Backup for space billionaire

Katie Bone, Willington Cof E School. co.Durham England — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:16:55 GMT

hello Esther my name is Katie Bone aged 8. What is it like living in space. What do you eat. When do you come back to earth.

Backup for space billionaire

steve smyth — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:07:25 GMT

Calling Freeman Dyson a 'spaceship designer' is like calling some kid who draws Star Wars fantasies a spaceship designer.
Where is it?
C'mon, Al...he did some cool stuff, but there's nobody who'd call him a spaceship designer...except his PR crew.
Are the cartoonists who drew Buck Rogers considered spaceship designers?

Backup for space billionaire

Morgan , Denver CO — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:16:26 GMT

Dude, Dyson is the friggin man. I'm not sure if he was an engineer or some kind of scientist by training or even just an enthusiast but his ideas for inhabitable structures in space have inspired a lot of cool possibilities. I think things like Dyson spheres are way out of our reach now but just you wait.

Backup for space billionaire

Alan Boyle forwarding Esther's answer — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:30:07 GMT

Katie, here's a reply from Esther:

"Hi Katie -

"Unfortunately, I'm just a backup, so I'm still firmly on earth! But I *do* hope to go...just not for the food! As I understand it, you mostly eat it out of foil packs... the best thing is being able to float around for hours on end. In the photo, I was floating, but only for a couple of minutes (on a Zero-G flight). Hope to see you in space someday!

"Esther

"Esther Dyson, Star City, Moscow."

This is Alan again ... Esther talked about what the food is like in Star City in her own blog entry:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-dyson/
release-09-back-to-flight_b_132521.html

Here's a quote:

"I'm expecting it to be cold staying in Star City through a Moscow winter, with a lot of detailed material to learn and exams to pass. Each Soyuz flight has three cosmonauts, and the other two want a colleague they can rely on to do the right thing in an emergency. By all accounts the food is 'stolovaya' (canteen) and the accommodations are Spartan. But hey! there will be a purpose to it, and at the end I will know space flight and the Russian space program intimately - except for the actual experience of floating up there for a week or more."

Backup for space billionaire

Guy S. Newell — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:34:46 GMT

<obligitory rant>
With all the poverty and hunger in the world, bla bla bla...
</obligitory rant>

Backup for space billionaire

Todd, Billerica, MA — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:49:20 GMT

Man I really hate agreeing with Steve Smyth, but it's happened again. I blame Alan. :)

Backup for space billionaire

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:48:22 GMT

Steve, plenty of design work went into Orion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

Read his son's book on the project. I have.

http://books.google.com/books?id=r_Gu4f0QxrkC&dq=%22George+Dyson%22%2B%22Orion%22&pg=PP1&ots=F37X0EV-73&sig=GWi1eNqTEjXaUEh6rwSfoFFj-Bk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPP1,M1

Just because something doesn't ultimately get built doesn't mean engineers (and scientists) didn't sink plenty of billable man-hours on it before it was cancelled. (and cancelled for treaty, not engineering reasons)

Some of that info is *still* classified.

If you only draw spaceships, you're an artist.

If you did serious work on the design of a spaceship, you're a spaceship designer.