United States entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari
has been training for six months to get away from it all. Unlike most tourists, she
won't be sporting a camera around her neck, and come Monday she won't need a
boarding pass to get on her flight.
That's because Ansari is no ordinary sightseer. In just three
days she will escape the bounds of Earth to float
around in the International
Space Station (ISS) for 10 days. Iranian-American Ansari, the first female
space tourist, will hitch a ride to the ISS aboard the Soyuz
TMA-9 capsule along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail
Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Miguel
Lopez-Alegria.
Originally, Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was supposed
to be the world's fourth space tourist under a deal arranged by the
Virginia-based space tourism firm Space Adventures with the Russian Federal
Space Agency. But Enomoto
was disqualified late last month from flying due to a health concern, allowing
Ansari to become a primary crewmember.
Ansari has been in quarantine since September 2 in Baikonur,
Kazakhstan and has been keeping a blog to share her experience with those dreaming of
spacelight, an effort Ansari wishes to continue as an outreach project upon her
return.
In a telephone interview with SPACE.com, Ansari
discussed the hardest part of her training, the most anticipated part of her
trip, and why she takes offense to the term "space tourist."
SPACE.com: With only a few days before launch,
what is there still left to do?
Anousheh Ansari: I think we pretty much
completed all of our training. There are just some final procedural things that
we are reviewing. There are also some ceremonial things that we will be doing
in the next few days such as press conferences and meetings. We just completed
our final fit check today so that was I guess one of most important steps
before the launch, which was conducted successfully.
SPACE.com: How do your husband and family feel
about your trip?
AA: As you can imagine, they're pretty
excited. They know how long I have been waiting for this day and how happy I am
that it's finally here. I know they're happy for me and at the same time I am
sure that they're a bit apprehensive and a little nervous about the whole
thing. I especially know my mom is really nervous. They're cheering each other
up, trying to stay positive, focusing on the good things, and all praying for
my safe return.
SPACE.com: What's it been like being far from
them during your 6-month training?
AA: It's been the hardest part of being in
training. We're a close family; we spend a lot of time together. Not being with
them, especially not being with my husband has been the most difficult part of
the training for me.
SPACE.com: Have you been able to visit each
other at all?
AA: Yes, we've had several short visits.
During my [training] time, he came to Star City a few times and we met for
several weekends in Europe, which meant a shorter flight for both of us. But
still, it's not the same because ever since we got married over 15 years ago
we've spent almost 24 hours [of each day] together because we work together so
it's been very difficult. We've never been apart for such a long time.
SPACE.com: And you will never be as far distance
wise as you will be in a few days.
AA: That's true too!
SPACE.com: What projects did you have to give
up to go on this trip?
AA: There were a couple of things that I was
negotiating and working on. One of them had to do with installing a telescope on
the ISS, which was a very involved program. I was trying to find out some of
the activities that different space agencies were initiating to see if I could
partner with them to bring a private or commercial aspect to it. Not to use it
commercially but to use it for educational purposes for amateur astronomers and
other people interested in astronomy.
Unfortunately, that's a very involved program that would have
taken at least a year or two to get approved and get the potential documents
done and the equipment certified. So I knew for sure that wasn't going to
happen on my flight. But it's something that I am going to continue pursuing
and it doesn't have to be coinciding with my spaceflight.
SPACE.com: How did you find out that Diasuke
Enomoto wouldn't be flying? How did it feel to no longer be the back up?
AA: I was actually going back to my room after
finishing my day of training and I received a call from "Space
Adventures" telling me that I've been moved up to become part of the
primary crew.
First I couldn't believe it. I thought they were joking with me
and then as I started believing them I was in complete shock and total
excitement and you know, I would've screamed if I wasn't embarrassed of the
people around me.
SPACE.com: Do you consider yourself a role
model for Iranian women and women in general?
AA: Well I certainly hope to be. In my work
and everything that I have always done, I have tried to be an example.
I hope to inspire everyone—especially young people, women, and
young girls all over the world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not
provide women with the same opportunities as men—to not give up their dreams
and to pursue them.
It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can
realize their dreams if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it, and look for
opportunities and make those opportunities happen. Looking back at my life, I'm
hoping that I could give them a positive example how that could happen.
SPACE.com: When did your fascination with
space begin? When was it that you knew this was the path you were going to
take?
