# What there to see in Space?



## Tales (Mar 28, 2010)

If say Space travel problems can be solved, I am just curious what's there to see in Space.... If say you are a space tourist and also what risks and benefits?

So far my research is limited to works of fiction and I am tired of  reading stories about space tourism with plots like war or govt  conspiracy.etc

This is related to a story of mine.
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/526886-about-mars-2.html


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## Interference (Mar 28, 2010)

Space is big and empty.  Unless you're a scientist, about the only thing interesting about space itself is whatever we or others may have put there to fill in the gaps.

If you go on holiday, do you get embroiled in the country's political turmoil?  Not necessarily.  So, just find a story you want to tell and relocate it to somewhere you're interested in describing.

Good luck.


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## Tales (Mar 28, 2010)

Well the thing is well we have tourists coming to visit places like the Maldives and other countries on Earth. During the dawn of the Space Age, people dream of visiting Mars or Venus or the Moon. But decades after that, we seem to be stuck....

But if say we managed to come up with a way to go out after figuring out how to reduce the costs. What is there to look at in our solar system?? And how profitable is it to explore a planet like Venus or Mars or even like a hotel orbiting Jupiter?

OOT: Is that a man and woman kissing or the picture of galaxy in your avatar?? I like it


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## Ursa major (Mar 28, 2010)

To me, it looks like a man (or an elf) not kissing a sheep that happens to have a dog (a minature version of red setter**) climbing it up its hindquarters. Or it's a picture taken of space.

If by solving space travel problems, you mean reducing to close to nothing the time it takes, then your imagination and the degree of hardness you're imposing on your SF and the only limits.


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## Interference (Mar 28, 2010)

(It's a Hubbel photo of the Eagle Nebula, slightly doctored to bring out the shapes of people and a dog that I saw in it )

This is the Deep Space Nine problem, of course.  How do you make a hotel in space interesting?  Do you just keep throwing in new alien races with political troubles?  In the end, this isn't satisfactory because there's no reason these have to be aliens on a space station.  Science Fiction is allowed to explore the mundane in an extraordinary way, but in the end this gets tedious.  All that's left i for the imaginative writer to come up with something that couldn't happen anywhere else in the Universe but this orbiting hotel.


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## chrispenycate (Mar 28, 2010)

In space, you can see the entire universe, Unfortunately most of it is so far away that, without fairly sophisticated aids, it looks very much like the night sky from Earth; very black, with an enormous number of speckles which, since they aren't bright enough to stimulate our colour vision, look white.

The first stage of your journey the Earth is well worth looking at from outside; and even the moon shows  sides of herself not previously known. It is just unfortunate that the spectacle doesn't change in such a long time; no 'If it's thursday, this must be Europa' here.

If you're heading towards the outer system, nothing can compare with Saturn, its multiple moons and ring system; a cosmic neon display in questionable taste and immense scale, not to be missed if you have the years to spare on the voyage. Unfortunately we cannot offer colourful primitive natives dancing in colourful local costumes; the accessible outer system shows strong signs of being uninhabited. Don't forget to see Jupiter's cloudscapes on your way home.

In the inner system the big attraction is the sun; not the featureless disc it might appear from Earth, but a boiling, dynamic inferno; one small solar flare, and your chromosomes are rendered useless to future generations (and not much good to you).

Venus, our sister planet is continuous cloud cover, more boring than an overflight of Manchester.

Which leaves Mars, and its struggling colonisation attempt; largest volcano in the solar system, lots of impressive dust storms, and night time temperatures that can freeze the carbon dioxide out of the air.

How can it be that, with all this to see, the majority of visitors never go further than Earth orbit and experimenting with zero gee sex?


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## Interference (Mar 28, 2010)

I'd like to hear more about the Zero Gee Sex trips, please


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## Ursa major (Mar 28, 2010)

You do know that it may have little to do with falling in love, don't you, Inter?









_* Manages to resist a whole galaxy of less family-friendly puns. *_


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## Interference (Mar 28, 2010)

Ursa major said:


> To me, it looks like a man (or an elf) not kissing a sheep that happens to have a dog (a minature version of red setter**) climbing it up its hindquarters.



(Now all your "Quote the Avatar" quotes make sense )


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## ktabic (Mar 28, 2010)

chrispenycate said:


> If you're heading towards the outer system, nothing can compare with Saturn



Oh, I don't know. Jupiter's moon Titan could be interesting. Skinny-dipping in methane lakes


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## chrispenycate (Mar 28, 2010)

Coughs gently.

Jupiter's moon?

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, as I remember.

Not that Jupiter is short of moons, mind.


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## ktabic (Mar 28, 2010)

Opps, how embarrassing. You, are of course, right.

Ok, skinny-dipping on Europa then.


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## Chinook (Mar 29, 2010)

ktabic said:


> Ok, skinny-dipping on Europa then.



Oh, I think you'd better wear a least a few wet suit layers. With a surface temperature of minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit, even Polar bears wouldn't last long. (a few seconds maybe). If you can get under the ice layer, there is liquid water underneath which means it might be a little warmer down there, and that, along with the discovery of oxygen on Europa, there are any astrophysicists actively reasearhing it niw.


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## skeptical (Apr 1, 2010)

Realistically, tourism in space is not going to go far.   To travel to Mars will probably take months, and all that in a cooped up tiny little space.   What tourist would want that?   Very few.

So tourism will be mostly about Earth orbit.   The two great attractions will be the sight of Earth from space  (magnificent!), and weightlessness.

Such holidays are likely to be boring if protracted, and so will be for a few days only.

Eventually, tourism to the moon may become possible, since it is only a few days travel away.  The moonscape will be an attraction.   However, low gravity has to be a major attraction also.  Perhaps enormous underground stadia can be contructed, within which people will be able to carry out man powered flight with strap on wings?

Anything further than the moon will be few and far between.   Put it in the 'too hard' basket.


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## AE35Unit (Apr 8, 2010)

If you have access to a telescope you'll have unrivalled views of stars and other objects. Only thing is the stars wont twinkle up there so you'll have a harder time finding the planets (on earth the stars twinkle but planets dont)


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## Tales (Apr 12, 2010)

Ok how attractive is a holiday on Mars... it's freezing with dust storms. What's there to see and do? The lower gravity also might cause bone problems in the long run.


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