Soyuz With Richard Garriott Successfully Launched 56
Toren Altair writes "Soyuz TMA-13 with ISS Expedition Crew 18 and Richard Garriott successfully launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:01 UT (3:01 EDT). The Soyuz capsule will dock to the ISS in two days. Garriott will return to Earth with Expedition 17 crew members, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko on October 23."
With the extra attention on this launch, the Russians have gone out of their way to say that the return of the Soyuz vehicle will be safe, after a couple of different malfunctions in the past year. Garriott is in space partly for recreation, and partly as a promotion for his latest MMO, Tabula Rasa. He took with him a hard drive filled with information about humanity, as well as DNA sequences from Tabula Rasa players and various celebrities (including Stephen Colbert and Stephen Hawking) to 'preserve' that data in case of a disaster on Earth. Garriott will also spend time running and participating in experiments. Coverage of the Soyuz mission is ongoing at NASATV.
Tabula Rasa (Score:3, Interesting)
If you haven't seen it yet, I'd recommend checking out Tabula Rasa [amazon.com] . It's one of the better RPGs set in space, and I like how it has adopted ideas from science fiction writers like Vinge. Going into space seems a great way to support it, but it's a pity that the mass media now considers human spaceflight so meh that even a freakin' computer game legend going into orbit won't win too much attention for the game.
Kilrathi (Score:1)
Big media will care when he kills a Kilrathi and brings back the head. And even that won't forgive the sin of selling Origin to EA.
Re:Tabula Rasa (Score:4, Interesting)
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Isn't Yahtzee Australian?
--- Mr. DOS
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British born, lives in Austrailia [wikipedia.org]
.
Also, he's only 3 years older than me (25). What the hell am I doing with my life?
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Tabula Rasa was absolute crap. I played the beta and the release. The last decent games Lord Br
Don't forget the SSTV! (Score:5, Informative)
From October 14, Richard Garriot will be sending back SSTV images [wikipedia.org] from the ISS. Today they're planning to test some of the equipment currently on the ISS by sending SSTV between 1800UTC and 2100UTC. Unfortunately there won't be any usable passes over where I live before 1800, but I'll still be listening on 145.800MHz just in case...
If you're interested in trying to receive images or other radio transmissions from the ISS, you can get information on its passes from Heavens Above [heavens-above.com] or by using prediction software like gpredict. You may find you need a larger antenna than the "rubber duck" that most scanners and handheld radios come with, but if you're far enough south to get a good high pass you might manage to hear it. For receiving SSTV you'll need some sort of gain antenna like a Yagi, really. In Linux, you can use qsstv for decoding the SSTV images.
Finally (Score:2, Funny)
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Hey, the game only went to shit after EA fired him..
Woohooo, finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, what do you mean "Garriott will return to Earth"?
so the father, so the son (Score:5, Interesting)
On a side note,
Richard Garriot, apart from being a successful video game writer, is in fact the son of a former NASA astronaut. [timesonline.co.uk]
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Does anyone else know if this is the first time that such a "space dynasty" has occurred?
Have there been any other cases of descendants, siblings, spouses, etc.... both going into space?
No real reason for asking... just kinda cool.
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What about the toilet? (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, but did he take along any parts for the toilet?
The first step to beating Minax (Score:4, Funny)
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Spoilers above for those who haven't finished Ultima ][ yet.
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I haven't finished Ultima ][ yet, you insensitive clod! I hate you.
Ganking on the ISS (Score:3, Funny)
The last thing they'll hear before they are mercilessly ganked is "corp por corp por".
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In Putin's Russia... it's probably cheaper than YOU think.
Sanity on the planet. (Score:5, Insightful)
By my definition, this makes Richard Garriott the most sane man on the planet, literally by escaping it for a short time.
For years, I've been baffled by the rat race millionaires and billionaires who seem to do nothing with their copious amounts of cash than collect more of it. It isn't sane IMHO unless you do something big and spectacular with that amount of excess. At most, some of them retire and give a portion to charity (not bad per se, but even then watch them coldly calculate how they dole it out).
Richard Garriott isn't super rich on a gigantic scale compared to some, but he's always done stuff that others may define as eccentric. Seriously tho, he's more sane than the rest of that upper margin.
Kudos to him.
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You'll want to found a dynasty. You'll want to make sure that your offspring for generations to come are financially secure. You might want your family to become one of the public members of the new nobility, like the Rockefellers or the Warburg
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Actually Warren Buffett is giving away most if not all his money, shutting out his kids from a lot of it.
