Extra-Terrestrial Enterprises

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 21^st 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.