The second civilian to pay for his journey into space is set for lift off from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 25 April. But Mark Shuttleworth dismisses the label 鈥渢ourist鈥� describing himself instead as a pioneer of commercial space travel.
He believes that future space exploration and research missions could depend on commercial trips such as his. 鈥淚鈥檓 not a scientist, nor am I a professional astronaut, but I鈥檓 definitely not a tourist,鈥� Shuttleworth told New Scientist.
The 28-year-old South African millionaire says: 鈥淭he real hurdle, the real prize, is the development of privately-owned launch and return capability. It will free the public agencies to focus on the edge of the envelope, while commercial space travel provides large scale investment into basic technology.鈥�
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Stem cells
Shuttleworth is now undergoing final preparations for his flight at Star City, the Russian space-training centre near Moscow. He should arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on 27 April and remain there for eight days before returning to Earth aboard a second Soyuz, currently docked there.
But Shuttleworth does not plan to just enjoy the view while aboard the ISS. He has prepared a set of scientific experiments to perform during his stay. He plans to record the growth of stem cells and the crystallisation of soluble protein. The effect that the trip has on his body will also be monitored and relayed back to a team back on Earth.
University of Cape Town researcher Tim Noakes, who will be monitoring the physical experiments, believes these could provide useful new data.
鈥淚 would argue that the research we are doing is certainly not simply a copy of what has been done before,鈥� he says. 鈥淎ll scientists involved appreciate the importance of this event and realise that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.鈥�
House rules
Others are less ambitious about these scientific objectives. Astronomer Tony Fairall, also of the University of Cape Town, says: 鈥淚 see the scientific part of Mark鈥檚 mission as mainly aimed at raising public awareness of science, particularly within South Africa.鈥�
Commercial space travel seems likely to become more common. Shuttleworth鈥檚 trip should be much less controversial than that of the first space tourist Dennis Tito. The US tycoon flew to the ISS in April 2001 amid protests from NASA about crew safety.
In February 2002, NASA agreed on a set of house rules for future visitors to the ISS. A number of people are now vying to follow Shuttleworth and Tito into space including the US pop star Lance Bass of *NSYNC. However, both Tito and Shuttleworth are reported to have paid $20 million for their tickets.