He also still drives his 57 Chevy.
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Id rather not see crazy "grandiose" things like Imelda Marcos 1,000 shoes or Hugh Hefner's absurd mansion. A lot of wealthy people live the life they want and give a lot to charities. You dont hear about much of it because they dont want you to.
Most wealthy people continue operating more businesses and helping startups which provides new industries, new innovation, and new employment. Some put money into bank investments which help make loans be cheap and affordable.
Real life isnt a jame bond novel where t
Good for him (Score:5, Interesting)
You would think some bigwig like Mr. Garriot would go out to eat, but no, he was standing in line with the rest of us schmoe's at the cafeteria.
I didn't even take notice of who was who until someone asked if they could sit at the only empty chair across from me, to which I muttered "whatever" and went on reading my material. When I finally looked up, I was shocked to say the least. The interesting thing was that Mr. Garriot spent the hour and a half talking to me, laughing at his past antics, moaning about all that money he had to spend on his "castle sinking". Even when we were interrupted by the occasional fan asking for his autograph, this man never once got upset or even looked cross.
I'm not much for meeting a lot of the Game Developer Gods, I've had my share of not-so-good meetings, but I will say "Good for you Richard", reach for the moon, if you miss, you will still be among the stars!
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I had the pleasure to meet Richard Garriot at E3 a few years ago.
where is that "+1 envy" rating when you need it?! ;-(
Soyuz With Richard Garriott Successfully Launched (Score:1)
I'm guessing we would have heard if it had been unsuccesfully launched...
Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
He took with him a hard drive filled with information about humanity, as well as DNA sequences from Tabula Rasa players and various celebrities (including Stephen Colbert and Stephen Hawking) to 'preserve' that data in case of a disaster on Earth.
Okay, I understand the concept of "publicity stunt", however...
What exactly is having this material a couple hundred miles above the planet supposed to accomplish, exactly? In case of a disaster on the Earth, was he thinking he'd do a spacewalk and try to throw it in a direction away from Earth? Good luck generating escape velocity that way, buddy.
Or did he think this planet-wide disaster would be over quickly, leaving an Earth-side genetics lab intact so he could return to Earth safely and somehow recreate a new race to be known as The Nerdlings? Tabula Rasa players, yeah that's the building blocks of an advanced civilization...
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Too bad the the ISS is in a decaying orbit [wikipedia.org].
Another Tabula Rasa... (Score:1)
..By Arvo Pärt, I recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Tabula-Rasa/dp/B0000262K7 [amazon.com]
http://www.lastfm.se/music/Arvo+P%C3%A4rt/Tabula+Rasa [lastfm.se]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnZGt5eapFc [youtube.com]
http://ridunkulousexperiences.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/arvo-part-tabula-rasa/ [wordpress.com]
Godspeed Lord British! (Score:2)
A hard drive in space? (Score:1)
Is a magnetic hard drive really the best media format to leave in space in case our current society is destroyed? Are cosmic rays and other radiation a concern?
I suppose if society rebuilt enough to launch into space again, then the format of the data might not matter.
viewing NASATV from Linux? (Score:1)
Is it just me or is NASATV broken on Linux?
Target Soyuz.... (Score:2)
Vas Ort Flam
Corp Por
Corp Por
That's for selling Origin to EA, which then created Trammel.
DogMeat [MoO] Mayor of Oberon Pass, Chesapeake
Jonah HEX
His return to earth (Score:2)
Word is he'll be coming back down after he lands on the moon.
Via a moongate.
Status update (Score:2)
Project "B Ark" is now complete.
'Recreational purposes' eh ? (Score:2)
Scene at the Soyuz Space Center take-in desk:
- So Mr. eh Garriott is it ? Why exactly do you want to go to the ISS ? The form says 'reasons for visit' you see, and I have to fill it in.
- Oh. Eh, isn't just for fun enough ? I thought that these days it was well accepted that if you were loaded enough, you could just hitch a ride ?
- 'recreational purposes'. Ok.
- On the other hand, wait - I see what you mean. It looks kind of decadent, doesn't it ? So eh, could you make it 'promotion of my new product'
I celebrated... (Score:2)
By going into every Ultima game this weekend where you can kill Lord British and doing so. No I'm not jealous. not me :)
My favorites were Ultima III by blasting him with the ships cannons and Ultima VII, sucking out his soul with a demon sword.