posted 03-15-2005 11:19 AM            

The wearing of these suits - as a safety concern - came at a very high price from previous mission failures .

For the remainder of the shuttle program space suits will be worn - as a safety precaution.

However,during the period of operation of the Shuttle , Soyuz and Shenzhou spacecraft there will be the private sub orbital vehicles undertaking missions to the "edge of space" with passengers wearing perhaps nothing more than track suits ?

In a few years time these sub orbital carriers may extend out into a proper orbit of the Earth.

Should their passengers be made to wear a full shuttle type space suit for these sub and orbital missions ?

Or, should the space suit 'rule' be relaxed to allow Shuttle,Soyuz ,Shenzhou - and eventually CEV - crews to be orbited in track suit type apparel ?

posted 03-15-2005 01:40 PM               

Space tourism is all about the experience; if increased comfort helps sell more tickets, it could easily be considered worth a very slight increase in risk.

However, for public agency flights, I would hope they would be more likely to err on the side of professionalism and safety.

posted 03-16-2005 04:47 PM               

This was an important distinction and decision and crucial for the space tourism industry to be able to proceed.

Though I believe that requiring a spacesuit would actually be favorable toward marketing a space tourism flight - remember, a large part of the draw to this activity is obtaining the entire "astronaut experience" - the restrictions in motiona and the additional weight they add may be real technical arguments against their inclusion.

posted 03-17-2005 09:17 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
All emotional reasoning aside, there is a difference between requiring the protectection of life of a person hired with public funds to complete a job on a government vehicle underwritten by public funds, and that of a priviate individual paying his/her own money for an experience of his/her choosing aboard a vehicle funded by private funds. This was the very subject under debate by Congress recently, who ultimately decided that the FAA could not regulate the safety of commercial passengers on private space vehicles for the first eight years of their operation. The FAA does have the responsibility to certify the safety requirements for protecting the uninvolved public (i.e., those just going about their lives without any connection to the launch) but individual passengers can now legally waive their liability and accept the risks to their lives for the opportunity to fly in space.

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Besides, I'd be mighty upset if I dropped $150K on a suborbital hope only to have my faceplate fog up.