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In a few more hours time, Hungarian-American Charles Simonyi becomes the next man to go into space on April 6-7 (today), after the last private space “tourist”/ explorer Anousheh Ansari. Charles is a legend for developing the Microsoft Word and Excel applications that have gone on to revolutionize the working lives of millions of people (or, if you are a sceptic, to “terrorize” thousands of Word-and-Excel-slaves in corporate cubicles worldwide).

Charles will be another ex-Microsoftie, after Paul Allen of SpaceShipOne fame, who has taken up the space frontier as his new challenge.

Like Anousheh, Charles will be blogging his adventures to communicate his experience and thoughts with children over the world. I really like how such a simple act will inspire young kids to envision a future for mankind in space when they grow up. Check out his blog Charles In Space from tomorrow onwards.

A ham radio enthusiast, Charles will also be attempting to connect with several schools during time in orbit. He is also reportedly dating Martha Stewart who will designing what could be the fanciest meal in space ever (via CNN):

… quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots.

I wonder if Martha intends to freeze-dry them. Hmm..

For those who are into trivia, Wikipedia says that the next in line for the space tourism customer queue includes a Japanese, Daisuke Enomoto, whose original flight plan was taken over by Anousheh due to his health problems.

It was Paul Allen who started it. Then Richard Branson jumped in, as he always does in any remotely cool, outlandish project, with the world’s first galactic venture — Virgin Galactic. Sergey Brin likes an elevator idea better, so does his pal Larry.

Bezos professed his love for the stars last year too, and now has something to show for it. More details on that from the man himself here.

Shaped like a gherkin, it went up to an altitude of 285 feet, or 87 metres, hardly stratospheric yet. As for speed, lets just say it wobbled its way awkwardly up the skies.

But those who know me should also know I am a big fan of space travel. And any venture that explicitly states a vision towards living and travelling between the stars is an awfully exciting venture for me. There’s nothing that makes me more regretful when I think back of the day i turned my back on an engineering degree, and childhood dreams of being an astronaut. (okay, maybe only fleetingly, i was never cut out to be a good physicist, and Singapore having a space program was as ridiculous as travelling from Earth to the Sun)

Still, it is uplifting to know that successful entrepreneurs of our time, like Jeff Bezos, Sergey, Larry, and the earlier Paul Allen of Microsoft fame, are putting their money into the future. God knows how many failures there will be but the trend has definitely been set and the wheels (or rather wings and booster fuel) put in motion for space flight to be on the same development trajectory as airplane flight which we take for granted today.

Jeff Bezos might only have clocked 87 metres in his latest spacefaring alternative, we might only have had one single SpaceShipOne as we await the launch of Virgin Galactic and there might only have been 4 private space tourists/ travellers so far but that number is still better than 0. I have faith in private sector-led entrepreneurship, i just hope i have the chance to celeberate that faith 30 years from now from an orbit around Earth, or beyond. =)

I am *bleeping* starstuck after meeting the two space travellers today.

I was invited to the CNN Future Summit taping at the Esplanade in Singapore and had the privilege to be in the same room with Anousheh Ansari and Buzz Aldrin, 1st female space tourist and 2nd man on the moon respectively.. I am still in a mild state of amazement after meeting these icons of human space travel. Its been my dream since i was really young to travel to the stars and today, I think i got the closest I have ever been. To go any closer will require me to strike paydirt and pay that $200,000 for a Virgin Galactic ticket.

I managed to be the only guy who asked a question to this panel of luminaries, that includes Ian Pearson, futurologist at British Telecom and Lino Guzzella who’s a real innovator in hydrogen fuel cell technologies. The whole event is essentially an awesome publicity stunt by Singapore Tourism Board to drum up buzz for the upcoming spaceport. I hate to leak out details of the show before its first screening at 6pm Singapore time on the CNN channel. All i can say now is that Buzz Aldrin’s really conservative and “old-guard-ish” while Ansari is full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm on what our generation can do to make space flight even more accessible. And I am trying to figure out how I can record my first appearance on internation television. Darn, I forgot to mention my name and NUS affiliation, haha..

All in all an amazing week for me, after my invitation to George Bush’s talk in Singapore. That caps 3 major international celebrities and makes for a climatic end to my university education. I am gonna reserve some of my thoughts on this event till after the show’s screening.

Related post: A Spaceport for Singapore

 My childhood dreams of being an astronaut might just come to fruition. This is gonna be the next Big Boom for the technology sector. And interesting enough, it was spawned by the dotcom boomers like Paul Allen who funded Scaled Composites and now Elon Musk of Paypal. If that space elevator materializes, we r gonna credit it to Sergey and Larry too. 

