I just read the following Wired story about Richard Garriott, who has undergone the cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia. It's quite an interesting read about people willing to plonk down millions of hard cash for an adventure that isn't even guaranteed to happen. People are weird. Personally, I'd love to go into space, but finances aren't that developed that I'll ever will be able to pay up for it. However, I also think these tourists may be an extra burden on the people in the ISS. I guess they have a lot more to do than babysitting a tourist who probably will get space sick as well... Or do they? What are they actually doing "up there"? No-one really knows, maybe they're playing checkers most of the time.. I mean.. most experiments from my science class were "put it in a scale and wait" kind of like.. So, they're probably happy to have someone to watch over once in a while?
What's your opinion on Space Tourism? Waste of money, resources and time? Do you think there'll be any future in it?