If anyone deserves to go....

March 2, 2007 7:07 PM

Stephen Hawking in space. "On April 26, Dr. Hawking, surrounded by a medical entourage, is to take a zero-gravity ride out of Cape Canaveral on a so-called vomit comet, a padded aircraft that flies a roller-coaster trajectory to produce periods of weightlessness." [NY Times article]
posted by inconsequentialist (22 comments total)

I pity the fool that gets hit by his chair.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:15 PM on March 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

"“I also want to show,” [Hawking] said in an e-mail interview, “that people need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they are not disabled in spirit.”"

As someone who works in the disability sector, and as someone who has a genuine admiration for everything that Hawking has ever done, I can only say "God speed, sir".

I am also incredibly envious that he's going to get to go into space and I'm still stuck here on this fucking rock looking up.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:17 PM on March 2, 2007

I recall a really cool article once, written by Penn Jillette, about his experience on a vomit comet. I'm too lame and lazy to go hunting around for it to link it here. I recall it being a great read though.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:21 PM on March 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I am also incredibly envious that he's going to get to go into space and I'm still stuck here on this fucking rock looking up.

If you read the article, it says you can buy your way onto the same kind of trip he's taking for $3500. It's not actually into space, though, you just experience zero g because of the trajectory.

It also says he might really go into space when Virgin Galactic gets it's 'space plane' running for tourism. He estimates it will be ready in 2009, which is somewhat more optimistic than my own estimate of never.
posted by Mitrovarr at 7:35 PM on March 2, 2007

What if he actually vomits?
posted by longsleeves at 7:59 PM on March 2, 2007

Yeah, I know he's not technically going into outer space but he's getting pretty damn close. I imagined the title being read in that way where 'space' is echoey.
posted by inconsequentialist at 8:20 PM on March 2, 2007

The question is not whether his body will survive zero gravity, but whether his body will support the multiples of gravity needed to get to the zero g point.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:32 PM on March 2, 2007

I imagined the title being read in that way where 'space' is echoey.

Yeah, but that way always starts with the word "Pigs".
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:33 PM on March 2, 2007

Would you call that a first¿
Producing periods in men.
Pray tell.
posted by alicesshoe at 10:07 PM on March 2, 2007

Wow, Hawking is following in the foot steps as such notable figures as: Steve O & Johnny Knoxville.
posted by matimer at 10:17 PM on March 2, 2007

Matimer, there is something to the fact that following in foot steps in a little harder when you can't walk.

Or, you know, do much of anything except be brilliant.
posted by flaterik at 11:00 PM on March 2, 2007

So he uses complex machinery to experience 0-gee and if I wish to do the same so must I.



Except he's really, really fucking smart. I'm not.
posted by sourwookie at 12:09 AM on March 3, 2007

Dang. Stephen Hawking rulz.
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 12:50 AM on March 3, 2007

While I fully support Professor Hawking's goal of spaceflight, I think it irresponsible to risk the life of a man of his intelligence and stature to see if his frail, debilitated body can pull multiple Gs.

Logically, someone equally debilitated but more expendable should be sent in his place for the first test.

I fit the criteria, so I hereby volunteer. It will be a dangerous job, but someone's got to do it...
posted by Soliloquy at 12:50 AM on March 3, 2007

Sing it with me, Professor H:

"Intergalactic planetary, planetary intergalactic...."
posted by Optamystic at 2:28 AM on March 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

Wow, Hawking is following in the foot steps as such notable figures as: Steve O & Johnny Knoxville.

Seriously! Would it not also prove that "people need not be limited by physical handicaps" by putting Hawking in a shopping cart and sending him down a concrete spillway?

Can't one respect Hawking simply for his theoretical work - which stands on its own two legs quite nicely?
posted by three blind mice at 3:54 AM on March 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

I hate to rain on anybody's holier-than-thou parade, but I don't think this is some sort of experiment. I'm pretty certain that Professor Hawking is going up there because he wants to, and I'm even more certain that he has just as much right to buy passage on a vomit comet as anyone else, regardless of physical ability.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:54 AM on March 3, 2007

Yeah, I know he's not technically going into outer space but he's getting pretty damn close.

Oh baloney. He's flying in a KC-135 at about 30,000 feet. If that is "getting pretty damn close" then so is anyone who ever flies a commercial aircraft. This has nothing whatsoever to do with going into, or even close to, space! It's just zero-gravity, facilitated by being in an airplane that takes a ballistic trajectory for 25 seconds or so.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:29 AM on March 3, 2007

"Would it not also prove that "people need not be limited by physical handicaps" by putting Hawking in a shopping cart and sending him down a concrete spillway?"

That would so fucking rock!

Also, Hawking should dress up in a furry costume and ride in his wheelchair fast as he can while being chased by trained attack dogs.

Hawking should be attached to a snowboard and sent down concrete urban outdoor stairways in parks.

Hawking should be given three hundred hard boiled eggs to eat.. and a bucket!

Hawking should wear a cup and have kids punch him in the nuts!

Hawking should go into a tattoo parlour and get his ass crack bolted together!

That'd be the best thing since MC Hawking!
posted by ZachsMind at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2007

Oh baloney. He's flying in a KC-135 at about 30,000 feet. If that is "getting pretty damn close" then so is anyone who ever flies a commercial aircraft. This has nothing whatsoever to do with going into, or even close to, space! It's just zero-gravity, facilitated by being in an airplane that takes a ballistic trajectory for 25 seconds or so.


Yes, you're right. But he is taking a step in that direction.

"In some ways, this is only a prelude. Dr. Hawking announced on his 65th birthday, in January, that he hoped to take a longer, higher flight in 2009 on a space plane being developed by Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic, which seeks to take six passengers to an altitude of 70 miles."
posted by inconsequentialist at 9:00 AM on March 3, 2007

While I fully support Professor Hawking's goal of spaceflight, I think it irresponsible to risk the life of a man of his intelligence and stature to see if his frail, debilitated body can pull multiple Gs.

Or maybe, you know, it's something he wants to do, and it's his life, so he's free to do it.
posted by !Jim at 10:59 AM on March 3, 2007

Also, there appears to be some sort of trouble on the moon.
posted by bowline at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2007