Space tourism options - Startup companies

Now that I have introduced you to my CAJ, I would like to give you more detailed information about space tourism and the numerous existing startup companies. Only fifty years after sending the first human to space (the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin) more and more startup companies are developing tourist vehicles for suborbital and orbital flights to space. Various space tourism options are available already and there are more to come in the near future.

Before informing you about space tourism options and startup companies, I would like to explain the difference between suborbital and orbital flights. 

In order to understand the difference you should know that an orbit describes the path followed in space by a body around another body as a result of gravity. For instance, the Earth orbits the sun just like these days many satellites orbit around the Earth. 

The main differences between suborbital and orbital flights are velocity and height. The velocity required for orbital flights is called orbital velocity. It depends on the altitude of the orbit. To give you an example, orbital flights at an altitude of 200 km require an orbital velocity of 7 780 m/s (~28 000 km/h). Orbital flights are placed on a trajectory where they could remain in space for at least one orbit. They fly along the curvature of Earth and never fall back to Earth on their own. (One orbit around the Earth takes 90 minutes.) 

Suborbital flights require a flight speed which is about 8 times smaller than the orbital velocity (~950 m/s) and peak at an altitude of 100 to 160 km. Any flight outside Earth's atmosphere with a maximum flight speed below the orbital velocity is called a suborbital flight. The spacecraft only leaves the Earth's atmposphere for a few minutes during which the engines are shut off. Within these minutes passengers experience weightlessness. Then the spacecraft falls back to Earth and re-enters the atmosphere. The duration of microgravity depends on the altitude which is reached during the flight. To give you an example, 3:10 minutes of weightlessness can be experienced at an altitude of 100 km. 

Due to this tremendous difference in required flight speed the vehicle design for suborbital and orbital flights varies greatly. Thus, suborbital vehicles are smaller in size and mass, technically simper and therefore cheaper in design and operation. 

The leading companies at the moment are Virgin Galactic, Space Adventurers and Blue Origin.  
 

Virgin Galactic is an American commercial spaceflight company. The British entrepreneur Richard Branson plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to tourists via Virgin Group. Virgin Group consists of more than 400 companies worldwide with its core business areas travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Galactic is currently running a test flight program with Space Ship Two, the successor of Space Ship One from 2004 (designed by Burt Rutan). Contrary to Space Ship One, whose only purpose was to fly to space twice and return undamaged, Space Ship Two is intended to actually take tourists into space one day. As the test results are very promising, commercial flights are expected to begin around 2015 and more than 530 people have already signed up. The flights will be launched from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. The space jet will carry six passengers for $200,000 each. It will reach an altitude of 110 km and take about two and a half hours. Space Ship Two will allow its passengers to feel weightless for about five minutes.

(http://www.space.com/19021-spaceshiptwo.html)

Since 2004 Space Adventurers, a space tourism company from Virginia, offers the experience of various states of microgravity (for instance, gravitational state on Mars or the moon) starting at $4,950 per passenger up to §165,000. The states of microgravity are achieved by doing aerobatic maneuvers known as parabolas with a specially modified Boeing 727, called G-Force One. It all happens between an altitude of 24 000 and 34 000 feet. At the altitude of 24 000 feet the aircraft is gradually being pulled up by the pilot to reach an angle of about 45° to the horizon until reaching the altitude of 34 000 feet. During this pull-up 1.8 Gs are felt by the passengers. Then the spacecraft flies back to the altitude of 24 000 feet at an angle of 30° to the horizon which takes about 20 to 30 seconds during which passengers experience weightlessness. This maneuver is repeated 12-15 times. To experience Lunar (one sixth your weight) or Martian (one third your weight) gravity a different arc over the top of the parabola is flewn.

(http://www.spaceadventures.com/index.cfm)

Blue Origin, which is founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, is currently developing a fully reusable suborbital vehicle called New Shepard, which will fly a minimum of three passengers to space.The development of reusable vehicles is intended to significantly decrease the costs associated with flying to space.

(http://www.blueorigin.com/)

Besides the three leading companies at the moment there has been a significant increase in startup companies over the last few years which increasingly gain importance. Logically, different companies have different ideas about how to transport people to space and they have different intentions.

