**Space tour around the Moon: 1st tickets have been sold: Will see Dark Side!!

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The Russian Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia” and the American Space Adventures company, which arranges space flights for private clients, have agreed to rig the Soyuz spacecraft with an additional residential module for space tours around the Moon.

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The deputy chairman of the Space Adventures board Richard Garriott is one of the first space tourists who has visited the International Space Station. He was taken there by a Russian Soyuz spaceship in 2008. Garriott thinks that providing the Soyuz with an additional module “will make the flight even more enjoyable”.

The US company has already sold one of the two tickets for the first Moon tour planned for 2015. The tickets cost about $150 million.

The Soyuz spaceship has three seats, one of which is for the commander, an experienced astronaut. The other two seats are for tourists. They are given an opportunity to see the other side of the Moon, invisible from the Earth. So far only 24 American astronauts who took part in the NASA Appollo programme have seen it.

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Though taken Oct. 7, 1959, the first image of the far side of the moon was not transmitted back to Earth until 11 days later.

“This is a modified Soyuz spaceship with an additional living section. The Blok D will give the whole system the escape velocity. The time of the journey is about 6-7 days, it takes 3 days to reach the Moon and 3 days back.

Source: english.ruvr.ru...

Well now. If I had the money... I would be the first.. stike that.... 10th in line. I would want a few to go first to ensure the "system" is working properly. I would rather be one that is known as the one the WOULD HAVE died had he went first.. Instead of the one that is known to be the first private passenger killed in Space.. How about you?

Well, to see the Dark Side of the Moon-without NASA/USA or any gov't intervention or oversight. I guess it will either be disclosure or not. The truth of what is on the Dark Side will be revealed. Unless, there is an Alien base on the moon and they are monitoring Earth. (that is where the whole 1st one dying comes into play).

Seriously though. What (another) Great Step for Man. I think it is time for Private ventures into Space anyway. Why should Gov't's be the only ones?

I doubt the price will ever come donw as to me to be able to afford to go but I sure hope my kids have the opportunity to leave Earth-and Return safely.

A true testiment to Man's Ability. Thoughts.

To me: This is the Best Dark Side of the Moon-for now
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I put this under Aliens/UFO in hopes of generating debate. As I see it, the days of the Dark Side of the Moon as an Alien Base (and whatever else has been dreamed up) are numbered. There isn't anything there. No ruins, no bases, no ships-hovering or otherwise, nothing. Prove me wrong.

I have the first pic posted. Nothing visable. If you got something better, Post it. Otherwise, the case should be closed-at least when they get back and tell us that there is nothing there. Then NASA will say "I told you so"

Can you imagine posting those pictures to your facebook? That'd be sick.

my ultimate dream is to see the earth from space..
those are lucky people who can afford this..
s&f for you my friend..

They best take some kick ass camera equipment with night vision and post the pix everywhere.

I'm sooooooo jealous

If i had 150 million, i would defo buy a ticket. Just watched Apollo 13 before and its left me gagging for a trip round the moon

who thinks that the lucky ones, if they get back safely will be sworn to secresy to what they see if any thing, i personally think that will be part of the deal of buying the ticket,

Originally posted by anon72
Well, to see the Dark Side of the Moon-without NASA/USA or any gov't intervention or oversight. I guess it will either be disclosure or not. The truth of what is on the Dark Side will be revealed. Unless, there is an Alien base on the moon and they are monitoring Earth. (that is where the whole 1st one dying comes into play).

If you insist on calling the far side of the moon the 'Dark side' of the moon I will confiscate your ticket... It gets enough sun

ill see you on the dark side of the moon.

I didn't gather from the OP that they have sold the other ticket.

Would you go up in a Soviet tin can a quarter million miles from home with just one professional on board when it is already assumed the Russian's never sent a man around the moon yet? What if he passed out for a while, Oh what a ride!

I mean, it's no Space Shuttle suite (8-crew plus 100's of contained experimental compartments) by any means, its horribly basic crammed life support, (yet unproven) to do what you are paying for. You want to be the first lab rat for just 10 million dollars plus?

The thing is.................

