Mastering Space Flight
With the recent successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket, its owner, Elon Musk, has called for a new space race. This could prove to be a very exciting, important time for space exploration. The goal Mr. Musk is trying to achieve is to push extremely wealthy people to develop their own aerospace companies centered around commercial space transportation, and getting the human race to a point where space travel is a non-special event. It seems as though Elon Musk's tactic is also working. According to an article published on Business Insider, "Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and his rocket company, Blue Origin, recently opened a gigantic facility at Kennedy Space Center to build the New Glenn reusable rocket system". I feel as though it is incredibly important for these billionaires to begin a new space race because these people have all the time and money in the world to invest into something extremely expensive that no one else could be able to afford.
Getting humans into space for travel could save an immense amount of time on expenses and time spent traveling from destination to destination. For instance, the ISS, a relatively un-powered spacecraft, travels extremely fast over the earth. According to an article posted on gizmodo.com, "the International Space Station orbits to earth at 8km a second". This means it takes the ISS to travel around the entire earth in about an hour and a half! If commercial space flight were a reality at this point in time, I could be in Hong Kong in roughly 45 minutes to an hour. This would be beneficial for both customers and the companies that operate the spacecraft. Customers could get to their destinations much, much quicker, and companies may not have to spend as much money to operate these craft, since their engines would only be running for an hour as opposed to 13 hours for a round the world trip. The key component now is to develop a reliable, extremely powerful fuel source that could get craft into space with ease, a feat easier said than done.
Getting humans into space is also very important from an exploration viewpoint. Discovering new planets that could support human life is immensely important to the survival of the human race, since a lot of the resources on earth will run out at some point. Several planets that could be within the habitable zone of a star have already been discovered. The habitable zone is the area around a star where a planet must be located in order to sustain human life. One of the closest possible earth like planets to have been recently discovered is Ross 128 B. According to an article published on futurism.com, "The orbit of Ross 128 b is 20 times more proximal (20 times closer) than the distance between the Earth and the Sun – but the planet receives only 1.38 times more irradiation, which keeps its equilibrium temperature between -60°C and 20°C (-76°F and 68°F). But while scientists do believe that it is, in fact, a temperate planet, there’s still no confirmation that it lies within the habitable zone, which is the zone surrounding a star in which liquid water is able to exist". Since we are still trying to develop a telescope big and powerful enough to observe the planet, it has not been determined yet whether or not the planet could truly support human life. Currently, scientist are trying to determine if Ross 128 B's surface has any water on it. Another reason humans need to be able to explore space is because there may be new elements and materials to discover. Since the universe is so massive, one can be almost certain that earth does not contain every element in the universe within it. With new elements, new technologies could be developed and cures could be invented for previously untreatable diseases like cancer that currently plague humans. Tragically, the key to achieving faster than light travel may be located on a far away planet that requires us to travel faster than the speed of light to even have a chance of reaching.
To reach the speed of 182,282 miles an second, otherwise known as the speed of light, will take considerable advances in technology if we ever wish to reach that speed. One possibility of reaching only a fraction of the speed of light is Project Orion. Project Orion was originally devised during the cold war and was designed to get astronauts to the moon and back much quicker. Essentially, the project Orion rocket was supposed to be nuclear powered. The craft was never built but in theory, Project Orion spacecraft could make interstellar space travel a reality. According to an article published on armaghplanet.com, "An Orion could lift an enormous weight into space and accelerate it to fantastic speeds (8% to 10% of the speed of light would have been possible by a city-sized version) making even interstellar flights a possibility". This is very exciting because currently, massive aircraft carriers are powered by nuclear engines that can run for extremely long times before needing to be refueled.
I am truly excited to be living in the time that we are living in. Technology is more advaced than it has ever been. The thought of possibly being able to fly the first commercial space craft is truly an exciting thought and it makes me even more happy to be in the aviation industry as a pilot. Its fun to think about exploring never-before seen worlds and seeing all kinds of new beautiful wildlife. If more and more billionaires and multi-billion dollar companies decide to invest into space transportation, the reality of everyday space travel could be closer than any of us realize. Key components like the jump drive and viable fuel still need to be invented, but the more and more money we are able to pour into research, the closer we will get to the goal of interstellar space travel.
