Slashdot Mirror
Space Race 2.0 has Begun
An anonymous reader writes "MSNBC has a story about a second company starting up to compete with Virgin Galactic. Both are planning on operating passenger sub-orbital flights. Will this new Space Race usher in more new technologies into our daily lives, like the previous one? Will the competition to go higher/faster lead to orbital tourism?" From the article: "The company that helped put three millionaires into orbit has teamed up with Russia's Federal Space Agency and the financial backers of the $10 million Ansari X Prize to develop a new breed of suborbital passenger spaceship. Thursday's announcement by Virginia-based Space Adventures herald the entry of new international players in the commercial space race -- a race that is expected to enter a critical phase in the next year or two."
It's really about time that a suborbital travel in space becomes "engineering challenge" rather than "explorations".
It's never easy; but it should no longer be impossible for a private entity to venture into a suborbital flight business.
Why would a civilian go to space?
The ultimate thrill ride?
Certainly not for "tourist" reasons, there's nothing to tour up there.
Kubrick's wheel is not up there and the ISS doesn't have the room or time
to put up with camera wielding geeks.
There's no moon motels or other stop overs up there.
There's just simply no where to go except up, around and back down.
And how long will these "tourists" stay strapped in a chair for their $250,000 ride? 20 minutes? 1 hour? 3 days? Really now.. Think about it.
What's it take to orbit the earth, 90 minutes I think, CMIIW. So maybe you get
to make one orbit and back home. All for a cool quarter mil. Nice..
Will you be allowed to take your own photos or will you be required to leave your
cameras on earth and buy your photos from the gift shop at the launch/landing site?
And lastly, who will plot the course of these ships, through the millions of tons of space debris? NASA? I think NORAD keeps track of ALL space debris and coordinates data with NASA to plot flight paths.
Is NORAD going to allow these private enterprises access to this same data or are they going to "use the force Luke" to navigate the debris fields??
Man, this whole thing about space tourism is just silly. We're a good 50-100 years from any realistic scenario, if at all. Until Kubrick's wheel goes up and until we have civilian Moon motels and civilian Mars motels up there, there's just no good reason for civilians to be in space.
I'll just save my money and stay on the ground, where I belong, thanks very much.
And BTW, I'm a strong supporter of NASA and science and space exploration.
I believe it in 101% all the way. But this civilian stuff is just silly.
After a few civilians get killed this half baked idea will go away very quickly.
You would think that common sense would rule here, what after seeing two shuttles blow up and how many Russians killed in their own problems.
Space travel is extremely dangerous. It's best left to the experts.
We still have a very long way to go before it's perfected.