The sky is not the limit

I should include this quote in full – as said by none other than Buzz Aldrin –

“I know the sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the Moon — and I made some of them!” Buzz Aldrin

Now although you cannot walk on the moon (yet) you can choose to fly to outer space and experience at least 6 minutes of weightlessness – you just need $250,000 for the ticket. I think Mr Branson is onto a good thing here. Would you pay that much for so little? Maybe if you were a space fan your whole life – and you happened to be a millionaire at the same time. But if you are like the rest of us you are probably thinking that with $250,000 you could do A LOT of travelling. Let’s look at what you could do with that kind of money –

ROUND THE WORLD CRUISE – 138 DAYS

Well that chewed up $250K pretty quickly – but look what you get! 138 days of cruising around the world being treated like a rock star including business class airfare and private transfers – unlimited champagne – Baby here I come!

But what if you want to spread it out a bit and take some time using up that money? Our Portugal long stay packages have been pretty popular – you could take 83 of your best friends with you on a 3 week holiday in Portugal. Don’t have 83 best friends? Sorry!

You could buy 625 round trip tickets to Saskatoon. No really – you could. Nothing wrong with Saskatoon – some of my best friends live there.

However if you do decide that NOTHING absolutely NOTHING is as good as being in space then there are a few things you need to know bout –

“…..farts in space were a major safety concern in the early stages of the space program. Zero-G makes astronauts unable to belch (pushing the gas into the intestines instead), and the low air pressure reduces the threshold for butt burps. All that methane mixing with the pure oxygen environment can create a literally explosive situation, which means that NASA spent taxpayer money analyzing the composition and quantity of astronauts’ farts to adjust their diets accordingly. Good looking out, NASA.”

And I love this story from the article 6 Insane Space Stories featured in Cracked.

“The Gemini program was an important episode in America’s race to the moon and saw a number of firsts, including the first American spacewalk, the first time two spacecraft docked, and the first corned beef sandwich to orbit the Earth. During Gemini 3, Astronaut John “He Dealt It” Young smuggled a sandwich aboard the rocket in his spacesuit,

While in orbit, Young whipped out the sandwich for a “taste test” and kindly shared some with his surprised co-pilot, Gus Grissom. Grissom took a bite (hey, a free sandwich is a free sandwich) but quickly stuffed it in his suit when crumbs started flying around the capsule: See, the official food given to astronauts had a special coating to prevent this very thing, because crumbs could get behind electrical panels and wreak all sorts of havoc . A NASA administrator assured the public, “We have taken steps … to prevent the recurrence of corned beef sandwiches in future flights,” because lunch on Earth is death in the stars.”