I'm sorry, Elon. I'm afraid I can't do that... SpaceX touts robo-rides for orbital vacations, lift-off in 2021-ish SpaceX has pledged to carry up to four passengers into Earth orbit aboard its autonomous Crew Dragon capsule – its first crewed mission for private space tourism – as early as 2021. The program is part of the deal with Space Adventures, a commercial spaceflight company based in Virginia, USA. The tourism business, which …
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Is Elon Musk really trying to put people out of work?
Tesla are/have developed autonomous himan carrying cars.
SpaceX are developing an autonomous human carrying spaceship.
What next? Autonomous aeroplanes? Autonomous government?
Maybe Musk should trademark Autonomous everything?
There are good reasons for autonomous. Bob Behnken: "There were about 3,000 switches inside [the shuttle] and there was no situation that the astronauts couldn't make worse by touching the wrong switch at the wrong time" "We're grateful that the next vehicle we're going to fly [Dragon] on is going to be a little bit more automated."
I wanted to link to a picture the half assembled control console of Starliner, but I cannot find it again (or how much it weighed - lots). Instead, here is one fully assembled. Now imagine a cable harness behind all those buttons connecting each to the appropriate actuator - which is often outside the pressure hull. Some careful and detail oriented human has to check each connection on every Starliner.
Crew Dragon was not going to have any controls - exactly what I would want if I was going into orbit with three other tourists. NASA insisted and, as they are paying, SpaceX put in the minimum required controls. It only has physical buttons when NASA insisted. The touch screen shows the appropriate controls for the stage of the mission (and does not rely on a timer in the capsule set by querying the rocket before the rocket knows the launch time and which the rocket defaults to zero.) The flight suit finger tips have the correct capacitance to operate to touch screen and data moves between the control console and the rest of the vehicle through network cables. Except for those physical buttons the whole thing can be automatically tested with software not written by Boeing.
Would you rather fly in something that could get you there by itself but has redundant controls on the ground or something that will kill you if a fellow passenger presses the wrong button (or the right button connected to the wrong actuator)?
They will pay $20 million to be cooped up in what looks like a large-ish Gemini capsule for five whole days ?
If you can splurge that amount of money, you are a person that has the habit of doing whatever you want, going wherever you want, whenever you want. You're also used to spacious, luxurious environments and people whose only job is to ensure that you're happy. Being locked up in a large telephone booth for five days is not your habitual environment, and doing that with four other people who are just as uppity as you are is going to drive someone crazy without a shred of doubt.
Plus, you'll not only not have caviar and champagne on demand, you'll also be defecating in full view of four total strangers. You'll have to get along with them, and that's not something you're used to either.
Paying that amount of money sure will bring you bragging rights back home - if you live to brag about it - but the experience is going to be unique in more ways than one, that's for sure.
Crew dragon does have some sort of toilet facilities with a "privacy curtain", but they're likely to be very minimal.
I'd be more worried about "accidents" using those facilities. There's a reason the Apollo crews referred to the CM as "the mens room".
Remember the Wollowitz zero gravity waste disposal system...
For $80 million you could reserve the entire capsule for a private honeymoon. For a few million more they may even throw in a automated spouse. Be sure to leave a tip for the cleanup crew!
Great view but room service sucks.
I was wondering if SpaceX will be monitoring the four during training?
All we need is for one of them to take over the controls (SUCH AS THEY ARE) during the mission and complete the missing part of 9/11, except this time from orbit with 3-6 tonnes of stuff hurtling down on the White House and no prospect of stopping it.
Or.... maybe we do.... ????
Funnily enough ... although I am (rightly) scathing about Virgin Galactic's sub-orbital stunt flights, I can see why your average obscenely rich individual might go for that, rather than these oribtal flights—which don't sound very realistic to me anyway.
With the Virgin system, you get your nice shiny Astronaut badge, even though you've done nothing but fly up 80km and then come back down again. (Well, "astronaut" who hasn't even flown into orbit, or even reached 100km.) You're only aboard the ship long enough to get the badge. Just afew hours.
Whereas the SpaceX scheme ... who does want to spend four days in a tiny, smelly space with three strangers, with virtually no privacy, and a very same-y view out the tiny window? What are you gonna do if one of the other rich idiots keeps puking? Or has a heart attack? Or goes a bit bonkers and refuses to follow procedure? Has chronic flatulence?
Starship may be big enough to afford some comfort to tourists, but Crew Dragon? Really? No, I don't see it.
The very rich twits will pay Branson for a chance to fly not even to the Karman Line, and get a pretty badge if they survive.
The obscenely rich will wait for a stateroom aboard Starship.
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