To The Moon and Back

Written by Aus aboard a flight from Xian to Shanghai

For us, and likely for most readers, the events chronicled in this entry are likely to be the most unbelievable of our entire journey.  Every once in a while a crazy and amazing opportunity presents itself, and when it does sometimes you have to just dive in no matter how much of a challenge it presents.  In our case, it was certainly a test of both of our physical and mental capabilities, and it has also stretched our budget as thin as Nicole Richie.  However, despite being way beyond our affordability, we cannot say that we regret it, as it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will never forget.  What could I be talking about you ask?  I will tell you, but first I need to prep you on some of our impressions of modern China, which were also shocking to us. 

China is a weird and wonderful place, and it is full of grand contrasts. You have much of the country geographically spread out in the rural lands, but you have a bulk of the population concentrated in these mega-modern cities.  In this entry, I will focus on the modern, which China does just as well as any place in the world.  Our first impression of Beijing was of a modern megalopolis that looked like something out of a futuristic movie.  Our trip here thus far has seen a little bit of both the old and the new China, but I have to say that at this point I think the new is more impressive.  The Chinese people are just so amazing, and they are doing things that are absolutely insane.  While its true that this is not one of the more environmentally friendly places on Earth, they are leading the way in technological advancements of other kinds, such as being able to manufacture cars for less than $1000 USD.  Their manufacturing processes are just so efficient, and so low-cost, that I cannot see any end to their economic stampede towards supremacy of nations.  And manufacturing of course is not the only thing that they can do cheaper than anywhere else in the world, as some of the economic realities of private industry elsewhere in the world do not exist here due to state-run companies that are either subsidized or operated on a different set of incentives - most notably fuel, which for state-sponsored activities or processes, is almost free of cost.  It's all very crazy, and they kind of like showing their economic and technological prowess on the world stage.  That is why since they started their space program and successfully started landing men on the moon in 2006, they have been building up the program and have begun landing space tourists on the moon since late 2009.  Well you are probably now getting the idea of why this entry outdoes all the rest- we did indeed participate in one of these trips, and Kim and I can now say that not only have we travelled around the world within earth's atmosphere, we have also had the privilege of seeing earth from space, and re-entering the planet after a touchdown on the moon.  Crazy!

I never thought I would see the day, as I thought the cost of such trips was beyond the reach of normal people, reserved only for billionaires.  Well not in China anyway, space tourism for the common man is alive and well.  Perhaps not everyone can afford it, as it pretty much cost the same as the rest of all our other destinations combined, but I'd have to say it was worth it, as you cant put a price on an unbelievable experience like that.  Anyhow, I should come down from my space high and finish the story.

It was not all that much of a process really considering all that was involved.  It was a 1-day course and some simulators etc followed the next day by the space flight and moon landing.  Unfortunately my parents did not pass a health screening, so they could not join us, but they were fine with that as they were more apprehensive about the whole trusting your life to Chinese astronauts and equipment.  We did the training at a little complex a few hours south of Beijing near the coast.  It was a nice little place and they treat you really well considering it is like a quasi military facility.  The training was luckily delivered in English, and we were joined by a Russian couple who were some kind of big shots, as he was apparently a Vodka baron by the name of Prince Igor.  They were weird, but luckily did not interfere with us too much.  The training was all relatively simple, essentially preparing you for the things you would be experiencing in-flight.  We did G-force simulations, learned some breathing techniques and of course the fire test, where we were put in flame retardant suits and exposed to flames of the temperature we would experience upon re-entry. We also ran through a few scenarios we may encounter and were tested on our reactions. Needless to say, after a day doing those types of things, we were exhausted.  We got quite an early night and had a bit of trouble sleeping as we anticipated our first space flight the next day.  Some photos of our training…

The training center…..

G-Force simulator…

Kim doing one of the scenario simulators….

We woke early the next day and were set for launch shortly after sunrise.  We got all geared up in our suits and boarded the shuttlecraft, EK-1, which ironically was sporting advertisements for Gatorade on its exterior.  Yes, there is even advertising in space!  We all got strapped in and Kim and I were lucky and got to sit right behind the shuttle's crew and we got to see them work their magic with their instruments.
Some photos of our final preparations and suits….

Going over the flight path..

Ladies and gentlemen, this space shuttle is ready for boarding!

Kim was a little nervous, but obviously excited, and hoping her faith in China is not misguided…

After what seemed like forever running loads of tests, we were finally told to brace for launch.  T minus 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - liftoff!  Before we knew it we were accelerating vertically away from earth at amazing speeds, we could see the great wall in the rear view camera as we ascended.  It was scary as hell, and it was a very turbulent ride, so Kim was having trouble not squeezing the guts out of my hand.  The scenery was gorgeous though, and you could see the line of the sun's daylight move across the earth as time went on.  The process for leaving earth's orbit and entering the moon's is a bit weird, and it is an imperfect science, so we had a few circles of earth before we successfully caught the moon's orbit.  Once we did that it gets more difficult, as we had to break away in capsules to get to the moon's surface.  They were like little Tie Fighters from Star Wars, it was crazy.  I actually believe mine could have fired laser beams, but perhaps that was just my imagination. 

When we got close to touching down, the capsules spit out these little legs and do pretty much as you would imagine in the movies, complete with all the hydraulic noises and everything, and we were set free from the capsules for a 30 minute stroll on the surface before heading back to the shuttle.  We had to attach these annoyingly heavy weight sets like a ball and chain to our legs, to prevent floating away due to the lower force of gravity up there.  The first thing I noticed after walking around was that the moon's surface is much different than I had imagined.  It is not that soft spongy stuff like you see in the pictures where you leave a big bootprint.  Where we were at least, the surface was very cold and hard, too frozen to make a footprint in.  They are hoping to build a little cafeteria there for guests to enjoy a picnic, but at the moment they are still in construction, so we had to wait until we were back on the shuttle to have our space lunch. 

The trip back in the space pods to the shuttle was cool, but the best part of the day was definitely the acceleration towards re-entry.  After an amazingly delicious lunch and some fine champagne served in sippy cups due to the weightlessness, we were headed back towards earth for Chinese sunset. It was really cool.  The shuttle was so powerful, we were going at speeds that are unfathomable for any craft within earth's atmosphere, but in space it just feels like sitting behind the wheel of a decent sports car.  The re-entry was the most exciting, but also the most scary.   It really does get hot in those suits, and upon re-entry you feel literally like you are melting, but we had experienced all of it in the training so we knew what we were in for.  It seemed like we were crashing towards the earth with no hope of survival, but of course they do this every day, so it was no sweat for our pilots, who actually made what should be a bumpy landing very smooth.  I think it is due to the climate control and wind localization system they have surrounding the landing strip, which works remarkably similarly ,to what the space movies would call a 'tractor beam'.

After touching down we were greeted by my parents who have never seemed so relieved to see us in their lives.  It was crazy, we couldn't believe we'd been to the moon and back in just one day.  The marvels of technology!  We had a great meal with the pilots and the Russians and we all celebrated together.  We were given certificates made out of old space junk to take home as souvenirs. 

We had such a great experience it was so magical.  We could not wait to share it with everyone.  The only trouble we did not anticipate was the blocking of several internet websites by the Chinese government, including Google, which hosts this blog---so it took some doing to assure it got posted.  We should have time to update after our time in China is over. 

Hope you enjoyed,

The Knotty Travellers