A recent survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by market researchers OnePoll revealed some amazing findings when it comes to travel. Eleven percent of the respondents said they have never traveled outside the state they were born in. Over 50% said they had been to 10 states or less, and 13% said they had never flown in an airplane. Contrast that with a man named. Richard Garriott.
Mr. Garriott is an explorer of the highest order. He is the only person on Earth in the Explorer’s Quadfecta club. To earn that status, Garriott traveled to the North and South Poles, the Mariana Trench, and orbital space. He is so adventurous that he bought a ticket aboard Russia’s Soyuz TMA 13 mission to the International Space Station.
He can afford to do this because he made a fortune in the computer-game industry. Here’s what he told Robb Report about his space travel. “The unique part of orbital space is the fact that you are 250 miles above the surface of the Earth, orbiting at 17,000 miles an hour, with an astounding view out the window. The zero gravity is frankly just a bonus. It’s giddy fun to be forever floating in microgravity.”
Here’s one more cool thing about Garriott that makes him unique; he is the first and only private owner of an object on the moon’s surface. He bought a Soviet lunar rover at an auction for $68,500.
“I buy a lot of things at auction,” he said in a Robb Report interview. “Medieval armor, scientific instruments. But to become the world’s only private owner of an object on a foreign celestial body—that has an innately high story value. Plus, it begins to set legal and historical precedence. To this day, I think it was money well spent.”
Garriott witnessed the adventurous spirit growing up as the son of a NASA astronaut, and he has one more big item to check off his bucket list; he wants to live long enough to travel to Mars.
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