“Everywhere where humans are I think there should be a library,” is what Charles Simonyi told a Moscow news agency before he became the world’s fifth space tourist.
Simonyi, a billionaire who has already changed the world once by bringing Microsoft Word and Excel into our lives, packed two books to add to the Space Station Library.
The books:
Goethe’s “Faust” which he declares “is a part of our literary heritage. It belongs to all of humanity and it deals with man’s relationship with the universe and man’s relationship to science”
and “the moon is a harsh mistress” by Robert Heinlein that Simonyi says “describes a particular future where humanity gets outside the earth and it deals more with the politics of the situation than the particular (technology) involved”
When asked why he was bring hard copiers of the books “in a age when nearly all things are virtually and weightlessly available” Simonyi replied that it was much more practical especially since you need special permission to use the computers inside the International Space Station and “I’m exercising my freedom as a spaceflight participant where I can choose my payload.”
Among his many philanthropic activities Simonyi is a strong supporter of the Seattle Public Library.
Blog entry from last October when the trip was announced on the space blog of the New Scientist: A little light(weight) reading
BBC article ‘Nerd’ outlines space ambitions
India Edition of ZEENews.com article: Next space tourist dreams of library