We should have been doing this 30 years ago. If we had been then maybe we could have gone by now.

we got ripped off

Originally posted by Now_Then

Originally posted by anon72
Well, to see the Dark Side of the Moon-without NASA/USA or any gov't intervention or oversight. I guess it will either be disclosure or not. The truth of what is on the Dark Side will be revealed. Unless, there is an Alien base on the moon and they are monitoring Earth. (that is where the whole 1st one dying comes into play).

If you insist on calling the far side of the moon the 'Dark side' of the moon I will confiscate your ticket... It gets enough sun

THIS

Anon72, shame on you.

Take a piece of paper and a pen.
Write "Far side of the Moon" one-hundred times in long-hand.
Scan it.
Post the image here.

Sorry, I decided to listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon when I was doing the thread.

I guess it just stuck.

Do you like the "other side of the moon" pic that I put in the thread? Hmmm,

reply to post by anon72


Well, I certainly can't fault you on your taste in music!

The pic was a good choice from the historical & national perspectives.

[ETA] Oh yeah, and since I didn't mention it before, I WANNA GO!!!

for 150m, I would want to get a round trip ticket to the moon, land, stay in a holiday inn express for a few days, get my own moon rover to drive around on, play golf, and be able to put a live feed camera down.


Hopefully whomever goes isn't part of ATS...they would come back and post their cool photos they took and have a bunch of schmucks here saying its all a fake due to shadow inconsistancys and lack of giant alien motherships. heh

My bet is that they wouldn't make it back with any evidence at all.

It would be the first passenger space accident/tragedy.....

NASA isn't going to let anything get by them if they can help it. And, if they are working with some segment of an Alien race, for-get-about-it..

Originally posted by anon72
I put this under Aliens/UFO in hopes of generating debate. As I see it, the days of the Dark Side of the Moon as an Alien Base (and whatever else has been dreamed up) are numbered. There isn't anything there. No ruins, no bases, no ships-hovering or otherwise, nothing. Prove me wrong.

Yeah how are they going to cover up all those bases? Just kidding, I don't believe in them either and I see the thread got moved to space exploration. But if this thing blows up even if it's for innocent reasons (like space travel is dangerous), can you imagine all the rumors that event will "confirm"?

By the way, I would note that the nearly fatal Apollo 13 accident occurred after successful Apollo 11 and 12 missions, so just not being first is no guarantee of being safer, but I get your point.

I do find it interesting that the far side of the moon looks completely different. Nearly all of the dark maria are on the near side of the moon, just check out the wiki images of near side versus far side:

en.wikipedia.org...

Far side of the Moon. Note the lack of dark maria.

Maria are found almost exclusively on the near side of the Moon, covering 31% of the surface on the near side, compared with a few scattered patches on the far side covering only 2%.

And the topography images below that show the topography is also completely different on the far side. The moon is interestingly asymmetrical.

Originally posted by ArbitrageurI do find it interesting that the far side of the moon looks completely different. Nearly all of the dark maria are on the near side of the moon, just check out the wiki images of near side versus far side:

en.wikipedia.org...

Far side of the Moon. Note the lack of dark maria.

Maria are found almost exclusively on the near side of the Moon, covering 31% of the surface on the near side, compared with a few scattered patches on the far side covering only 2%.

And the topography images below that show the topography is also completely different on the far side. The moon is interestingly asymmetrical.

I find it interesting that the far-side is "normal" - that is, closely representative of every other no-atmosphere, no-active geology cratered body we've observed. The large, clustered maria on the lunar near-side are abnormal. I wonder if this has to do with the way the Moon coalesced (sp?) in Earth orbit?

Back to the Soyuz dream-vacation, the windows on that spacecraft are small. I'd want to do an EVA while swinging around the Moon at close-range.

How very interesting. Pretty expensive. Pretty dangerous. Worth the money and risk?

This whole thing sort of reminds me of the last act of Things to come (1936). A motion picture adaptation of an H. G. Wells novel.

Things to Come (IMDB)

There's a free streaming version of the film to watch at the link; I'd suggest reading the book and watching the whole thing, otherwise just the last ten minutes or so to see why this is relevant. There's a good rant, if you like rants.