Ancient man lived with nature,
and appreciated nature’s life-giving forces; but he was also in awe of the raw
power it could unleash on him at times. So he worshipped the trees, the mighty
mountain ranges, the rivers, the sun, the stars, the moon, as well as lightning
and thunder. Now, modern 21st century man has so evolved
scientifically and in sophistication that spaceship technology represents
unharnessed areas that promise to quench man’s thirst for knowledge, freedom
and power. He now lassoes in these same raw energies and attempts to tame the
forces of the universe.
Attempts to reach the far away
planets and to find out if immigration is possible to these unknown, untraced
lands of ambiguous atmospheres, have been on for decades now. Space -or ether
as it was once known- a once again alien, untenable entity, without life
supporting features, is now within human reach. The latest developments regarding
orbital and deep space are nothing less than astonishing, even to the extent
that it is being commercialized like any other space on earth. Now anyone, any
healthy individual- not a scientist, astronaut, aeronaut, with an appetite for
space travel and loads of money to fire away the fuelled jets- can travel to
space and back at a wish. So who or what makes these magic wands work?
Space commerce has grown into an
industry in the technologically advanced nations across the globe. The Office of Space Commercialization of
the U.S is lighting the path or orbit for the others. It creates space commerce
policies in the U.S and nurtures conditions for economic and technological
advances in the new industry. It works on various aspects like commercial
remote sensing, “New Space” ventures of a business nature, space travel and
other space connected issues on a national level. Various other national space
agencies like the European Space Agency which
is an integrated agency of 10 or more European nations, has called upon Arianespace to
co-ordinate space activities, the French and the Chinese are also into the
industry in a big way.
Space Transportation is the basic
foundation on which the rest of space commerce rests [http://www.space.commerce.gov/transportation/].
It means the capability to access, to traverse and to come back to earth from
space. The satellite Telstar 1 was launched in 1962 over the Atlantic Ocean to
beam television signals and this was the first commercial use of space ever. By
the year 2000, humans could buy tickets to fly into space, though for enormous
sums. By 2004 the estimated investment across the globe in the Space Commerce
Sector ran into $50.8 billion. The increasing demand for space based activities
like remote sensing, communications, navigation and also the latest trend in
human space travel has developed global markets for commercial services. The
industry involves several elements such as spaceports, factories that produce launch
vehicles, suppliers and also those who operate these machines. A major group
that takes up space transportation is the Thales
Group. They provide innovative space solutions like thermal protection
units, design the lab and living areas in manned space environments, cargo and
re- entry vehicles, components for launchers and a whole lot of other space
products. After the millennium year, various concepts of marketing the space
industry have evolved; the launching of companies like Virgin Galactic, the highly
imaginative projects like Mars-One and
the Mining of Asteroids are a
few.
Human space travel is the latest
in the field of tourism. Space tourism can be explained as space travel
undertaken for leisure or even for business needs. In April 2001 Dennis
Tito an American businessman and former scientist became the first human to
undertake a space flight for a fee. Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Gregory
Olsen in 2005 followed suit. Another four tourists including a lady have
also made their dreams come true.
New companies like Virgin
Galactic have sprung up in all earnestness to put tourists in space. Virgin
Galactic is a British company within Virgin Group Ltd. owned by Sir Richard Branson and is
American based. They intend sending humans into suborbital as well as orbital
spaceflights. Their space-crafts attain greater initial speed and height as
they get launched from a huge airplane and not from the ground. These crafts
take the tourists beyond the horizon of space, known as Karman Line at an
altitude of 100 km from the earth.
On June 21 2004, SpaceShipOne the
first privately owned spaceship flew into space with an astronaut-pilot from
the Mojave deserts in Mexico [http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/making-history-in-mojave/].
It was a concept-materialized craft that launched with a cost of $30 million, which
was way below the exorbitant estimations made by government agencies. Space
tours have now become affordable, so to say. Millions of space travel fans were
enthralled by the success of this flight and many have booked their tickets
already. Mr. George T. Whitesides,
CEO of the firm has already booked two tickets for the next trip into
space. All flights are $250,000/and deposits will be refunded [http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/].
Your dream of Space travel can now turn to
reality, but future children may still enjoy the magic of the bunny on the moon
I hope.
mTurk Conributor.
