Space Tourism from UAE 154
RAK writes "The only company to have sent tourists into space, Space Adventures, has announced plans to develop a commercial spaceport in the UAE, from where it will operate suborbital flights. The project will cost $265 million. The Russian-built suborbital vehicle called Explorer will have the capacity to transport up to five people to an altitude of nearly 100km in space, but the project's schedule is yet to be announced."
FYI (Score:5, Informative)
Re:FYI (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FYI (Score:1, Informative)
ecological footprint [nationmaster.com]
Re:FYI (Score:1)
Re:FYI (Score:2)
Re:FYI (Score:1)
Re:FYI (Score:5, Interesting)
The official census and thus captia does not include non-nationals (temporary workers), while the US includes not only temporary workers but also illegal immigrants (not that the census checks a persons visa). The nationals make us a mere 12% of the population and temporary workers make up the rest, illegal immigration, while it exists, is delt with via mass deportations. Nationally cannot be conferred by any process other than birth to a national father. E.G. I was born there but will never be a national.
This keeps their percapita income and other such stats artifically high. They have a penchant for being number 1. Note the 6 star hotel, the world future tallest building, the biggest construction on artifical islands, I think the worlds biggest wedding cake (I had some, it was nice), and a ton of other record attempts.
With 8 1/3 times the reported population contributing to national production and energy use it's not hard to be the highest percapita user (desalination and aluminum refining are a combined effort and it's very very energy intensive, hence everone using water is using energy (the cold water flows quite hot due to the ambient temprature, midday, you might burn yourself showering)) considering these differences in calculating the stats I heartily conferr back status of most wasteful nation to the U.S. As a side note, #3 Kuwait, might do just about the same thing as the UAE, They're analagous nations right down to the flag.
-Daniel
Re:FYI (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:FYI (Score:2)
Re:FYI (Score:2, Insightful)
I suppose it's no coincidence that the UAE also just so happens to have one of the few economies in the world that is soundly spanking the US's ass, again on a per-capita basis. And it's not all oil, though their labor practices are nothing to be proud of.
Whew (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Whew (Score:2)
PIPboy forgot... (Score:2)
Perhaps he figured that they were redundant?
Re:FYI (Score:1)
I didn't know Ric Romero [wikipedia.org] was a Slashdot reader.
Re:FYI (Score:2)
Re:FYI (Score:2)
Educating others by way of Wikipedia link is the definition of laziness.
A far more informative (and better researched) link is this [uaeinteract.com].
Same guys who bought P&O. (Score:2)
Re:FYI (Score:2)
Amiga Actually (Score:2)
Just one question... (Score:2, Funny)
Mos Dubai Spaceport... (Score:5, Funny)
Am I the only person... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Am I the only person... (Score:2)
I feel confidant in answering "yes".
Re:Am I the only person... (Score:2)
For all of you in the dark, Phobos is a hint
No, but I thought of User Application Error (Score:2)
Re:No, but I thought of User Application Error (Score:1)
Re:Am I the only person... (Score:2)
yes.
Article from earlier today (Score:5, Informative)
Also, for anybody ogling at the $265 million price for the spaceport, this is also about how much an airport might cost. It should also be noted that the UAE is a country where people are spending $1.8 billion on a chain of artificial islands [theemiratesnetwork.com] arranged to look like a map of the world.
Re:Article from earlier today (Score:2)
Give the elite what they want!.
attraction. (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably 3 main things,
- Cheap fuel
- Wealthy elite prepared to pay
- Cheap labour, with little workers' protection (safe working conditions, etc - this is an assumption on my part)
Re:attraction. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:attraction. (Score:1, Interesting)
I have worked in UAE as well as in USA. The conditions that you describe above regarding UAE are very similar/almost identical to the fate of H1B type workers and other migrant workers (eg. workers from Mexico) in USA.
Re:attraction. (Score:1)
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
But rather than deport H1-B workers, who mostly have education and knowledge, I'd like to see a program for deporting people like you.
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
Re:attraction. (Score:1)
Re:attraction. (Score:5, Interesting)
First, the labor problems apply only to unskilled expatriates from other countries who fail to uphold human rights as they apply to laborers: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand are the primary culprits. Western expats, by contrast, can usually get assistance from their embassy or consolate if something goes seriously sour.
Second, the reason why things go sour is that many employers keep their employee's passports. Westerners can and usually do refuse to cooperate with this, especially Americans (for whom it is illegal to relinquish property of the US government to any foreign interest, as I understand it). Once your passport is in someone else's hands, you're pretty much stuck. I have a Swedish friend who got caught in a nasty bait-and-switch deal after giving over his passport, and who got next to no help from his consolate in the Emirates - he eventually had to be 'smuggled' out of UAE to Oman in order to take legal action to resolve things.
Third, it is very important to understand that 80% of the population of the UAE is expatriate. UAE citizens generally do not work. They are essentially absentee capitalists - owners of property and co-owners (known as 'sponsors') of foreign-owned businesses operating locally. Their guilt lies largely in their complicity with what is almost invariably Indian or Pakistani management in their companies. And Indian and Pakistani middle and upper management is, to a greater or lesser degree, controlled by the Indian and Pakistani mafias. The same 'system' is true for Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Iranian, Filippino, and other companies, but they are very much in the minority.