AA: It wasn't like a special moment that I
just realized this is what I wanted to do. It was something that ever since I
remember has been in my heart and a part of me. I always was fascinated by
space and always wanted to learn more about it and wanted to experience it
first hand by flying into space. I don't know how it began or where it began.
Maybe I was born with it. Maybe it's in my genes. I don't know. My husband
[Hamid Ansari] sometimes jokes and says you know I think you're not from this
planet. You may have come from another planet and you're just trying to get
back home.
SPACE.com: What are you most looking forward
to on this trip?
AA: I'm looking forward to the entire
experience but I think one of the most special parts of it would be being able
to see the Earth from space and to just experience that totality of it and see
it as this beautiful blue planet swimming in the darkness of universe. It's
something that I think will be very special.
SPACE.com: I think other people who have made
it to space have similar sentiments. The fragility of Earth often strikes them.
AA: I believe that's part of it. I hope that
more and more people will get to have this experience because it does give you
a new perspective on life, and on everything else like how to live your life
and interact with your environment.
I've talked to different astronauts and cosmonauts and read
their books, and think that it's a common theme that you hear from all of them.
It does make a big difference. I am hoping that more and more people will be
able to have that experience first hand and I think it may make our world a
better place to live if more people flew to space.
SPACE.com: What experiments will you be
participating in while on the trip?
AA: There are a few experiments, a couple of
them with the European Space Agency that have to do with the effects of low
back pain on astronauts and cosmonauts. The other one is on microbial lifeforms
onboard the station and how they spread. I will also be doing some educational
programs on the different laws of physics that I'm planning to videotape.
Sometimes it's easier to demonstrate things like that in zero gravity
environments.
SPACE.com: What advancements do you believe
will emerge from private exploration of space?
AA: There's an infinite amount of energy
resources out in space, that given the right technology and the right
environment, we can benefit from.
Development of technology for travel to outer edges of space
needs to be developed. And it's a necessity, I think for us, to start thinking
about it now and start planning and designing because it's something that's not
going to happen overnight.
It will take generations to perfect this type of travel means.
So I am hoping to bring more attention to it, bring more private funding to it
and to see more innovation happen because of the involvement of the private
industry.
SPACE.com: On your website you mention that
one of your goals as the first space ambassador is "to promote peace and
understanding amongst nations." How do you envision space explorations
will achieve such a lofty goal?
AA: I think based on what we were just talking
about. The spaceflight experience gives you new perspective on your environment
and the planet we live on and the understanding of how fragile it is and how
our actions impact our environment.
Looking at it from up there you can't see any borders or any
differentiation between different races or anything like that and all you see
is one planet; one place that all of us have to take care of if we want to be
able to live on it for a long time. Our current technologies and everything we
have does not afford us the luxury of saying ok if we blow up this planet and
make it inhabitable for ourselves we can pack up and live some place else. So
on one hand you look at your safe haven on Earth and then you turn around and
then you look at the blackness of the universe and see that there is not a lot
of habitable planets or moons around you. You sort of feel like you need to
take care of the precious gift you've been given and I think that's sort of how
I am hoping the message would be.
SPACE.com: You don't like the term "space
tourist" and call it an "over simplistic label to a complicated
process." Can you further explain that?
AA: Absolutely. In a way I take offense when
they call me a tourist because it brings that image of someone with a camera
around their neck and a ticket in their hand walking to the airport to go on a
trip somewhere and coming back to show their pictures. But I think spaceflight
is much more than that.
I've been training for it for six months. I think if it is to
be compared to an experiment or an experience on Earth it probably is closer to
expeditions like people who go to Antarctica or people who climb Mount Everest.
I mean that requires a lot more preparation, thinking, and studying or
appreciation of the environment. So I would probably compare it more to an expedition
than I would to a touristy trip to another city.
SPACE.com: You'll finally conquer space, so
what's next for you?
AA: I'm going to go back to work. We're
launching [a] new company. At the same time, there's a project that we've been
working on for a couple of years now and it's to a point to be ready to be
commercially launched. So we're really excited about that and that's one of the
major areas I'll be concentrating on upon my return and whatever spare time I
have I'll be spending it going around and promoting my educational activities
through the "X- Prize
Foundation."
advertisement