Sources:
Condliffe, Jamie. (August 13, 2013). How Insanely Fast the ISS Moves, Vizualized. Retrieved from: https://gizmodo.com/how-insanely-fast-the-iss-moves-visualized-1118942111
Mosher, Dave. (February 7, 2018). Elon Musk: 'We Want a New Space Race — Space Races Are Exciting'. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-space-race-elon-musk-spacex-blue-origin-2018-2
Jones, Brad. (November 15, 2017) We Just Discovered One of the Closest Earth-Like Planets Ever. Retrieved from: https://futurism.com/discovered-closest-earth-like-planets/
Admin. (October 1, 2010). Project Orion: The Incredible Nuclear Spacecraft. Retrieved from: http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/project-orion-the-incredible-nuclear-spacecraft.html
nets Ever
Getting humans into space for travel could save an immense amount of time on expenses and time spent traveling from destination to destination. For instance, the ISS, a relatively un-powered spacecraft, travels extremely fast over the earth. According to an article posted on gizmodo.com, "the International Space Station orbits to earth at 8km a second". This means it takes the ISS to travel around the entire earth in about an hour and a half! If commercial space flight were a reality at this point in time, I could be in Hong Kong in roughly 45 minutes to an hour. This would be beneficial for both customers and the companies that operate the spacecraft. Customers could get to their destinations much, much quicker, and companies may not have to spend as much money to operate these craft, since their engines would only be running for an hour as opposed to 13 hours for a round the world trip. The key component now is to develop a reliable, extremely powerful fuel source that could get craft into space with ease, a feat easier said than done.
Getting humans into space is also very important from an exploration viewpoint. Discovering new planets that could support human life is immensely important to the survival of the human race, since a lot of the resources on earth will run out at some point. Several planets that could be within the habitable zone of a star have already been discovered. The habitable zone is the area around a star where a planet must be located in order to sustain human life. One of the closest possible earth like planets to have been recently discovered is Ross 128 B. According to an article published on futurism.com, "The orbit of Ross 128 b is 20 times more proximal (20 times closer) than the distance between the Earth and the Sun – but the planet receives only 1.38 times more irradiation, which keeps its equilibrium temperature between -60°C and 20°C (-76°F and 68°F). But while scientists do believe that it is, in fact, a temperate planet, there’s still no confirmation that it lies within the habitable zone, which is the zone surrounding a star in which liquid water is able to exist". Since we are still trying to develop a telescope big and powerful enough to observe the planet, it has not been determined yet whether or not the planet could truly support human life. Currently, scientist are trying to determine if Ross 128 B's surface has any water on it. Another reason humans need to be able to explore space is because there may be new elements and materials to discover. Since the universe is so massive, one can be almost certain that earth does not contain every element in the universe within it. With new elements, new technologies could be developed and cures could be invented for previously untreatable diseases like cancer that currently plague humans. Tragically, the key to achieving faster than light travel may be located on a far away planet that requires us to travel faster than the speed of light to even have a chance of reaching.
To reach the speed of 182,282 miles an second, otherwise known as the speed of light, will take considerable advances in technology if we ever wish to reach that speed. One possibility of reaching only a fraction of the speed of light is Project Orion. Project Orion was originally devised during the cold war and was designed to get astronauts to the moon and back much quicker. Essentially, the project Orion rocket was supposed to be nuclear powered. The craft was never built but in theory, Project Orion spacecraft could make interstellar space travel a reality. According to an article published on armaghplanet.com, "An Orion could lift an enormous weight into space and accelerate it to fantastic speeds (8% to 10% of the speed of light would have been possible by a city-sized version) making even interstellar flights a possibility". This is very exciting because currently, massive aircraft carriers are powered by nuclear engines that can run for extremely long times before needing to be refueled.
I am truly excited to be living in the time that we are living in. Technology is more advaced than it has ever been. The thought of possibly being able to fly the first commercial space craft is truly an exciting thought and it makes me even more happy to be in the aviation industry as a pilot. Its fun to think about exploring never-before seen worlds and seeing all kinds of new beautiful wildlife. If more and more billionaires and multi-billion dollar companies decide to invest into space transportation, the reality of everyday space travel could be closer than any of us realize. Key components like the jump drive and viable fuel still need to be invented, but the more and more money we are able to pour into research, the closer we will get to the goal of interstellar space travel.
Sources:
Condliffe, Jamie. (August 13, 2013). How Insanely Fast the ISS Moves, Vizualized. Retrieved from: https://gizmodo.com/how-insanely-fast-the-iss-moves-visualized-1118942111
Mosher, Dave. (February 7, 2018). Elon Musk: 'We Want a New Space Race — Space Races Are Exciting'. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heavy-space-race-elon-musk-spacex-blue-origin-2018-2
Jones, Brad. (November 15, 2017) We Just Discovered One of the Closest Earth-Like Planets Ever. Retrieved from: https://futurism.com/discovered-closest-earth-like-planets/
Admin. (October 1, 2010). Project Orion: The Incredible Nuclear Spacecraft. Retrieved from: http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/project-orion-the-incredible-nuclear-spacecraft.html
nets Ever
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