Sic itur ad astra.

Our goal is to provide you with the most incredible experience of your life.

-Virgin Galactic brochure.

"Now that's cool!"

Glen Williams

Recently one of my co-workers came up to me and said that although he didn't blog himself*, if he did blog, he'd want to write about being able to get into space for $200,000.

I don't normally take requests (although I'm happy to take submissions) but I was intrigued enough by Glen's obvious enthusiasm and interest that I decided to do a little research and find out about what we'll charitably call "affordable" space travel.

* * *

Imagine for a moment a hot summer day in New Mexico.  The only sound is that of sand being sifted onto baking hot tarmac by a dry desert wind.

Then ... a glint of sunlight on metal, far, far away in the azure sky ... a low droning hum that builds into a roar as a vee-winged bullet blasts down from the sky to scream along the runway before coming to a reluctant halt.

Welcome to space travel, Virgin Galactic style.

Or, at least, welcome to the idea of space travel.  So far millionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson hasn't announced a specific date for the first commercial flight out of his newly christened Spaceport America in New Mexico.  However, he's confident that he and his two children will be able to participate in the maiden voyage of VG's new SpaceShipTwo (appropriately named the VSS Enterprise) before the end of 2012.

Over 475 people are equally confident, to the point of having paid the required $20,000 deposit, or in many cases the full $200,000 ticket price, to experience three days of astronaut training, a two-and-a-half hour trip to the fringes of space, and five minutes of free fall. 

To be honest, my initial response to all of this was to be offended.  Being able to buy a ticket to space somehow trivialized the Holy Grail of space flight for me, like selling pieces of the True Cross.  But after some thought, I've decided that this is very likely the best thing that could have happened to our moribund** exploration of space.

After all, this post isn't really about being able to travel into space, it's about the fact that someone thought it was cool.  I think it's been a long time since the man on the street really felt that way about space travel, and it's gratifying to discover that almost 500 people think it's cool enough to drop close to a quarter of a million dollars for the opportunity to free themselves from gravity for five minutes.

Logic says that this is how it will start. We live in a society where people pay to travel, and stay in hotels, and eat meals, and so on, and other people compete to offer those things as services.  Right now two other companies are working on developing similar strategies for space tourism, and if interest and demand continues to grow, we'll start to see another space race developing, but this time the goal will be to offer people "the most incredible experience of their life".  Virgin Galactic is just offering a suborbital experience - next it will be orbital, then to the Moon, then Mars...

So, everyone, here's an idea.  There must be some way to set up a lottery legally, and right now I'm getting about the right number of hits a month for 2,000 tickets at a hundred dollars a shot.  Hey, Glen - interested in paying a hundred bucks for a one-in-two-thousand chance at space?  Get lucky, and you could find yourself sitting on a runway with five other people, ready to lift off from Planet Earth.

Now that would be cool.

- Sid

* You may wish to imagine this as somewhat in the style of the Most Interesting Man in the World commercials:  "I don't blog, but when I do, I get Sid to do it for me."

** http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moribund - I'm sorry, but it's the right word to use!!

Is there anybody out there?

"I don't know," he said, "it's practice, partly. I don't know. We're each of us alone, to be sure. What else can you do other than hold your hand out in the dark?"

Ursula K. LeGuin, Nine Lives

I don't do anything to promote this blog, and yet for whatever reason over the last year I've seen a steady rise in page views every month.

I used to think that all those hits were Eastern European bots looking for places to promote performance-related products for males, but evidence indicates that this isn't the case. First, there's a definite bias toward specific postings.  Second, I checked with my friend Laurie, who posts about three times as frequently on her blog as I do on mine, and she only gets about a quarter of the hits, so there's got to be something else going on.

There are four people that I know socially who follow this blog. People at my workplace sometimes mention that they've had a look at my blog (and I solemnly inform them that I'm not one of the people there that they need to suck up to), but only about 14 of the people I work with know about The Infinite Revolution.  None of this is adding up to the 2,470 page views that the stats show for December.

So I have a favour to ask of you, whoever you are.  If you didn't check in just to find out about Wonder Woman's bondage roots (the most popular post) and you happen to read this, I'd appreciate it if you'd say hello in the Comments, either here or in the posting that brought you here. You don't need to say anything else if you don't want to - just hello.  Don't be shy - if it helps, imagine it as being like making first contact with an alien life form. 

And if you are a Russian spambot, just give up. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Blogger automatically diverts all those penis enlargement comments into a holdfile.

- Sid

But wouldn't Stacy and Clinton just LOVE this?

 "I have a very bad feeling about this."

Luke Skywalker*, Star Wars IV:  A New Hope

I've recently been informed that a close acquaintance is planning to dress as a Jedi master throughout 2012.  Even more unfortunate, a little research reveals that right now TLC's What Not To Wear is only accepting applications for the show from San Juan, Houston, Memphis, and New York.

- Sid

* Actually, everybody says some version of this line:  Luke says it, Obi-Wan says it, Han says it, Leia says it, C-3PO says it, Anakin says it - it's the Star Wars equivalent of "I'll be back."