So it is important to realize that it is the mafia rackets who organize on the home country side to sucker these victimized laborers into going to UAE to work, and then trap them once they are there.
There are two underlying problems: the UAE government tolerates this crap, and the home countries do nothing to hold their citizens and/or businesses accountable overseas (No surrise on the second point, just think 'Nike', 'child labor', and 'sweatshops'). Often this is because the same rackets control their own corrupt governments as well.
International pressure has been quite successful in bringing the UAE in line. They have recently come under serious fire for labor conditions, and they have responded quickly in many instances with legislation and brutal penalities on companies in violation.
My recommendation is that if you are willing, help make a fuss and keep stories in the news ad public consciousness, because UAE is one of the few countries that actually responds to activism, protests, and international pressure. For example, in response to international outrage at the the abhorent practice of using children (usually foreign, some as young as 3 years old) as camel jockeys, the UAE responded by immediately banning the practice and requiring - no joke - robotic jockeys to be used instead. Check BBC for the story.
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
> - Cheap fuel
> - Wealthy elite prepared to pay
> - Cheap labour, with little workers' protection
I didn't know space ships ran on gasoline. Silly me.
Re:attraction. (Score:2, Informative)
oops. We _can't_ mine it. Hmmm... maybe we have to _make_ it. I wonder how we'd do that? Maybe.. just maybe.. we'd need some other fuel source...
Cheap fuel == Cheap energy. I don't think you'd be arguing that spaceships don't need energy, right kiddo?
Piss-taking aside, some spacecraft actually _do_ use types of hydrocarbon-based fuel. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipropellant_rocket [wikipedia.org] for more info.
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
I thought most spaceships run on kerosene and (liquid) oxygen. Unless "space shuttle main engines" are most spaceships.
Re:attraction. (Score:2)
Silly you seems to be ignorant of the fact that gasoline is but one of the many products obtained from petroleum. The first stage of the Saturn V launch system was actually fueled by kerosene. Most modern rockets use liquid hydrogen, though; and while it could be argued that hydrogen is not a direct petroleum product per se, 78% of the hydrogen produced today is cracked from natural gas or oil. So yes, availability of cheap fuel.
All these details I lear
Re:attraction. (Score:1)
Michael Jackson Sightings (Score:1)
Re:Michael Jackson Sightings (Score:2)
Re:Michael Jackson Sightings (Score:3, Funny)
Forget suborbital flights. I would be willing to help pay to boost him to escape velocity.
What's so great aobut the location (Score:4, Interesting)
I know that being nearer the equator is better for launch than elsewhere, so perhaps that helps to cut costs.
But in the future, when the Gulf has less income, due to less oil, won't their economies die? I have a hard time seeing them sustaining anything once the lifeblood of their economy is exhausted.
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:5, Insightful)
This is precisely why the UAE is diversifying into things like tourism.
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
Here are some projects that come to mind, aside from the space port:
1. The Burj Al Aarab [google.com] - "Designed to resemble a billowing sail, the hotel soars to a height of 321 metres, dominating the Dubai coastline. At night, it offers an unforgettable sight, surrounded by choreographed colour sculptures of water and fire. This all-suite hotel reflects the finest that the world has to offer." - http://www.burj-al-arab.com/ [burj-al-arab.com]
2. Ski Dubai [skidubai.ae] - The world's only in-door ski resort,
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:1)
South-ish (Score:2)
That makes about a gazillion assumptions, like "Dubai won't be the first to run out of oil". But basically, even if we're at peak oil, Dubai will probably be very rich for at least another half-century or so. And when you're talking about ultra-luxe tourist destinations, that's well past your horizon of thinking.
From a technical level, the primary
Re:South-ish (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
Exactly.
The royal families in the UAE know that their oil won't last forever.
Although they have a habit of blowing their billions on outrageously trivial endeavours and decadence in general, they are also investing their wealth into as many non-oil enterprises as possible so that they have a future beyond fossil fuel
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
E.g. invest in China, Japan, Korea, Europe and the USA? I would think that would out-perform their spaceport.
The only country (well, city-state) I can think of that successfully pulled off the banking->tourism switch is Venice, and even then, it is a lot worse off than it used to be, when it was a hub of commerce.
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not like they're hinging their future success on this space-port, the Emirates have invested in countless schemes which have failed miserably in the past - this one is not special, and it's not going to hurt them if it fails as well.
I'm sure they already have a very diverse portfolio as it is.
I'm not an expert on UAE culture, I just have relativ
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
You are right, that is not much for them. In fact, it isn't much for a super-rich person: Larry Ellison burns $100 million a year on his personal expenses.
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
Re:What's so great aobut the location (Score:2)
I know lots of people my age (28) who grew up in Dubai for part of their lives becasue their father or mother was positioned there in banking or trade positions... these are very white americ
The UAE is rather active lately... (Score:1)
Re:The UAE is rather active lately... (Score:2)
Re:The UAE is rather active lately... (Score:5, Insightful)
Apart from the space port, here are some more interesting things about the city:
1) The World : A set of Artificial Islands being built off the coast of dubai, for the ultra rich.
