Lord British To Officiate Zero-G Wedding
Richard Garriott, son of an astronaut and science fiction/fantasy video game icon, will join two self-proclaimed sci-fi addicts in holy matrimony 36,000 feet in the air.
The New York couple Noah Fulmore, 31, and Erin Finnegan, 30, are paying a small fortune to throw their wedding on a Zero G Corporation flight. Zero G is the only federally-approved tourist flight service that simulates spaceflight by flying in parabolic arcs between 36,000 and 24,000 feet. (That’s flying them up and then dropping them and then going back up to do it all again). Zero G charges $US5,200 a person per flight.
Daily News reports that the couple is the first to exchange wedding vows in freefall.
The pair met at an NYU science fiction club in 2000 and began dating in 2002. They went to so many “conventional” weddings they decided to do something out of this world.
“Since this is the one time in our lives that we were going to do this [get married], we thought we should make it a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Fulmore said.
“My mum thinks I’m absolutely nuts.”
The wedding is set for later this month. I hope nobody gets cold feet. I guess you don’t need your feet in zero-g, but still…
So in love they could float away [Daily News]
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Now I have Zero-G Love from the original Macross stuck in my head. Thanks, Lord British. :P
Sythlia
You may now kiss the bride- *puke barf hurl*
@feathers4sale: With much difficulty. MUCH difficulty.
@feathers4sale: And before you ask, number 2 is handled by a special toilet. There are swiveling bars that you put in place on top of your legs to keep you from floating away, and a fan provides air suction which draws everything downward into waste storage.
I remember a story (told to me by a NASA engineer, but nonetheless possibly apocryphal) that on one shuttle flight the fan was installed backwards, and the first person to use it was a Mission Specialist on his first flight, who thought he had flipped the wrong switch and done something horribly wrong. Anyway, the very same Astronaut had to make an EVA to get at the mechanism and fix it.
spoonboy42
@Hypernetic: Actually No! Apollo 13 took around 550 of those flights, and they filmed all of the space scenes in about two weeks! I know this 'cause a friend of mine was part of the film crew.
@JonathanStrange: You mean besides all those others that came a decade before?
All Garriott really ever did was make the Ultima games. Not to downplay the popularity and influence of those games or anything, but he isn't this renaissance man you make him out to be. Yes, he coined the term MMORPG. Ultima Online wasn't really the first MMO though, it just popularized them according to most people.
Hypernetic
I know these people. They do the Ninja Consultant podcast. Let me tell you, it is very strange to see people you know in the "real" news.
[ninjaconsultant.livejournal.com]
@Fluorine:
lol.. Ziploc is owned by DOW chemical and Glad is one of Ziploc brand's biggest competitors. Oh well, nice try though.
Hypernetic
@TaylorEatWorld (Douche Chillll):
It's recycled into drinking water not oxygen. And yeah, they have special containers.
Your piss still comes out at relatively the same speed in zero g. It would just go in a straight line instead of arcing towards the ground. So just aim and shoot soldier!
Hypernetic
@arniejolt:
Too bad it's not in space. It's in an airplane at 36,000 feet, which is not very high. In comparison, the International Space Station, which orbits in lower Earth orbit, is between 200 and 240 MILES from the surface. Big difference there buddy.
They use a specially outfitted plane, which if you read the article you'd know about, and fly in parabolic arcs. They cut altitude by 12 thousand feet rapidly which simulates a zero g environment for a few seconds. Then they do it again. Filming Apollo 13 took thousands upon thousands of these drops to film. Or did you think that was really in space too?
Hypernetic
I want a wedding in Zero-G... Damn youu!!
@Spiderbait:
There is this crazy new invention called a pin. Also, a hair clip.
P.S. It's not really zero-g, it's simulated. The force pushing up on you while the plane descends is equal to the force of gravity, so it simulates a zero-g environment for a few seconds.
Hypernetic
@arniejolt:
Priest? Who needs a priest. He's Lord &*^&ing british
Well he probably can't sign off on a marriage license, and I doubt he's been ordained so he's probably just a figurehead.
Why doesn't he go make a game instead. The last game he made was a complete disaster (Tabula Rasa), itself plummeting to earth at terminal velocity not long ago.
Also, I'm gonna laugh when they all puke all over each other during the wedding. Who the eff gets married in a vomit comet. Hell, who the eff gets married at all, that's stupid in itself.
Hypernetic
@JonathanStrange: Meant to type *among* the very first publisher/developers in gaming.
Regardless, one of the first. Plus he's got a crazy cool mansion full of trap doors and hidden passage AND he's a magician AND an Astronaut. Magical Astronaut that lives in a crazed haunted mansion? Awesome.
JonathanStrange
@uchennaokafor: Richard Garriott pretty much pioneered the entire rpg genre as we know it today, both wrpg's and jrpg's in a roundabout sort of way. He was the very first game publisher/developer and he was also the father of the MMO genre as well as a couple other neat things.
Yeah, he's kinda a big deal. Although truth be told he hasn't really done anything amazing *since* then, but there's always the hope he's still got a genre or brilliant idea left floating around that'll once again revolutionize gaming as we know it. Unlikely, but possible. Plus I figure he's still got some residual respect left over from being one of the pioneers of gaming.
JonathanStrange
Can't wait to see the bride try to run away in zero-g.
And how the hell will the dress and hair stay and not floating around.
Spiderbait
Lets hope there marraige last longer than Tabula Rasa.
mondog
Lord British? What, is he going to talk of the dangers of hatred, falsehood, and cowardice, and then invoke some relics from empath abbey?
jedbeetle
@feathers4sale: Ziploc(TM) bags. Glad and their subsidiary 'Ziplok' have a 50% stake in all space travel, and a monopoly on all space-bourne plastics and containers.
You want space? You gotta get by the man in the white suit.
@feathers4sale: The only time the toilet seat is not an issue.
PsycheE
I suppose you don't need to be a priest to perform wedding ceremonies in space
arniejolt
"My mom thinks I'm absolutely nuts."
Yes you are, getting married and all that
stalin23
Does it cost $27million?
optimusprym8
@okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under): Okay, what exactly did this guy do that I always read about his forays in space on gamer blogs?
@Krytha: Whoops. Make that after NCSoft... where my edit button..
Krytha
@Maleficent Lovecraft: Well, only after suing NCSoft...
Krytha
Garriott: I have more money than anyone.
People: let us give you more for superfluous things!
Garriott: I see your money and raise you a zero-g divorce.
Man, out of context "He didn't come...." sounds really bad in my mind...
I can feel a scowl come across my face anytime I see a picture of him. Why is that? Oh yeah, and when I hear him talk and when I used to see his rat tail in pictures. I guess I don't like him ><
@feathers4sale: Very carefully.
Oh God, the tag!!
+ Watch video
MAWWAGE
@feathers4sale: Check out gizmodo's space week...
sorry too hungry to link...lunch..i.need.food.
@feathers4sale: You piss in a tube, at least in the old times.
I think the Space Station re-uses the urine to make oxygen, or something. I'm not quite sure.
@feathers4sale: Diaper?
Steve Koehl
I've always wondered, how do you take a piss in zero-G?
feathers4sale
He's a Zero-G junky.... anything to get to zero-g, ANYTHING!
@Apreche: Oh hey Scott. Yeah, same here. I knew they were getting hitched and I knew it was unusual, but I hadn't been paying attention to Twitter enough to know this was how they were doing it. Holey carp.
@spoonboy42: So basically, he became the coolest plumber ever.
1Grand_Marquis