Space Tourism
With all of these rockets and shuttles being sent up to space, man has never been so intrigued by space tourism than ever before. From Elon Musk sending his Tesla Roadster to Sir Richard Branson wanting to sell his space vision, I believe that we are getting closer to making it to a reality. According to Sam Blum's The Space Tourism Timeline, Blum says that space tourism during the 1960s was "viewed as an industry that would one day balloon. Defunct U.S. airliner Pan-Am maintained a waiting list to the moon, while futurists forecasted lunar colonies would be established by the year 2000" (Blum, 2015). The U.S. had to get to work by not only being able to send a rocket to space, but also being able to safely send a person in space. In 1984 a man named Charles D. Walker became the first astronaut to travel to space that was not employed by the government. Charles was working for the company called McDonnell Douglass as a manufacturer and as a contractor which the company didn't have any plans of sending anyone into space. After his journey, Blum said that "space might possibly be an object of desire for the billionaire class in the coming decades" (Blum, 2015). Unfortunately, the United States wasn't so lucky with their other attempts of sending people to space. The space shuttle called the Challenger was set to take off in 1986 but exploded after takeoff killing everyone on board. After this accident NASA ended up cancelling the rest of their participant programs. As years passed, a couple of entrepreneurs wanted to expand the idea of traveling into space called Space Adventures. This company was founded in 1998 and according to Sam Blum "the only company to ever send private citizens beyond the stratosphere" (Blum, 2015). The company itself has spent about 3 months in space and traveled over 36 million miles. The company will also send its customers to the International Space Station for vacation. In 2002 is where Elon Musks interest in space took place and created the Space Exploration Technologies or simply called SpaceX. His main goal was not only to send a person up into space but also to enable humans to build a self-sustaining city on Mars. Mr. Musk was not the only person on the same mission as he was. Sir Richard Branson who is the CEO of Virgin Group also wanted to make his mark on space. The difference about Branson is that he wants to send the common man so everyone can experience his vision of space and not limit it to a certain class of people. His main goal is to take people on trips that is 50,000 feet up in the air and travel up to 50 nautical miles. He hasn't had the same success as Musk but writer Calla Cofield from Space.com says that Virgin Galactics CEO Mike Moses says " He won't be able to fly in 6 months" (Cofield, 2017).
Their are rules and regulations that currently govern the commercial space industry. Pilots must have a valid pilots certificate and must be able to show how to operate said aircraft. Passengers must be able to respond to any emergencies that arise but all crew members must have a valid medical certificate. These rules were made to maintain safety of the public not involved and also made sure that the passengers weren't compromising their own safety as well. In my opinion, I believe that these rules are sufficient because as long as the pilots and passengers are briefed on how to fly the aircraft and what to do in emergency operations, then the flight should go according to plan.
With space tourism I believe that we are getting really close but not yet ready for actual space travel. With everyone sending their test rockets and ships up into space we are still ways off from sending a live person up to the atmosphere. We still don't have a true ship that can maintain its shape from coming from orbit and landing safely. Take Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo crash back in 2014. According to Nicky Woolf and Amanda Holpuch "The plane, SpaceShipTwo, was undertaking a test flight under Sir Richard Branson's plans for commercial space travel when a "serious anomaly" occurred" (Woolf, Holpuch 2014). What they think it was was that the fuel mixture on board wasn't tested for flight even though the aircraft itself went through numerous tests. I do believe that someday that this type of travel will be available to the general public for anyone that wants to see space but on the other hand I kinda only see this as like a one time adventure. Like skydiving, bungee jumping, or any other extreme sport I really don't see this as being a continuous hobby for people. Like with everything, us humans want to experience more and you can only go up to space so many times.
To work in the space tourism industry, I believe if you want to conduct the flight pilots have to go through the same training if like they were flying for an airline and as for the management side it is their job that all of their pilots training is up to date. Also they have to make sure that all safety measures are taken dealing with going up that high in the atmosphere and have enough supplemental oxygen for the passengers.
Refrences:
Cofield, C. (2017, October 13). Richard Branson Won't Fly in Space in 6 Months, Virgin Galactic President Says. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.space.com/38462-richard-branson-virgin-galactic-flight.html
Blum, S. (2015, November 25). A Brief History of Space Tourism. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.inverse.com/article/8528-the-space-tourism-timeline
David, L. (2006, December 21). FAA Sets Guidelines for Space Travel. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.space.com/3290-faa-sets-guidelines-space-travel.html
New Regulations Govern Private Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants. (2016, December 30). Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/human_space_flight_reqs/
Woolf, N., & Holpuch, A. (2014, November 01). One pilot dead as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane crashes. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/31/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-crash-mojave
Their are rules and regulations that currently govern the commercial space industry. Pilots must have a valid pilots certificate and must be able to show how to operate said aircraft. Passengers must be able to respond to any emergencies that arise but all crew members must have a valid medical certificate. These rules were made to maintain safety of the public not involved and also made sure that the passengers weren't compromising their own safety as well. In my opinion, I believe that these rules are sufficient because as long as the pilots and passengers are briefed on how to fly the aircraft and what to do in emergency operations, then the flight should go according to plan.
With space tourism I believe that we are getting really close but not yet ready for actual space travel. With everyone sending their test rockets and ships up into space we are still ways off from sending a live person up to the atmosphere. We still don't have a true ship that can maintain its shape from coming from orbit and landing safely. Take Richard Branson's SpaceShipTwo crash back in 2014. According to Nicky Woolf and Amanda Holpuch "The plane, SpaceShipTwo, was undertaking a test flight under Sir Richard Branson's plans for commercial space travel when a "serious anomaly" occurred" (Woolf, Holpuch 2014). What they think it was was that the fuel mixture on board wasn't tested for flight even though the aircraft itself went through numerous tests. I do believe that someday that this type of travel will be available to the general public for anyone that wants to see space but on the other hand I kinda only see this as like a one time adventure. Like skydiving, bungee jumping, or any other extreme sport I really don't see this as being a continuous hobby for people. Like with everything, us humans want to experience more and you can only go up to space so many times.
To work in the space tourism industry, I believe if you want to conduct the flight pilots have to go through the same training if like they were flying for an airline and as for the management side it is their job that all of their pilots training is up to date. Also they have to make sure that all safety measures are taken dealing with going up that high in the atmosphere and have enough supplemental oxygen for the passengers.
Refrences:
Cofield, C. (2017, October 13). Richard Branson Won't Fly in Space in 6 Months, Virgin Galactic President Says. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.space.com/38462-richard-branson-virgin-galactic-flight.html
Blum, S. (2015, November 25). A Brief History of Space Tourism. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.inverse.com/article/8528-the-space-tourism-timeline
David, L. (2006, December 21). FAA Sets Guidelines for Space Travel. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.space.com/3290-faa-sets-guidelines-space-travel.html
New Regulations Govern Private Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants. (2016, December 30). Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/human_space_flight_reqs/
Woolf, N., & Holpuch, A. (2014, November 01). One pilot dead as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane crashes. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/31/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-crash-mojave
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