It is interesting these days that while there are so many problems on Earth, people are talking about building space station hotels and putting together scientific excursions to Earth's red sister. What is even more interesting is that Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and the Ikhwan al-Safa (the Brethren of Purity) wrote about trips to Mars, albeit symbolically, more than 8 centuries ago. Nevertheless, the dreamy haze is lifting and for better or for worse, the successes and foibles of free trade are impacting scientific research. We may be on Mars and holding receptions in space stations sooner than we think in a way that even minds like the Ikhwan al-Safa or Ibn Sina could not have imagined.
With the recent decision of the Russian space program to destroy the aging Mir Space Station in late 2001, there has been an outcry from numerous business and space-research interests to keep the station up and running. Rick Tumlinson, president of the Space Frontier Foundation ( www.space-frontier.org ), a New York based think-tank dedicated to space exploration issues entreated Russian President Vladimir Putin to save the aging space station.
In a statement issued on February 19, 2000, he warned President Putin that using a series of Progress space tugs to plunge Mir to a fiery re-entry poses too great a risk to the public, and urged Russia to instead place it into a higher, stable orbit until new technology was made available to re-use the multi-billion-dollar space station.
MirCorp, a private company taking over management of the Russian space station recently acquired the contract from Energia, a Russian-based government-sponsored firm. The takeover marks the commercialization of Earth's orbit. Among the plans that MirCorp has for the hulk of steel in the sky is to turn it into a hotel or perhaps even into a movie set.
To make a long story short, we might be relaxing in a beach chair up there one day soaking in the direct solar rays. The question that most perplexes me about it is: in which direction should I pray?
