The funny thing about the body is that sometimes we just can’t control what it does. That could be a problem for consumers who score a ticket on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space vehicles, where three bodily functions are being banned.
Space.com reports that passengers on New Shepard are being asked not to pee, poop, or vomit while in the rocket.
While it makes sense that you wouldn’t want the odors associated with these functions to waft around inside a small metal tube, the ability to “hold it in” might be difficult. That’s because, you know, you’re being hurtled into space at thousands of miles per hour, an element of space travel that might churn the stomach of even the most seasoned traveler.
Still, Bezos told the crowd at the 33rd annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs earlier this month that passengers should “go to the bathroom in advance.”
A trip in New Shepard only lasts about 40 minutes from boarding to returning to the ground. In all, the time traveling takes just 11 minutes. During that time, six passengers will travel about 62 miles above the surface of Earth, Space.com reports.
Once in space, the passengers will be able to unbuckle from their seats to enjoy about four minutes of weightlessness. This, of course, could make passengers sick.
But Bezos doesn’t think that will be the case, noting at the conference that vomiting because of weightlessness doesn’t usually occur for several hours into a trip.
“[People] don’t throw up right away,” he said. “We’re not going to worry about it. … It’s a delayed effect, and this journey takes 10 or 11 minutes. So you’re going to be fine.”
Regardless of your ability to hold off on any bodily functions while being shot into space, those thinking of buying a ticket for a ride will continue to wait.
Bezos said at the conference that Blue Origin would only begin tourist trips in New Shepard when the time is right.
But then it is ready, you’d better have deep pockets: The cost for Blue Origin trips hasn’t been revealed, but Space.com notes that tickets for Virgin Galactics’ suborbital space trip costs between $200,000 to $250,000.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist