1418583
story
0biJon writes
"The BBC says 'For as little as $20,000, you could soon have a letter sent to a new "post office" aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and back care of the Russian space agency.' Maybe Lance Bass can mail himself up?"
uhhhhh (Score:5, Insightful)
What would the point be except for rich people to claim that they spent 20k on a stamp basically. I know of some crappy fundraisers, but this one sucks.
I'd rather them just ask for donations really. It'd be more honerable I think.
Re:uhhhhh (Score:1)
Re:uhhhhh (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:uhhhhh (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:uhhhhh (Score:1)
So $5,300 x 2 = $20k?
If only NASA ran an airline--then I could buy my one-way ticket home for 1/4 of the price instead of purchasing the (currently cheaper) round trip ticket.
It's all a matter of mass (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:uhhhhh (Score:2)
The ashes stay in space - the letter hopefully comes back. The expense is in making the fligh a round trip.
-josh
Re:uhhhhh (Score:2)
Re:uhhhhh (Score:1)
whereas to put mail up you would need to possibly have astronauts in with the mail which would mean life-support
then again in They may just be stamping the letter in russia and "saying" that it was from space
only $20,000!? (Score:5, Funny)
no, wait (Score:2, Interesting)
# Delivery of one kilo of cargo to the ISS: $10-20,000
# Return of one kilo from the ISS to Earth: $60,000
# Cost of one hour's work by the team aboard the ISS: $18-19,000
"Cost of one hour's work by the team aboard the ISS: $18-19,000"????
does this mean i have to pay for the post and the time to read it?? or does it mean i can pay an extra 20g's to have them do what ever i want? id donate to a fund to have lance take an hour space walk w/ no space suit!
oh crap, i probably shouldnt post
Re:no, wait (Score:3, Funny)
id donate to a fund to have lance take an hour space walk w/ no space suit!
Or how about have'em sent there a kilo at a time...
No (Score:5, Funny)
But, if you want to save $2K and achieve the same result...
1. Put Lance in an envelope with the sender's address as "Space Station, Earh Orbit"
2. Mail him to your own address
3. Refuse to accept him and send him back to the post office
4. The PO will send the mail back to the original sender, i.e. the Space Station
That would require postage though. (Score:1)
I'm not sure if that works anymore, but I remember reading about how someone did this and they succeeded in mailing something, without postage, to one of their friends in the same city.
working up to pigs later (Score:2, Interesting)
Spammmm innnnn Spaaaaaaaace!
I think someone should be kind and mail them a Victoria's Secret catalog, or similar amusement. I know I would appreciate it, were I in orbit.
Somehow, I think this post is reason enough not to read slashdot at 4:30am...
Re:working up to pigs later (Score:3, Funny)
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:working up to pigs later (Score:2, Funny)
Perfect murder (Score:2)
Additionally, you always get a push in the opposite direction of where you noodle is pointing to (impulse laws). As Stanislaw Lem noted in "The Fiasco" (*): The perfect murder in space would be to place a naked person in the middle of a room, hovering. He mentioned that you have to be sure that that person has an empty digesting system and an empty bladder. The person would simply starve to death without any opportunity to reach the walls. He seem t
No sound in space (Score:1, Redundant)
And if we're lucky, permenantly!
load size? (Score:4, Interesting)
It looks like a good method for space-based experiments, at least until a cost-effective private alternative is created.
Re: load size? (Score:2, Funny)
> One question is whether the $20,000 for the stamp is merely an additional cost, or if it includes the cost of transporting a kilogram or so of cargo.
Sounds like someone's thinking about becoming the system's first astrodealer. You reckon they smoke a lot of pot on the ISS?
Re:load size? (Score:2)
just the symbolic act of your LETTER having travelled to iss and back.
and that's it. just a way to get financed, and a way to give something symbolic back to the people donating, making the donating much 'easier' for cheapskate-minded people with lot of money.
Re:load size? (Score:5, Insightful)
those numbers were there for so that you could try to calculate the PROFIT they get from the letter, and if it was worth it for the russians to sell such service. it costs THEM $10-20,000 per kilo, $60,000 to return that kilo, and $18-19,000 per hours work of astro/cosmonauts.
Re:load size? (Score:1)
For that cost, I think I'd go with DMT instead of THC.
Re:load size? (Score:1)
$10-20,000 for delivery to ISS.
$60,000 for return to Earth.
$18,000 min. for 1 hrs. work.
So at least $88,000 for a key of DMT.
Still, less than it costs now. Great sales pitch though.
Now all I have to do is figure how to produce one key of DMT for less than $200k.
In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:2)
Russian mail delivery... (Score:2)
Re:Russian mail delivery... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Russian mail delivery... (Score:1, Insightful)
No - that's US mail, with Total Information Awareness [darpa.mil]
Great excuse... (Score:5, Funny)
I shudder to think of the kind of bills you'd need to have a $20-$30K stamp be a cost effective stalling method. I doubt they'd launch your letter before their check clears, at least.
Re:Great excuse... (Score:1)
Re:Great excuse... (Score:1, Funny)
It is, and we hate you back, but with WMDs. Perhaps you're on our liberation list?
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1)
rubber stamped space mail (Score:3, Funny)
Just a big scam... (Score:1)
Assuming they did send it to space, would you get refunded if the letter was on a shuttle that had a Columbia-like disaster?
Hmmm... (Score:1)
No Next Day Service (Score:1, Troll)
Bleh, rip off more like it, hehe.
Whats the point? (Score:3, Insightful)
Rus
Re:Whats the point? (Score:3, Funny)
$20,000 for spam-free mail! (Score:2)
Re:$20,000 for spam-free mail! (Score:1)
Now, there's the just "little" problem of collecting that mail.... or even receiving some...
