IceFusion
Skilled
Space has always been one of the most experimental frontier of Human Kind, and also most costly. The costs being incurred in space projects have always been on the higher side, and thus all the space projects up till now have been under the Government of various countries. But now in the recent years various projects regarding private space tourism such as the X Prize and the announcements from Virgin galactic and Space Adventures Ltd. Has generated a lot of interest regarding private space travel.
The year 2001 saw for the first time a Civilian “ Dennis Tito†board a space shuttle and go on a trip to the International Space Station. However to achieve this feat Dennis Tito had to shell out several million bucks from his pocket. After him many people came forward, who were willing to pay the same amount and more, to go on a Space travel. NASA took some of the offers and rejected some, however, space travel was still in the hands of the government and out of the reach of a common man.
Then suddenly in the year 2004, various announcements from the private sector came regarding personal and commercial space travels. The major announcements were –
Zero gravity flights - X Prize Foundation president Peter Diamandis and his Zero Gravity Corp. offered weightlessness to the public in high-altitude roller-coaster rides aboard a modified airplane. Ticket price: $3,000.
Space tourism - British entrepreneur Richard Branson would launch Virgin Galactic, relying on licensed SpaceShipOne technology, with plans to send 3,000 people to space by 2009. Ticket price: $208,000.
America's Space Prize - Nevada millionaire Robert Bigelow to develop a $50 million prize for the first orbital passenger vehicle.
Dream Chaser - NASA researchers will collaborate with the firm SpaceDev to develop new hybrid rocket technologies, which SpaceDev hopes will propel a reusable, crewed spacecraft dubbed Dream Chaser.
Now After 5 years of the initial voyage to space by a civilian CNN Future Summit Nominating Committee member Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist when she spent a week at the International Space Station earlier this month. Space Adventures Ltd and Virgin Galactic are already selling tickets at a cost of $200,000 for a voyage 100 kms above the surface of earth, and more than 100 people have already signed up for the same. With various projects such as hotels in Space orbit for the travellers already taking shape and the building of multi purpose spaceports for launch of passenger rockets in New Mexico and Singapore already on the way, private space travel seems to be heading in the right direction.
There are still various risks involved with space travel, which private companies may tend to overlook, but the government cannot. It should be kept in mind that the chances of not reaching your destination are 1 in 10 million on a regular airplane, but for human space flights the odds are just 1 in 50. But apparently this wont be of matter to people seeking an adrenaline rush.
Now with the X- Prize contest making the dream of low cost personal space travel inch closer to reality every year, it may be that 10 years from now each of us would be able to book a flight to space on a weekend at just a slightly higher cost than that of a normal Air fare from Delhi to New York
The spacecraft may look like this
, and was checking up the celebration thread also... guess in the hurry to go to coffee break i posted in the wrong section.. move it to General Talk..