Aini's Space Tourism Educational Tour in the Alps

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Commemorating ACommemorating ACommemorating ACommemorating A Decade of Space Tourism in Malaysia (July 1999Decade of Space Tourism in Malaysia (July 1999Decade of Space Tourism in Malaysia (July 1999Decade of Space Tourism in Malaysia (July 1999 July 2009)July 2009)July 2009)July 2009)

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LEARNING

SPACE TOURISM AND

SUBORBITAL SPACEPLANE

ON A TRIP TO THE ALPS

By

Norul Aini Norul Ridzuan([email protected])

July 2009

My name is Aini, and I am 10 years old. I live

and go to school in Shah Alam, Malaysia. I have

had many wishes, and one was visiting a countrywith cold weather and beautiful surroundings

consist of lakes and snow-covered mountains, a

place which is very unlike Malaysia. So, I had

wished to visit Switzerland, since I had known

that the country, describes best the place I had

wished to visit.

I had been very lucky that last year on February,before the snow melts, I had an opportunity to

visit Switzerland by accompanying my father

and his friends on their trip to several places nearand in the Alps.

My father, Mr. Norul and his friends, Mr.

Anwar, Mr. Jamal and Mr. Zaim are a group of

space tourism activists from a voluntary

organization called Space Tourism Society

Malaysia Chapter. They went to Swiss

Propulsion Laboratory (SPL) in Langenthal,

Switzerland to learn about the activities ofdeveloping small rocket propulsion system there

and to International Space University (ISU) in

Strasbourg, France to present a poster there.Besides going to the 2 places directly related to

my fathers and his friends activities in space

tourism, we had visited a museum in Basel and

the beautiful city of Luzern, where I had the

opportunity to fulfill all my wishes.

First, we went to Langenthal, where we arrived

by train from Zurich in the afternoon. When Iwas at the small train station there, I had for the

first time in my life, feel the real cold outdoorweather very unlike my country, which haswarm weather all year. We were later taken to a

small hotel by Mr. Amman and Mr. Adrian from

SPL who came to the station.

In the evening, we were taken to dinner, and

while walking outdoor from the cars to the

restaurant, I had experienced the coldest weather

I had ever experienced. The food was delicious,

but I was very tired and sleepy, that I almost

slept while eating and was not able to finish mydinner, and I was very happy to get back to the

hotel right after the dinner.

The next morning, we walked to SPL, which is

just on the other side of the small road, opposite

the hotel. There, I listened and watched with

curiosity, the discussions between my father and

his friends and the people of SPL, who were Mr.

Amman, Mr. Bruno, Mr. Peter, Mr. Adrian andMrs. Monica. I understood that SPL is headed byMr. Amman and Mrs. Monica is his wife.

However, to me, Mrs. Monica was the most

important, because she had given me some

chocolates and a very nice box of color pencils.

Inside SPL I saw some replica of rocket engines

and parts of propulsion systems. There were one

about a meter in length and several more about a

foot in length.


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Some of the small replicas were really cute,because before this, I thought rocket engines has

to be big and look uninteresting like those I saw

in books and encyclopedias.

The 1-meter one is the replica of a rocket engine

used by a sounding rocket. I understood that a

sounding rocket is a small rocket used for

atmospheric and other scientific studies.

Later we were taken outside to a compound at

the back of the building we had been inside. We

were taken into a smaller building, which is a

static firing rocket engine facility. Then we went

outside and were shown the inside of a largetube, where the rocket flame were directed at.

Finally, we went into another smaller building,

which is the control room for the rocket firing. In

the control room, we were shown the video of

the firing activity and explained on the procedure

and methodology of the firing.

I had learned that a small rocketplane can carryfew passengers to space using small rocketengines like those being developed by SPL.

In the morning, before we left SPL, my father

and Mr. Amman signed few copies of a

certificate, which I believed was a sign of

friendship and cooperation between SPL and my

father and his friends.

We spent 2 nights at the small hotel across theroad from SPL, and on the third day, we were

transferred by cars driven by Mr. Amman andMr. Bruno to Basel train station. From there, wetook a train to Mulhouse, a small town in France

near Strasbourg.

We stayed at Mulhouse instead of Strasbourg

because we had found a very cheap motel there.

The town is very small and has only a very small

train stop like a bus stop, where only few

selected trains stop.


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The following morning, we travel by train toStrasbourg, and then by taxi to ISU, the

university associated with European Space

Agency where people had come from around the

world to study space management and business.

At ISU, we had presented a poster with the title,

Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight as a Tool toPromote Interest of Space Travel in Developing

Countries.

On the poster, there was an illustration of asuborbital spaceplane and a statement, A

prototype of suborbital spaceplane can be

developed for less than the cost of sending an

astronaut or space tourist to the international

space station (ISS).

At ISU, I saw some exhibits on space travel,

such as some rocket engines, including that of

Ariane launch vehicle, and scaled-models ofsatellites and space probes.

The engine that had belonged to Ariane launch

vehicle was big and bulky, very unlike the

engines I saw at SPL. My father explained that

they are very different, as that of Arianes was

used by a big and heavy launch vehicle for

launching satellites to orbit, while those I had

seen at SPL were replicas of engines designed

for small suborbital spaceplanes.

Now I had learned that a suborbital spaceplane is

a rocketplane, or like an airplane powered by

rocket and it can travel to space. It is cheaper to


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build a prototype of suborbital spaceplane thanto send an astronaut to the ISS.

In the evening, we returned to the motel in

Mulhouse.

The following morning, we traveled by train to

Basel, and went to Museum of Ancient Art and

Ludwig Collection. Basel is unique because the

city has some parts located in Switzerland,France and Germany.We went to the museum and bought somesouvenirs for my sister, who had not been lucky

enough to accompany me in my trip, and who

has special interest in ancient Egypt.

So my father bought quite a number of souvenirs

related to ancient Egypt to my sister, and

explained to me that, even ancient Egypt can has

a place in space tourism, where particularly its

architecture and art can be a theme in the

architecture and art of space tourism.

For example, the control tower at a spaceport

may be suitable to look like an obelisk where thewindows face upwards rather than downwards as

those of the conventional control tower at an

airport, explained further by my father.

Obelisk of the ancient Egypt is the tall squaretower with a pyramid on top of it, and spaceport

is like the airport for spaceplane. I had started to

imagine a giant obelisk functioning as a controltower at a spaceport.

However, I was more interested on the replica ofthe Trojan horse at the side of the museum

building, because unlike my sister, who is

interested in Egyptology, my interest is on

Zoology, and horses always fascinate me.

At noon, we arrived in Luzern by train from

Basel. Luzern is a very beautiful city, with a

river, a lake, beautiful buildings within the city

and snow-covered mountains around the city, aplace where I had really wished to be!To my pleasant, I saw so many white swans in

the river and lake, which was a big plus to me

after the very nice surroundings and snow-covered mountains.

In the early afternoon, Mr. Glenn, my fathers

friend from Skyskan, arrived at the hotel in

Luzern. He had driven all the way from Munich,

Germany, and we had the opportunity of goingaround the city in his car that afternoon.

In the evening, Mr. Glenn took us to a restaurant

at the side of the river near the famous Chapel

Bridge to have our dinner. Curiously I listened to

my fathers conversation with Mr. Glenn on


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I also stopped at and climbed up a real size statueof a horse and sat on its saddle as if I was riding

the horse.

Luzern is a very beautiful city. Other than the

lakes and mountains, the very noticeable and

unique beauty of the city, are roofed wooden

bridges and look-out towers. The city is also

known as City with 7 towers.

One of the bridges, the Chapel Bridge with itswater tower is the most photographed man-made

object in Switzerland.

Besides sight-seeing within the city, I also

bought some presents for my mother and my

brother, who was 4 years old during that time. I

bought a watch for my mum and some toys for

my brother and of course some Swiss chocolatesfor everybody.

On the following early morning, the third day we

were in Luzern and also the last day before we

went home, Mr. Glenn came again to the hotel

with his car, and sent us to the cable car station

to Mt. Pilatus at Kriens. Then we went up Mt.

Pilatus on a cable car.

At the top of Mt. Pilatus, I finally fulfilled mywish of playing with snow. I had thrown snowballs to my father, Mr. Zaim and Mr. Jamal, andenjoyed the panoramic view of the snow-covered

neighboring mountains with satisfaction and

wonder.

I also had lunch at the restaurant at the front of

the hotel on top of Mt. Pilatus. I ate hot rice,

soup and vegetables there.

Watching the city of Luzern and its surroundingsfrom the top of Mt. Pilatus, I remembered what

my father had said earlier about those passengers

onboard suborbital spaceplane watching the Alps

from space. The view must be very beautiful and

impressive.


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My father said, The space tourists onboard

suborbital spaceplanes will want to experience

being in space and look at beautiful and colorful

views of Earth, such as the white snow-covered

mountains with spots of blue lakes surrounded

by green forests or blue oceans with green and

red coral reefs,. My father later added, Or they

want to view famous historical objects from

space like the pyramids in Egypt..

We came down from Mt. Pilatus at noon, and bylate afternoon we left Luzern after I said my

goodbye to the swans. In the evening, we flew

back to Malaysia from Zurich.

I had gone to Switzerland just for the sake of

experiencing it. There are also people who wish

to travel to space just for the sake of

experiencing it. I had been lucky because my

father could afford my trip to the Alps. Manywill also be lucky enough to fulfill their wish of

going to space, because they will be able to

afford it, since there will be commercial

suborbital spaceplanes economic enough to take

them to space as space tourists.

My father explained that the chance of an

ordinary person to go to the ISS as an astronaut

is extremely very slim because the cost is veryexpensive. The opportunity of an ordinaryperson going to space actually is better as a spacetourist or an employee of space tourism industry.

Back home, an astronaut has been visiting

schools around the country telling that students

can wish to become astronauts like him. I am

telling them that their wish can only become true

if there is a vehicle economic enough to carry

them to space as space tourists.

Space tourism is not new to me because for few

years, I have known Prof. Patrick Collins fromSpace Future who is a pioneer and expert inspace tourism and also my fathers friend. I had

been listening to their conversation on space

tourism. However, the trip to the Alps has

provided me with a better understanding of space

tourism and suborbital spaceplane.

I had also learned that the vehicles to carry the

space tourists have to be safe and comfortable

enough like the passenger airplanes. If there will

be such spaceplanes, and I can afford such a trip,maybe I will fly to space too as a space tourist

even though I have no wish of becoming anastronaut since I am more interested in handsome

and beautiful animals like horses and swans.

A couple of months ago, my father went again to

SPL. He brought back a small swan replica from

Bern, looks exactly like one of those swans I had

seen in Luzern. Now I have got a zoological

replica collection from Switzerland comprised of

a small swan replica and 6 small different horsereplicas I had gotten earlier.

~ THE END ~

Aini's Space Tourism Educational Tour in the Alps

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