Just another thought: Google's NASA campus now doesn;t look like too far-fetched an idea. Imagine the government contracts they will secure with NASA and technological diffusive effects on the consumer internet world by engaging in space-age research.

 Article here.

This is an update to the Singapore Spaceport (check out my earlier post), a Space elevator has real strategic advantages, not to mention economic payoffs for our country’s future 50 years and beyond.

Refer to this article.

The 62,000-Mile Elevator Ride: Weekend - Yahoo! Finance

This has real potential for Singapore. Check these excerpt(s) out (my comments in bold):

“Finding the funding

Who will bite first? The Chinese government has made no secret of its ambitious space program and carbon nanotube research. Nor has Japan.”

Singapore is geographically near these Asian powerhouses and economically plus politically friendly to both.

“Whoever builds the first elevator will have a virtual monopoly on all future ones,” Edwards says. “The political and economic structure of the world could be completely different 50 years from now.”

Singapore could really be a real force to reckon with in this new space power balance.

“The floating platform will ideally be anchored on the equator, Earth’s calmest area with the fewest lightning strikes and storms. The ribbon will have the highest melting point of any material ever produced and be flexible enough to withstand high winds.”

Same reason our equatorial location landed us a Spaceport, it should position us strategically for a Space Elevator. Seriously, this ain;t science fiction anymore. We might have missed out on the PC revolution, but the Space Revolution is right within our reach. (read the article to know why building space elevators are no different from building PCs in the 1960s) In future, nations 50 years from now will count space elevators an important aspect of their national economic infrastructure.

Not content with Earth-based dominance, Google Maps has expanded beyond Earth and Moon to Mars. This is part of the interstellar expansion and growth strategy of Google to collect information UNIVERSALLY across the Universe and make it accessible to sentient life of every conceivable bio-footprint.

Google Maps: Mars allows for viewing of almost all photographs taken by the orbiting satellites and also ground shots taken by the exploration rovers that had successfully been deployed over the years, including the 2 currently active ones: Spirit and Opportunity that have been functioning way beyond their intended lifespans and mission lengths.

Here are some screenshots in 3 image viewing modes: Elevation, Visible and Infrared.

And here’s a shot of the Spirit Rover currently active on Mars.

Jealousy (that Dubai was going to have their own spaceport) turned to incredulity,disbelief and finally excitement when I read that Singapore was going to have our own Spaceport!

And it will be ready by 2009!

I never thought space travel and Singapore could ever be mentioned in the same sentence. I thought wrong, all thanks to Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne, Paul Allen. (Maybe Microsoft ain’t that evil after all, or maybe Paul Allen was never evil anyway)

Space Adventures, a US company based out of Arlington, VA has chosen Singapore to be the natural choice destination for space travellers in Asia. Apparently, they think the same reasons Singapore became a sea and air hub for Asia positions it to be a potential high-payoff space hub too! Ignoring the economic benefits from tourism aside, this will be a major coup for Singapore if it really happens. We finally have something cool other than an exotic arts theatre designed based on the shape a local spiky fruit. Finally, I am beginning to really believe all the government spiel on us becoming a “global city”. Wtf, we will go one up and become a “galactic city” man. I can see this spaceport becoming very compatible with ournewly designed Supreme Court building (the one with the huge UFO disk left over from the Independence Day movie set).

This brings me to another exciting and relevant news article.

There might really be life outside of earth. And someone has told us specifically where to look.
Margaret Turnbull of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has announced the top 10 list of star systems where life could possibly exist. This is based on a stringent list of parameters, based on current human knowledge of our universe, such as the size and lifespan of the stars, the iron composition of these stars etc. The nearest star system is only about 10.5 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (the River). Thats only 10 friggin’ years! (assuming we figure out a way to travel at light speed)Now, lets indulge in some fantasy for a while, assuming:

1. we invent warp speed (from Star Trek) or have a significant breakthrough in energy research (either nuclear fusion or antimatter) in the next 20-30 years,
2. apply the computer industry’s rate of innovation to the energy R&D and commercialization product development life cycle,
3. I get fucking rich,

On my 50th birthday, I will be able to step outside my mansion in Singapore, drive my flying car to Spaceport Singapore, board a White Knight-clone that will take the cargo load (containing me) to 14km above sea level, and let me blast off to epsilon Eridani. for a 20-year return space flight. (modus operandi of SpaceShip One launch )

Now, thats a good dream to have. Back to reality…