Making Space Pay
American millionaire Dennis Tito was the first space tourist to visit the International Space Station (ISS). He spent eight days aboard the ISS after paying the cash strapped Russian space programme 20 million dollars for the privilege.
Tito's space venture underscored just one of the many commerical possibilites the ISS has to offer - some of these possibilities were discussed in Berlin at the first International ISS Forum 2001.
The ISS is an international joint venture, with 15 nations participating in its development and construction.The project is designed to assist in beginning the manned exploration of the far reaches of the solar system and beyond.
The permanent presence in space will also be an orbiting laboratory for testing new technologies, conducting medical research and developing advanced industrial materials.
The ISS is excepted to be completed in five years time and will be fully operational by 2006. The space station is a collaboration between the space agencies of the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency, ESA. The ISS will cost at least fifty billion euros.
ESA pays 8.3 percent of that, with Germany paying about half the European contribution. Eight billion marks have already been earmarked for Germany's space effort over the next four years.
Russia's space program has long been strapped for cash. So it came as no surprise when it became the first nation to capitalize on the commercial uses of the International Space Station.In spite of protests from the United States, Moscow has been steadily moving forward in making money from the final frontier.
Russian cosmonauts spent several hours helping to promote the Bavarian car-maker, BMW. The price tag is a secret, but it is known that the Russian space agency charges between 100,000 to 10 million dollars to do a little advertising work on the side. But that wasn't the final frontier for BMW. It went on to finance a Russian space probe bound for Mars.
The hope was the probe would display a huge BMW logo on its giant landing parachute. But the investment didn't pay off. The probe was destroyed when the booster rocket exploded before completing its ascent.
Sergeij Babenkov, BMW representative from Moscow feels that any advertising in space is effective and leaves a lasting impression. The important thing is getting there first.
That's also what Pizza Hut banked on. The pizza-maker's logo was there for all the world to see on a Russian booster rocket destined for the ISS. That earned the Russian space agency a million dollars. And a 20 million dollar cheque was bagged when the first space tourist, American Dennis Tito, visited the ISS.
But the American space agency, NASA, is critical of space tourism as a money spinner. It says people like Dennis Tito pose a security risk. The Russians admit they don't see any other way of financing their cash-strapped space industry.
Still, for the time being Russia won't be entertaining any more paying visitors on board the ISS. Moscow doesn't want to go to far in provoking the Americans. Russian comonauts will have to prove their advertising acumen for products as earthly as milk, rather than giving rich business people the trip of a lifetime.