Indonesia
Vacation to the Space
The room is not convenient, the food is not fresh, no roommate picking, everything is floating outside and this is the most expensive vacation to imagine. The space, a vacation destination that is now real. You don’t have to be an astronaut, but you must have Rp 1.5 trillion or 100 million poundsterling to feel the sensation of being a space tourist. Excalibur Almaz claim to be ready to have the ticket for this vacation in 2015.
The first civilian to experience flying to the space is a millionaire from California, Denis Tito in mid 2001. The cost was not as crazy as it is today. The next turn the following year is the 28 years old millionaire from South Africa, Mark Shuttleworth. The mission made a slight improvement compared to that of Denis’s. Unlike Denis who just ‘sit and watch’ during the trip, Mark had a role in the research mission. He communicate and report progress to the ground team. For example, monitoring stem cell in vacuum condition and his own blood pressure during floating up there.
Today, 13 years after Mark, the opportunity to have a space trip is open wider. The very first space hotel Galactic Suite Spaceresort is under construction since 2007. It’s 450 km from earth and is reported to be operational in 2012. However, there’s still no updated many countries had reserved rooms there (three years ago it was about Rp 37 billion per four nights).
As a space tourist, the experience is of course on the other level compared to that of going to the beach or mountain. You can experience the night sky full with stars, around the Earth in 80 minutes and watch the sunrise 15 times a day. In addition, you can participate in scientific experiment when taking off the velcro suit that enables you to crawl over the wall like Spiderman.
Actually, there are other space trip packages available. Aside from Galactic Suite Spaceresort and Excalibur Almaz, other travel companies that ready for such trip Armadillo Aerospace from US, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company Astrium from France, and Russian’s Orbital Technologies. You can take flight with Lynx aircraft from Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) Dutch, take a space cab from SpaceX of NASA, US or Skylon of British government.
Rizman A Nugraha will be the first Indonesian to have the space tour and it’s free of charge. He won the AXE Apollo Space Academy quiz, departed to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US. There, Rizman competed with 107 other winners from 60 countries for 24 space ticket. They are scheduled for the next year, 2015
HAFIDA INDRAWATI
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
