Doctors without borders program.

      Google has also donated to the Grameen Foundation [grameenfoundation.org] located in the US and $2 mils to the OLPC [mit.edu] project...

      Read more here [blogspot.com]

    • Re:What a waste. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MyNymWasTaken (879908) on Wednesday June 11 2008, @01:42PM (#23752323)

      I'm sure someone will reply with a "relative" comment regarding money I and others who are less fiscally successful spend on things like MMOG's and flat panels, but on a person-by-person basis that's a very small chunk compared to the giant barrel of money he's giving away here.
      Here's your "relative" comment.

      Sergey Brin's net worth is reported at $18.7 billion dollars. That $30 million ticket is 0.16% of his net worth.

      If you have a $200K net worth, e.g. investments, home equity, etc..., that space flight ticket is the equivalent of you buying a PS3.

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