Routing. (Score:2)
Re:Routing. (Score:2)
Re:Routing. (Score:2)
Re:Routing. (Score:1)
NASA... (Score:3, Informative)
Really, I can think of a lot of cool experiments for the serious scientist. Things like insect eggs in space, effect of zero-G on seeds, that kind of thing
Re:NASA... (Score:1)
Except NASA is forbidden, by law, from doing this.
I'd heard this several times, but this [spacedaily.com] is the only current reference to the law I can find (see the fourth and fifth paragraphs). Here is an older article [space.com] about the restriction before it was passed.
I'd like to recieve the mail... (Score:5, Funny)
Well (Score:3, Funny)
Cost, $20K is only one way. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Cost, $20K is only one way. (Score:1)
Re:Cost, $20K is only one way. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Cost, $20K is only one way. (Score:1)
Re:Cost, $20K is only one way. (Score:4, Informative)
the per kilogram costs are cited from some russian sources as what it costs THEM to move that mail first up, then down, and to process it. one kilo fits quite many of those 20k$-30k$ letters.
Just wait... (Score:5, Funny)
Would they ever be able to decontaminate the place, or would they have to scrap the entire station?
Re:Just wait... (Score:2, Funny)
At $20 000 a pop... (Score:2)
Re:At $20 000 a pop... (Score:2)
Stamp image question (Score:1)
Just curious about the consumer group they are trying to target.
NASA's new business model (Score:5, Funny)
2) Tell people to send letters for 20K
3) Scan letters
4) email letters
5) Print letters on ISS
6) PROFIT
Re:NASA's new business model (Score:1)
NASA, a business model? (Score:2)
p-mail, e-mail, now s-mail... (Score:1)
What's next, SG1-mail?
It shouldn't be too hard to mail Lance (Score:5, Funny)
Coolness factors.... (Score:2, Interesting)
A bit too much? (Score:2, Interesting)
An idea... (Score:2)
...you could send an engagement ring up there before use... just think of all the corny lines you could get away with...
Er, no, actually, I can't think of any either. Ah well.
A request... (Score:2, Funny)
Sounds like a great idea. I have one request though...
For the return trip, he takes the shuttle.
Bad taste, I know, sorry. ;)
A touch of space (Score:3, Funny)
Not just the wedding rings.
But you could send your favorite SIFI junk then send it up and back again and sell it on as truly out of this world.
Same kind of thing for new age healing power of space type junk
Very special edition Franklin Mint includes 0.001% of real space exposed material
That's just a few moments of thinking
Here's an idea... (Score:2)
Just think -- budding entrepreneurs could buy space on the server and upload copies of popular movies or music which people could then download for a small annual subscription using a regular satellite disk and PC card.
How would the RIAA/MPAA kill that bird I wonder?
Does the DMCA reach that far above the earth's surface?
Email cost $0.00 (Score:2)
Maybe Russians are more simple minded than us?
Re:Email cost $0.00 (Score:2)
The russians used a pencil.
an alternative way to deal with spammers! (Score:1)
If they don't, punish them by firing them into space.
Without a space suit.
ah finally (Score:1)
Why would anyone want that? (Score:3, Informative)
well... (Score:2)
Maybe somebody could "accidently" send him into deep space?
Earth orbit? So what? (Score:2, Interesting)
Space mail (Score:1)
If I can raise enough funds... (Score:1, Redundant)
Lost Mail....it happens (Score:1)
Then i'm 20 thou out?
-Grump
More like..... (Score:2)
Obligatory slasdotisms
1. find stupid people to give us $20,000 to put a piece of paper in space and bring it back
2. ????
3. PROFIT!!!
What a horrible waste of resources. What does one get out of knowing that a piece of paper went into space? Retarded.
Also, as far as the article goes, why are return costs so high for pulling back to earth a kilo of material? You've already spent the $10,000-20,000 per kilo to GET something into space, much less fuel is
It would Make GBWR... (Score:2)
as the most expensive letter ever Returned to Sender.
(thank you, thank you very much)
How can you tell? (Score:1, Insightful)
And if it is, how do you know it hasn't just been half way around the world, not to our orbit and back? You can't. Do the contents smell different once they've been to space? Do they get heavier or lighter? NO!
If the $20,000 is a one-way thing, they might as well throw it out before it gets on the spaceship... claiming it contained dangerous materials, or
one word (Score:2)
Anthrax
Heinlein thought this up 40-50 years ago ... (Score:2)
Of course in the story it was decided that the weight penalty of actually taking the mail to the moon to be franked was excessive so a little fraud was perpetrated instead
Send a letter to space... (Score:2)
now all knowledge of gravity aside.... (Score:1)
the reason someone would pay this (Score:2)
How much do you think the first stamp to be sent to a post office in space would go for? A hell of a lot more then 20K!
Only a Matter of Time Before The USPS Charges This (Score:2)
Your government monopoly at work...
Where is Lysander Spooner when we need him?
Imagine what a subscription would cost (Score:2)
A good way to reduce construction costs (Score:2)
NASA could learn from this and mail components to the ISS, instead of shipping them up in their own spacecraft.
-aiabx
Excellent (Score:1)
this is a bad idea..... (Score:1)
white powder, and anthrax.
Who would use the service? ( Was: Re:FP!!!) (Score:2, Insightful)
And like most first posts, yours is a total waste of a message.
My question is who, other than topical philatelists, would be interested in sending snail mail to orbit for $20K.
I do know of some philatelists who are crazy enough to do that, but then, philatelists are crazy, anyway.
Wind under They Wings
Amber
Re:Who would use the service? ( Was: Re:FP!!!) (Score:2)
Re:blech (Score:1)