2) The Palms : 3 of them actually These are artificial peninsula built in the shape of a palm tree.. Offering luxury houses with private beaches.
3) The worlds Tallest building : The Burj Dubai.. The end height of the building is secret, but it is rumored to be 2500ft.
4) The worlds most luxurious hotel : The Burj al Arab. Read up on it.. its quite a place to stay.
5) The World's largest mall : Dubai Mall Will be built near the Burj Dubai.
6) The World's third largest mall : Mall of the Emirates. Smaller only to Dubai Mall, and Mall of America
7) The Hydropolis : The world's first under water hotel
BTW, this country has no income tax. Gas costs about $1.80 a gallon. Labor is cheap.. you can get a house boy/house maid for about $250-$300 a month LEGALLY. I know.. I had one.
This country is quite liberal too. Alcohol is allowed, though gambling isn't. Newspapers are censored to some degree, and nudity in movies is also censored.
At the same time, people can wear whatever they want.. beaches in dubai (Jumeirah beach in particular is quite popular with the western folk) look a lot like american beaches. Lots of bikinis, tight jeans, short shorts. the whole deal.
Re:The UAE is rather active lately... (Score:2)
They're actually planning to build another building straight after this that will another order of magnitude taller than this tower. "
An order of magnitude higher would be in the order of 10000ft - that seems unlikely, I'd expect them to work their way up to those kinds of heights a little less at a time.
Middle east is a good place to start such projects (Score:1)
By using UAE as the base, the project team has ensured steady supply of cheap gas for their rockets (or planes?). I hear gas is cheaper than drinking water in the middle east.
Re:Middle east is a good place to start such proje (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Middle east is a good place to start such proje (Score:2)
what the hell? (Score:2, Informative)
What the hell?
North America 16.48%
Central & South America 8.00%
Western Europe 1.16%
Eastern Europe & Former U.S.S.R. 6.13%
Middle East 57.52%
Africa 7.94%
Asia & Oceania 2.78%
Try again?
Re:what the hell? (Score:1)
Re:what the hell? (Score:1)
Space tourism, human trafficking & slavery (Score:2)
Re:Space tourism, human trafficking & slavery (Score:2)
Re:Space tourism, human trafficking & slavery (Score:1)
Re:Space tourism, human trafficking & slavery (Score:2)
One man's suborbital space tourism rocket.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:One man's suborbital space tourism rocket.. (Score:2)
I like spaceport! (Score:2)
Another reason... (Score:2)
Bruce
Sigh so they'll become the first... (Score:2)
Too bad...
Maybe this will help to take some of the attention off the astronauts and put it back on the engineers who actually work and develop these technologies.
New Mexico Spaceport (Score:1)
The UAE and Terrorism (Score:1)
- The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
- The UAE has been a key transf
"altitude of nearly 100km" (Score:2)
As the standard definition of space is 100km, doesn't that mean they're not actually going into space? It's just a high altitude flight, not spaceflight. (They could be using the lower US defn, but no-one else will pay any attention to them if they do.)
Re:"altitude of nearly 100km" (Score:2)
what a dumb idea (Score:2)
Heck - that alone would be reason enough for some neocon dumbass to go invade them - just out of spite... It's like straight out of Syriana...
"You want to k
This fits with the rest of the plans for UAE (Score:2)
Re:Ah yes... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah yes... (Score:1)
Latvian Partisan War 1944-49
Lithuanian Partisan War 1944-52
Kurdish Mahabad Republic 1945-46
Berlin Blockade 1948-9
East German Uprising 1953
Hungarian Revolt 1956
Stanleyville Secession: Congo 1960-1
Berlin Wall
Re:Ah yes... (Score:2)
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:3, Insightful)
It may interest you to know that the UAE is quite friendly towards western nations, and still has the respect of more hostile middle eastern countries.
I know that Australia has significant diplomatic and strategic interests there (as long as the UAE wants them aroun
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was brought up in the UAE actually, and people who havne't been there think 'middle east' and go 'OMG! TERr0r1s+!"
Actually, Dubai is often referred to as the Hong Kong of the middle east. Very liberal, very modern, very rich, and quite tolerant.
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:1)
Ironically, it is more tolerant towards Christians and the celebration of traditional Christmas than some western nations which were founded by Christians. The political correctness in the west has gone too far in my opinion.
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sheikh Rashid
The King, shook his head and said "If the bells bother you so much, you are free to move elsewhere".
This is especially significant because, Hinduism, unlike christianity is Idol worship. And Islam
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:1)
Re:Potential Weapon? (Score:1)
Re:I would love to go (Score:2)
just like leia (Score:3, Funny)
Hope he doesn't read Slashdot. (Score:3, Funny)
well.. (Score:1)
Re:Dear Your Highness Supreme Ruler of UAE, (Score:2)
Re:Wikipedia is your friend (Score:2)