Space Tourist Standards

Snuffleupagus writes: "I found an interesting story at cnn.com about NASA's new standards for civilian space travel. It looks like if you have a history of drinking, lying and cheating you won't be going into space anytime soon, no matter how much money you have. Looks like I'll be stuck here on Earth for awhile." The guidelines for future space tourists are on NASA's site.

Re:Sorry Alabama

[negativethirsty]

I see, that rules out mission controll(marshal space flight center). I guess people in Alabama will stick to building space stations(aka freedom/r-alpha) and controlling missions.

Re:The Future

[robhancock]

If you read the article, you'll see that these guidelines were developed and agreed upon by all the space station partners, including the Russians..

Re:The Future

[hairyian]

This really only amounts to someone in NASA trying to justify their job and trying to make policy that is pretty much silly and un-warrented.

Scenario 1:

American tourist billionaire who happens to be an alcoholic enters space station with contaband. Get's slaughtered. Accidentally destroys an experiment by throwing up over it(being drunk in a weightless environment I'd image is quite different to being drunk on Earth). Bits of vomit infest critical systems.

Cost of clean up... shit loads. New materials and shipping costs to relaunch the experiment, time spent restraining drunk passenger, time and material (and shipping) to fix/clean critical systems.

Who's at fault? Who would pay for the cost of cleanup... the people responsible for the unruly tourist or the people who have had their equipment damaged? Not to mention the physical risks involved.

Scenario 2:

Russion mobster accidentally pushes button and vents the propellant to be used to counteract orbital decay. Tells nobody. The next thing they know a piece of debris from a lower orbit which they have just entered and damages the station.

Again, who is responsible?

At all times you must remember that the station is an international effort with partners from all over the world. It is in the interests of all involved to exclude 'tourists' who may pose a physical or financial threat to themselves /and other partners/.

IMO such exclusions make sense: do you really want to put people who have psychological traits which may lead to unacceptable behaviour (alcoholism, drug abuse)? Do you really want people who's honesty has brought into question in the past to the point of criminal fraud?

In the future, when the environment is safer, perhaps. In reality, these measures are there to protect the staff who are on board the station, the station itself and the financial and scientific commitments which have been made by the partners.

Would you want to be on a space station, an environment where stupidity is easily fatal for yourself and others around you, with someone who you cannot completely trust?

Ian Woods

Not just NASA

[markmoss]

These aren't just NASA standards, they were agreed on with the international partners. See the Washington Post's article: [washingtonpost.com]"More than two years in the making, the criteria allow Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan or the European Space Agency to select station visitors."

Re:Fluent in english?

[AzrealAO]

Communication with Ground Control, and the rest of the crew, all takes place in English. The Russians also require Russian Language skills for their Taxi flights but you have to be able to speak english once you get to the ISS. Again, it's not to "Get into space", it's to visit the ISS, and covers both Astronauts and Cosmonauts as well as tourists and other types of visitors. The Russian Space Agency is free to have whatever requirements they wish on their own flights, but if they're visiting ISS (And Taxi Flights to the ISS are ISS Missions), they have to meet the Crew guidelines, which have been agreed upon by ALL the partners.