Throughout human history, people have dreamed of going to space to see. But it wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that we finally realized that dream. Still, until now, the option of space travel has typically been limited to a tiny handful of highly trained astronauts — the rest of the world has to stand by.
But will that always be the case?
Today, we will answer an extraordinary question: Will space travel eventually materialize? Are you a person who likes to get to the bottom of your mind? Will you always keep a curiosity?
The idea of space travel is as old as spaceflight itself. Shortly after the iconic 1969 moon landing, plans for space travel for entertainment rather than scientific purposes were born. But unfortunately, not much progress has been made at the beginning ... From the early days to recent decades, aviation technology is still new and improving for us. Nasa (or any other space agency) cannot send anyone into space without an important and specific purpose. Space can only be used for research purposes. It wasn't until the United States developed reusable spacecraft that the "space tourism" business picked up, sending these spacecraft into a more durable and affordable prospect.
But soon, in 1986, the Challenger disaster was a reminder of the risks and dangers involved in spaceflight. Over time, however, it was found that these dangers also varied depending on the type of flight: suborbital flight, orbital flight, or circumlunar flight... Among them, suborbital flight does not leave the Earth's atmosphere, so its potential danger is relatively small. That's why many of the earliest space tourism programs, such as Virgin Galactic, proposed suborbital flight projects. That is to say, with this project, there are very few people who have the possibility to go further. Explore deeper space than most current space travel projects can promise, and for purely recreational purposes.
The first ever such "space tourist" was millionaire Dennis Tito. He flew to the International Space Station as a passenger in 2001 and then stayed on the station for nearly eight days. However, Tito's ticket cost him about $20 million... This proves that at the time, his adventures were really too unsuitable for everyone. Since then, only six other people have the opportunity to buy such a ticket to distant space. They're all millionaires or billionaires, and they're all on Russian spaceships.
Overall, while NASA doesn't have much willingness to spend on space travel projects, in recent years there have been private companies that have entered the space industry and offered the opportunity to be able to implement space tourism.
Richard Branson Branson's Virgin Galactic has sold hundreds of tickets for future space travel that could take passengers into suborbital travel in the future. Virgin's spacecraft will reach space more than 50 miles above ground (an altitude sufficient to enter a microgravity environment.) Before landing and landing slowly, passengers will be far away from Earth and gain a stunning view of space. The experience tickets are currently sold out, reportedly reaching $250,000 each.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos (Jeff. Bezos also entered the space travel space since 2000 under the Blue Origin program. The Blue Origin program is very similar to Virgin's project, where passengers can enter suborbital altitude through a rocket, where they can experience a gravityless experience for several minutes and a shocking view of space. The difference is that passengers will return to Earth via parachutes, while rockets will make a passenger-free landing so that it can prepare for the next space journey.
In 2019, Bezos announced the Blue Moon "Blue Moon" program: an unmanned lunar lander, but this program is still in development. Blue Origin remains a frontrunner in commercial space tourism. It's likely elon Musk's SpaceX (Space Exploration) idea, but it boasts that it's the most ambitious plan for space travel. Because it's going to go into Earth orbit, at least that's what it planned.
A lot of the exciting things about SpaceX focus on the #dearMoon (Dear Moon) mission. Japan's billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and some of his friends will spend a week in space aboard Musk's Falcon rocket. During that time, they will leave Earth's orbit and fly around the moon before returning to Earth. Maezawa and his partners hope to complete this unprecedented flight by the end of 2023. While SpaceX's vision has also attracted skeptics, a successful flight would set a new benchmark in the space industry. If #dearMoon is successfully completed, we will skip the suborbital journey and quickly reach the Orbital Journey of the Earth, and then take a big step across the domain to the Moon – that is, to transport people to the lunar surface.
For many people, earth orbit travel and lunar travel are certainly more expensive than they can afford, but suborbital travel is relatively less expensive and affordable.
Space will no longer be the exclusive preserve of the rich, but will be open to more people. As for orbital travel (for people like Maezawa Yusaku who want long-haul travel), the level of risk will soar again. Any mission out of the Earth's atmosphere — that is, any mission in non-suborbital orbit — is naturally much more dangerous because it requires "re-entry into the atmosphere." Getting back to Earth's atmosphere requires precise control and processing, close to the right angle and speed, to avoid your spaceship catching fire or even missing Earth altogether. Therefore, it is not surprising that whichever company provides this service, it will bear a huge legal liability. There's too much red tape, too many rules and regulations that aren't even documented. This also seems to be one of the reasons why the space tourism program takes so long to materialize.
On the one hand, we've seen a lot of positive technological developments, such as the invention of reusable rocket technology like the Falcon 9, which could make space tourism easier and possibly cheaper. But on the other hand, any company looking to send brave people on Earth to the moon (or anywhere else) first needs to prove that the risk to human life posed by this move is as low as possible. It's not easy! With that in mind, people are looking for cheaper, more advanced, and safer ways. Of the ideas that were formally proposed, the construction of a space elevator was one of the most unique.
It sounds like it came straight out of science fiction, but it's thought it's not impossible to achieve this feat — and there are even reports that NASA thinks it's a viable idea. Tokyo's Obayashi plans to build a 22,000-mile-long elevator column that stretches from the Earth's surface to space and connects to an orbital space station. This highly innovative solution will use centrifugal force to maintain stability and allow elevator pods to carry passengers up and down in transparent containers, giving stunning views as passengers rise higher and higher. The famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku even called the idea the "holy grail" of space exploration. Futurist Ian Pearson judges that we have an 80 percent chance that we will have a space elevator by the end of the century.
It is understood that both China and Japan want to achieve a launch and operation by 2050, so we can expect that one day in the future, becoming a space traveler may be as easy as taking an elevator. This time, we are standing at a turning point in space travel. Space travel began with space agencies, followed by large private companies with grander ideas, and to this day, in-flight projects have even meant that space travel no longer requires traditional spacecraft. The safety of space travelers has always been regarded as extremely important, and there are always ways to put safeguards in this regard. But as more and more new technologies emerge, we can expect more survival opportunities at a lower cost. So if you have the dream of one day seeing Earth from space, buckle your seatbelts! Because that's why space travel is about to take off.
Related knowledge
Space flight is an aeronautical application that enables spacecraft to fly into or traverse outer space, and is divided into two types: manned and non-manned. Most space travel is unmanned, mainly by low-Earth orbiting spacecraft such as satellites, but also by space probes outside the Earth's orbit, and such spacecraft are often controlled by remotely controlled robots or automation. Shortly after the successful launch of the first orbiting satellite, more complex explorations were conducted for manned space flight, and the moon landing was successfully achieved, especially after the launch of the space station, humans permanently appeared in space around the Earth. The manned space flight program includes the Soyuz program, the Shenzhou program and the previous Apollo moon landing program and the space shuttle program, as well as the current International Space Station program as the main destination for human space missions, of which China's Tiangong space station is under construction.
Space exploration is an exploration of outer space using astronomy and space technology. Although most rely on astronomers to make observations through astronomical telescopes, the detection of real physical space is still achieved with the help of unmanned robotic space probes and manned spacecraft. Space exploration, like classical astronomy, is one of the main sources of understanding space science.
Fy: 7 Zai, Cao Lei, Full of Stars, Afandi