In 2009, Manhattan Beach, CA-based company Solaren, Inc. signed a contract with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to provide 200 megawatts (MW) of clean, reliable electrical power to customers at a rate comparable with existing power generation facilities.

Most of us, this writer included, have probably never heard of Kerala and have no idea where it is, much less why it would be a subject of interest in space tourism.

There are hundreds of operational satellites in orbit above us…as well as thousands of decommissioned satellites and their detritus, known as space junk. To date, 19,000 of these not-so-heavenly bodies are currently being tracked, but it is estimated that over 600,000 pieces over 1-centimeter wide exist.

Satellite and missile defense manufacturer Orbital Sciences is about slicing off a piece of that space tourism pie: Orbital announced, via Twitter, its second entry into the commercial crew and cargo delivery business with a private space plane called Prometheus.

As anyone who has studied business knows, corporations merge and divide like amoebae in a Petrie dish, often to the point where we cannot even tell who is merging with whom.

As reported here a few days ago, Russia has announced its plans adding another Soyuz craft to its fleet dedicated to and taking two paying passengers along with a professional astronaut pilot as early as 2013.

In a press release dated 9/27/10, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced its plans to allow two space tourists to ride its Soyuz craft along with a professional cosmonaut as pilot. “Such a proposal is under consideration of Roscosmos and the American Space Adventures (company)” said Alexei Krasnov, head of Roscosmos’ manned flights department. “There are also detailed offers which we will study in Washington at a meeting of space agencies’ heads,” he said.

There’s only one way to get from Earth to the International Space Station ( ISS): First, you have to pay about $30 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz. Then, you spend six months learning both Russian and other necessary skills to handle yourself in weightlessness and during possible emergencies. Only then can you join the elite seven civilians who have made the trip to date.

Before he retired from NASA in 2000, Dr. Charles T. Bourland had researched and designed food for astronauts from the Mercury program to the International Space Station (ISS). With all that Dr. Bourland knows about food in space, he could write a book. So he did. It’s “The Astronaut’s Cookbook: Tales, Recipes, and More.”

In Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, food comes just below water, a little above shelter and sex. In the hierarchy of curiosity about what really goes on in space, food comes in right after how they use the toilet. In other words...really important.