In the 50 years since Apollo 11 landed on the moon, mankind has made unbelievable progress in space exploration. But what is the next big step in human spaceflight, and will “space tourism” soon become an actual reality? These are the questions that are yet to be deliberated upon.
Today, unmanned spacecraft will explore space well beyond our solar system, communicating with Earth more than 11 billion miles away. We have also developed technology that allows humans to survive in space for longer periods of time. Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the record for the longest single space stay in human history. This is his astounding record of 437 days on the space station MIR.
The space race started in the 20th century. When the Soviet Union USSR and the United States started the cold war, which ended in the never ending space race between the two. The main goal of both countries was to dominate the space flight technologies. All of this began on 2 August 1955, when USSR responded to United States under announcement launch artificial satellite which were to be sent to space.
Space is the result of the nuclear arms race between the two nations followed by the World War II. United States as well as USSR were accompanied by German missile technology, and a few scientists from their missile program. These technological advancements were required by the nations in order to get security and political superiority. This space is started a groundbreaking effort by many nations to launch artificial satellites.
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Space Race
Although there are many countries and companies we have tried to take part in space race in space tourism only three have made an impact:
SpaceX:
SpaceX is a famous company, which is owned by Elon Musk, who is the current CEO of Tesla. He created SpaceX with a goal to reduce space transportation cost in expanding human reach within solar system. His main idea was to develop a system and technology through which human beings did travel to space and enjoy as they do it on Earth.
SpaceX Company has word with the word well-known company related to space technology, NASA. Due to this collaboration SpaceX Company have been well known among many people.
Elon Musk is of the view that 1000 starships can we build over the span of 10 years. The whole procedure should be done in order to explore Mars called the sister planet of earth.
The main mission of SpaceX Company is to take crew and spaceships to Mars by the year, 2050.
The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos It’s also spending on space technology in order to establish space-based properties for himself. As SpaceX Company’s goal is to explore other planets, particularly Mars, Jeff Bezos wants to create a hotel in space.
Blue Origin:
Blue origin is the name of his company who has also collaborated with NASA, but basics has been more popularity and won the bid instead of blue origin.
Nonetheless, lower region has continued its work in space technology in space tourism. However, blue origin and Sierra space has robbed to launch orbital reef, which would be their own space station by the late 2020s.
They are planning to build this commercially developed, owned and operated space station in the lower, a bit of the Earth. The space station will be created with the main goal of creating a human habitat in space so that people can live in space. This space station is expected to be operational in the second half of this decade.
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Virgin Galactic:
Furthermore, there is another company called Virgin Galactic, which is the first ever company to openly offer space trips to civilians. However, these commercial flight displays has been postponed during the recent times due to various factors including manufacturing defects in the technology. Before 2021 is known to be the year of mini private companies, launching civilians along with properly trained astronauts into space.
Almost 16 people have made the journey so far. Four people went with SpaceX, four of them went with virgin galactic and 8 went with blue origin.
With the evolution of the tourism, the number of people in the space life will grow. Suborbital and orbital flights will allow the people to lunar excursions and will help them to trip to Mars. Therefore, with the passage of time based tourism might become a full fledge and fully functional industry, making it capable of truly expanding the frontier of space to people of the Earth.
Harmful consequences of space tourism
Some people are worried about the space technology because they believe that it can cause severe environmental damages. Many experts claim that launching rockets into the space could damage the ozone layer of the Earth, which can cause severe and lethal consequences for human beings living on Earth. Furthermore, there are certain harmful chemicals in the fuels of rocket and rocket films which can get trapped in the atmosphere of the Earth, causing harmful diseases to human beings.
Till date this problem has not been a big issue due to the fact that there are only limited space ships that are launched into the space. However, with the passage of time, ender increment of spaceships, tourism and space travel, there would be an increasing number of spaceships launching into the space causing bigger contribution to climate change.
Furthermore, space tourism is going to be a luxury which will be afforded only by a few people who are opulent. Private companies and billionaires would be the only people who would get benefit from this space tour.
One good thing we can come as a result of is the development of the steel observation systems which can lead to the preparation of technologies for interplanetary travel. With all of this design cylinders into a new era of the third making space science, more accessible and easier.
Furthermore, many advancements in technology on Earth are directly related to the innovation and observations that we started in space. With the initiation of the two moon, human beings, got the idea of four mattresses, bullet-proof vests and running shoes.
Fun facts about space race:
- The first animal sent into the space was fruit fly. They were sent into space after World War II on V2 rocket on 20th February 1947.
- After fruit flies, Soviet Union sent dogs into space. The first dog which was sent to space was Laika. Dogs were seem to be more obedient and dogs of Moscow were able to deal with extreme conditions really well, and also were able to cope up with potential hunger of travelling to space.
- The first solar powered flight, which was sent into space was US Navy Vanguard 1. It was launched on 17 March 1958. It is known to be as one of the oldest man made satellite in orbit. However, communication with the sidelight is no longer viable, it will still remain in space for many years to come.
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One of the ultimate goals of space tourism is to form and establish colonies on the Moon or Mars for carrying out research work or as a kind of back-up plan in case the Earth burns down or become inexistent. Much of this research and preparation needs to be done by space scientists and astronauts, but it is true that more of the common people needs to be able to visit space to get this done. Therefore, space tourism can be a good starting point to provide with opportunities to start the never ending voyage to space.
