Civilian Space Flight- At What Price?
22 03 2008The following is a guest post from Rob Myles, member of the Matsunami Board of Education and a contributor at Cracked.com
A long time ago, as these stories often begin, man cut his moorings with the earth and travelled the skies. Some time later, those fortunate few were chosen to pioneer the vastness that lay outside our small world, to plumb the depths of space as only science fiction novelists had done before. Now, the final frontier is opening up to the wider world, and civilian corporations are taking an interest in “space tourism”.
Of these, perhaps the best publicized is Virgin Galactic. To the potential consumer the buzz surrounding this project, the X-Prize and SpaceShipOne leading to the suitably futuristic looking SpaceShipTwo project, has turned a lot of heads, filling them with hope of a childhood dream come true in the process.
This is an easy project to believe in the feasibility of. It’s a combination of mediums, granted, but both are suitably large departures from the ancestral heritage to make them the logical next step in technological development, enabling us to take that one step further.
Huh. Interesting topic, but I’m not entirely clear how you feel about it, except it seems evident that you don’t like the SS2.
While it is arguable that the money could go to something more immediately worthwhile, exploration has always been a cornerstone of human imagination. Probably we should stop subsidizing the war on drugs and use THAT money on measles.
Well, while I can’t speak for how Rob feels about it, I know my only strong feelings towards commercial space travel are that they be environmentally responsible. It’s amazing to me to hear how much junk the various government space programs and commercial satellites have left up there, waiting to rain down on us, and it makes me sad to think we’ve trashed our near-space the same way we tend to trash our environment.
You certainly have a point about the importance of exploration, and while they’re not necessarily going new places, they’re providing the opportunity for other people to go there. As far as how the money should be spent, in my mind, that’s up to the investors who put their money into this project, and any customers who would be willing to pay for it - it’s their money.
However, it’s not their space, just because they’re the only people who can afford to go there, and I hope that they’ll have the foresight to manage their impact, and that the government will step up and make sure they keep those promises.
Thanks for your comment! - Jeff
The SS2 is the superior of the two options, the EADS Astrium space flier is the subject of the most criticism. My position is merely that the cost of civilian space travel is astronomical, and while it does capture the imagination, it fails to be accessible enough to lead to anything more than disappointment for the vast majority of we Earthlings. This is not helped when the competition for SS2 is so underwhelming (as competition is the chief method of bringing prices down).
In addition, I hoped to show that despite the SS2’s advertising campaign focussing on the efforts made to minimise the environmental impact, it still has the effect of consuming vast sums of money and, quite literally, blasting it into outer space. A small share of this money- indeed, less than a single flight full of tickets- can do great amounts of good for those who can’t even live on earth, much less travel to space. Given the huge popularity of the SS2 venture (having taken tens of millions in deposits years before its first commerical flight) it is my implication that Virgin Galactic should look toward charitable donation and philanthropy once their initial costs are covered, as the massive sums of money needed to rid nations of disease are miniscule in comparison to the money made from a single SS2 flight.
Thanks for your comment!- Rob