Scientists get tickets to ride with space tourists http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20181-scientists-get-tickets-to-ride-with-space-tourists.html Space tourism poised to blast off http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41719664/ns/travel-destination_travel/ Oz firms develop first beer that can be consumer in space http://www.sify.com/news/oz-firms-develop-first-beer-that-can-be-consumed-in-space-news-international-ldbnEpdabje.html Virgin Galactic http://www.virgingalactic.com/ From the Earth to the Moon; and Round the Moon by Jules Verne http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/83 Space tourism might have seemed like sheer folly a few decades ago, but it may finally become a reality, albeit for a select wealthy few. Sir Richard Branson, the renegade billionaire, is making this possible via his Virgin Galactic corporation, and there are several other companies involved in similar efforts. An interesting wrinkle is that scientists from NASA and other organizations may be involved as well. These short rides into outer space will cost around $200,000, an expensive ride for most individuals, but this would be far less than the average cost to get an astronaut into space courtesy of NASA. Essentially, this might allow scientists to take more experiments into space at a lower cost, and much more frequently. Experiments that have been tentatively planned include one that looks at how soil and rocks resembling those that cover asteroids behave and another one that looks at the effectiveness of a biomedical harness to measure heartbeat and blood pressure. The first link will take visitors to a New York Times article from this Monday about the world of space tourism. The second link will lead interested parties to a news article from New Scientist about the Southwest Research Institute, which is one of the groups that has already purchased flights into outer space. Moving along, the third link will lead an article by Rob Lovitt that includes a video interview with Sir Richard Branson about the Virgin Spaceship. The fourth link whisks users away to a piece which explores the new beer suitable for consumption in outer space created by the Four Pines Brewing Company and Saber Astronautics in Australia. The fifth link leads to the Virgin Galactic website, where visitors can learn more about the company and their future space flights. Finally, the last link leads to one of the classic early tales of (speculative) space exploration by Jules Verne.