🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BzFxGA.xC.1@cs.cmu.edu> roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes:
>->In article <1992Dec16.125638.29623@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
>->>Last I heard they're
>->>willing to rent Cosmonaut time at $5 million an hour plus launch costs
>->>for any experimental equipment you want them to use.
>
>-Oh. Oh. My source is a post by Nick Szabo Sept 19th of last year where
>-he quotes a Mir Press article on suited time for sale. Since they offered
>-John Denver a ride for $10 million, this must be out to lunch.
>
>per hour. Don't the EVA suits have a certain maximum number of hours they
>can be used per flight?

Some Russian suits have been limited to about 10 EVA's (with suited up
time about 7-8 hours maximum each). When Artsebarski(sp?) had his
problem with fogging on an EVA the press noted that that suit was
on is 14th EVA and no longer considered under 'warranty'. I think 
they literally threw out those suits sometime after that, but don't hold 
me to that story because I don't have my notes with me to confirm that 
sequence of events.

The cost of each Mir guest flight is negotiated individually and can
vary based on the activities. The French have done an EVA and are
the only foreign visitors to do so. I don't believe they paid much more
if any than their previous missions, even though that one lasted a month.
Of course the French were a very valued and trusted customer at that time
as they still are. A visiting mission generally costs about $10-15
million, of course there are exceptions like the Juno flight which
apparently never paid up in full. Also, I expect variations in the 
exchange rate might have some unusual effects. So, to determine what
the NPO Energia would charge for an EVA is very difficult without really
being ready to propose a mission plan.

Dennis Newkirk (dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com)
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL