Space passenger rides out highs and lows

The risks and routines of space
For more than a year, people have been asking Olsen whether he’s worried about flying up into space, particularly in light of the 2003 Columbia tragedy. And for more than a year, Olsen has been telling people that he’s more worried about crossing the street — in New York or Moscow.

“I’ve looked at this, and I’m very, very confident in the Russian Soyuz vehicle,” he said. “They have a great safety record, and I have no qualms about doing this whatsoever. Listen, if I did, I wouldn’t go. It’s that simple. I’m not going to pay a lot of money to do something that I’m tenuous about.”

The main aim of the Soyuz mission is to switch crews, along with the emergency capsules that always have to be attached to the space station in case there’s ever need for a quick escape.

McArthur and Tokarev will relieve the station’s current crew, Russia’s Sergei Krikalev and NASA’s John Phillips, and stay in orbit for six months. After a week’s transition period, Krikalev and Phillips will ride back down to Earth on the Soyuz currently attached to the station. Both on the way up and the way down, Olsen will fill the “third seat” on the Soyuz.

Russian space policy analyst Yuri Karash said selling the third seat will generate extra cash for Moscow’s space program, as the earlier flights by Tito and Shuttleworth did. “The Russians do it not because they love space tourism, but because they have to raise money for other activities,” he told MSNBC.com.

Mikhail Metzel / AP NASA astronaut Bill McArthur, left, Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, center, and U.S. space passenger Greg Olsen, right, shake hands after a news conference in the Star City cosmonaut training center, outside Moscow.

Olsen is expected to know his way around the Soyuz and the space station, and help out generally with the day-to-day routine — but neither NASA nor the Russians are assigning him a heavy-duty orbital agenda. Last year, he had hoped to test zero-gravity production methods for the kinds of crystals used in his company’s products, but it turns out that the required research facilities are unavailable.

Another big project — a University of Virginia spectrometer that incorporates infrared imaging gear from Sensors Unlimited — became stuck in limbo, due to U.S. export restrictions. Olsen said Virginia students have worked for a year and a half to build the instrument, which could be used to make astronomical as well as Earth observations in near-infrared wavelengths.

“It would be such a joy for them to see this thing in space,” Olsen said. “I want it as much for them as I do for myself.”

Olsen has lined up some other experiments for the European Space Agency, focusing on bacteria growth in zero-G as well as how spaceflight affects the lower back and the vestibular system of the inner ear. “In a sense, I’m a guinea pig,” he said.

The view from the top
But for Olsen personally, one of the most important agenda items is to document the experience with still photography and video. His discussions with professional astronauts, as well as with Tito and Shuttleworth, have thoroughly whetted his appetite for matchless views of Earth from a height of 220 miles (350 kilometers).

“They all tell me that whatever I think it is now, it’s going to be better when I get up there,” he said.

A wide assortment of mementos will be making the round trip with Olsen: souvenir banners for the University of Virginia and other institutions; a set of keys from his dad; a Civil War medallion from the late historian Brian Pohanka, which will be returned to his widow; and wine labels that Olsen will put on Christmas gift bottles from the winery he owns in South Africa.

During the mission, Olsen plans to share his experiences via a series of video and ham-radio downlinks. And he hopes his journey to the cosmos will still pay dividends even after the mission, which is due to end with an Oct. 11 landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

“People ask me, ‘What are you going to do when you come back?’ And I have the perfect answer: I don’t have the slightest idea,” he said. “When I come back, I’ll have to say, well, what do I want to do with the rest of my life?  I think space is going to help me — not just being up there, but the whole experience of going through it. It’s going to help me figure that out.”

MORE FROM THE NEW SPACE RACE

The New Space Race Section Front

What’s next for X? Students reveal swanky space hotel concept Cosmic Log: Scientists go suborbital Soviet-era spaceships to do commercial flights Arab investment boosts spaceship venture Spaceship launcher's debut watched by crowd Cosmic Log: The 5-year-old space age Circus founder making leap to space Virgin Galactic completes initial rocket tests Moon rover targets Apollo 11 landing site The New Space Race Section Front   Add The New Space Race headlines to your news reader: