Author Topic: What should we call people who pay to fly to space  (Read 40010 times)

Offline Pueo

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What should we call people who pay to fly to space, or those who fly to space outside the auspices of a national space agency?  While this topic has come up several times in relation to Roscosmos and Space Adventures, New Shepard, Virgin Galactic, dearMoon, and the Inspiration4 it doesn't appear to have its own thread.
Some suggestion from previous discussions:

astronaut
space tourist
crew
spaceflight participant
space traveler

What do you think, and why?
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Online KilroySmith

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #1 on: 05/13/2021 02:07 am »
Initially they'll call themselves "Astronauts", because it's cool.  Eventually, they'll simply be called "passengers" as people who pay to get on a cruise ship or get in an airplane get called. 

The Astronaut term will get abandoned; much as "aeronaut" was.  Eventually, we'll have scientists who work in space, and crew who man the space ships (like pilots and flight attendants on airplanes), and other pedestrian terms for the various other jobs that occur.  But the paying passengers will be called, passengers. 

Offline Asteroza

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #2 on: 05/13/2021 02:12 am »
Customers, same as in town...

Offline shark0302

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #3 on: 05/13/2021 02:19 am »
Space chumps, astrochump

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Offline chopsticks

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #4 on: 05/13/2021 02:20 am »
What do you call someone who flies on an airplane? (Not the pilot) Or the person sitting next to you on a train?

Offline joek

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #5 on: 05/13/2021 02:23 am »
What should we call people who pay to fly to space ...

FAA has specific designations; see Human Spaceflight, FAA; and specifically 14 CFR Parts 401, 415, 431, 435, 440 and 460 Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants; Final Rule, Dec-2016. Whether you agree with those designations is another matter. Feel free to knock yourself out coming up with other names.

Offline fraser

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #6 on: 05/13/2021 02:24 am »
Yep - passengers
Say goodbye to the dark ages of space flight - we’re on our way again!

Offline JMS

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #7 on: 05/13/2021 02:38 am »
What do you call someone who flies on an airplane? (Not the pilot) Or the person sitting next to you on a train?
These folks are/will be flying on rockets. Not 757's or Amtrack.
There is a clear difference.

Offline panjabi

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #8 on: 05/13/2021 02:41 am »
Paxo-Nauts!  They are passenger astronauts!  Both parties win.

Now if you want to get lexical..

Astro means "stars" in Greek and "naut" means "Sailor".  It may be implied that the Sailor is the one sailing the ship

"Perii̱gi̱tí̱s" means tourist in Greek
"Taxidef̱tí̱s" means traveler in Greek

So....  AstroPeri or AstroTaxi  for a Star Tourist or a Star Traveler

AstroTaxi has a nice ring.... After all, these new generation vehicles are like Space Taxis!
« Last Edit: 05/13/2021 02:43 am by panjabi »

Offline JMS

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #9 on: 05/13/2021 02:52 am »
They will be referred to as astronauts.
No matter what the debate in these threads decide upon.
Mark my prediction.

Offline schaban

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #10 on: 05/13/2021 03:48 am »
Cargonauts?

Online goretexguy

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #11 on: 05/13/2021 04:01 am »
Tourists.
Adventurers.
Lucky bast***s.

Edit: in seriousness, they'll probably have a term consistent with their purpose. Some will be real trained astronauts or cosmonauts. Others will be scientists or 'mission specialists.'

 The first thousand or so will call themselves astronauts and probably even get a certificate, kinda like Concorde passengers got a special faster than sound certificate after a flight. Over time, they'll become tourists,  pioneers and settlers.
« Last Edit: 05/13/2021 04:05 am by goretexguy »

Online sdsds

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #12 on: 05/13/2021 05:23 am »
It's likely none among us is a theoretical lexicographer by profession.

That said, I'm interested in what we're going to call people who once went into space, having paid for the privilege.

It's likely to change over time. Initially I think we'll call them "rich."
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Offline daedalus1

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #13 on: 05/13/2021 06:21 am »
Everyone by whatever means who travel on the earth are 'earth tourists', but seeing that everyone does that it is pointless using the word 'earth', so just 'tourist' suffices. People who travel to space logically should then be known as space tourists, keeping the distinguishing word 'space'.

Offline Svetoslav

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #14 on: 05/13/2021 06:36 am »
touristonauts

Offline hoku

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #15 on: 05/13/2021 09:12 am »
Floaters for those on a suborbital ride, since they could briefly float in zero-g
Leviators for those completing at least one orbit, as they could levitate in zero-g for an extended period
 8)

P.S.: We need a tiered naming scheme, so that folks can strive to unlock various achievement levels: Librator for having visited one of the Lagrangian points, Gator for having been at the Gateway, Lunator, .... ;-)

edit: Levitator -> Leviator (easier to pronounce, sounds cooler, closer to Aviator) + addendum
« Last Edit: 05/13/2021 10:08 am by hoku »

Offline rlhamil

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #16 on: 05/13/2021 10:03 am »
Tourists if they're useless and need babysitting.

Astronauts if they have the basic training to the point that they don't need babysitting and aren't useless, esp. if they help with what they are able to do that doesn't require more advanced training. There's always room for help keeping track of things, cleaning, etc, a test subject for human in space experiments, etc. :) Not every professional astronaut is a pilot, although they'll probably have some kind of useful science background otherwise. In the Shuttle days, the level of training I'm thinking of, aside from expertise with a specific payload, applied to "payload specialists".

If their presence contributes more than they're paying for the training, ride and board (not counting publicity), they're entitled to a little credit, IMO.

Online sdsds

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #17 on: 05/13/2021 10:12 am »
Now that I've found the thread from which this one was spun out, I have another thought to share.

The amazingly brave people who earned the title "astronaut" the hard way were "test pilots." They had the appearance of being calm when under extreme pressure. Armstrong is of course the ultimate example. Preface that phrase with whatever is appropriate: "orbital test pilot," "sub-orbital test pilot," "rocket test pilot," etc.

For Armstrong, his skip reentry flight (before anyone knew skip reentry was a possibility) certainly holds up compared with landing Eagle on the Moon. But then again so too does his abort from 60 meters altitude in the LLTV. That was epic stuff!
« Last Edit: 05/13/2021 10:13 am by sdsds »
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Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #18 on: 05/13/2021 10:36 am »
Citizen Explorers.
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Offline kevinof

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Re: What should we call people who pay to fly to space
« Reply #19 on: 05/13/2021 10:58 am »
Lucky
« Last Edit: 05/13/2021 10:59 am by kevinof »

 

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