World View, for instance, a Tucson-based company (Arizona), wants to take tourists to near-space by 2016 - not with a rocket, but with a high-altitude balloon. Customers paying $75,000 could spend two hours floating 30 kilometers above the ground. The passengers would not experience weightlessness. Yet, they would still have a magnificent view of the blackness of space against the curvature of Earth - a sight usually only afforded to astronauts. The first launch site is probably going to be Page, Arizona. The weather there is perfect for launching balloons and it happens to be fairly close to Las Vegas which will probably result in many tourists passing by.

 (http://www.space.com/25221-world-view-space-tourism-balloons.html)

SpaceX, a private spaceflight company owned by Elon Musk, wants to launch missions for the United States Air Force using its new Falcon rocket as soon as in 2015. They are creating private space taxis and cargo ships to launch astronauts and supplies into space. 

(http://www.space.com/24942-spacex-ready-air-force-launches.html)

EADS (the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company), now called Airbus is at present preparing its commercial space plane prototype for a drop test. The business-jet sized space plane that is intended to bring tourists into space sooner or later will go up 100 km allowing the passengers to experience zero gravity. 

 (http://www.space.com/24901-europe-space-plane-drop-test.html, http://www.uniktourspace.com/en/sub-orbital-experience) 


All in all, many companies are planning to offer suborbital flights very soon, but so far no suborbital space tourism has occurred yet. However, tourists already have the possibility to go on an orbital holiday. Currently the only vehicle taking tourists to orbital space is the Russian Soyuz which belongs to the Russian Federal Space Agency, commonly known as Roscosmos. In cooperation with Space Adventurers, Roscosmos has sent seven tourists to space so far and they have all travelled to the International Space Station (ISS):

1.       Dennis Tito (American) – 2001, 8 days, $20 million

2.       Mark Shuttleworth (South African/British) – 2002, 11 days, $20 million

3.       Gregory Olsen (American) – 2005, 11 days, $20 million

4.       Anousheh Ansari (American/Iranian) – 2006, 12 days, $20 million

5.       Charles Simonyi (American/Hungarian) – 2009, 14 days, $35 million

6.       Richard Garriott (American/British( - 2008, 12 days, $30 million

7.       Guy Laliberté (Canadian) – 2009, 11 days, $40 million

Rhetorical analysis of an opinion article related to my CAJ

The article “Into the blue: Holidays to Mars and the ultimate honey-moon, former astronaut Jon McBride makes his space tourism predictions” is presented in form of an interview.

The ethos plays an important role. First of all, the source itself (dailymail.co.uk) suggests the credibility of what is going to be said. Secondly, the person questioned, Jon McBride is a 70-year-old man who was a former astronaut. His advanced age, as well has his former profession give rise to the supposition that he clearly knows what he is talking about. Consequently, his space tourism predictions must be somewhat true. What is more, he is one of the few lucky people who made his dream come true, as “every kid in America wanted to be an astronaut” at some point. Therefore, Jon McBride must be special and “credible”.  

The article also contains an elevated number of emotional aspects which notably appeal to the audience’s imagination. The form of the article (interview) itself creates an identity between the writer and the reader. Jon McBride talks about the mental, as well as the physical sides of being in space and the “unbounded joy of seeing the plant from above”. The numerous high quality pictures from the earth out of space that feature the article try to convince the reader of the greatness behind the idea of space tourism. The amazing view makes you want to experience space in person, which is only reinforced by Jon McBride when he says: “You can’t really capture that. Your own eyeballs are the only way to see it and do it.”. He also jokes about “honey-moon” referring to the future when newly married people might actually spend their honeymoon on the moon. All in all, pathos is the strongest appeal in this article.

The main logical aspect of this article is that the technology to send people to space has already been developed years ago. According Jon McBride it is only plausible to let people benefit from the existing technology and send them to space for holiday. Moreover, a comparison to 1914 (when nobody would have thought there would be a man on the moon by 1970 and that we’d be flying 500 people non-stop from New York to Singapore), suggests that space tourism may soon become reality.   


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2579462/Space-tourism-holidays-Mars-Former-astronaut-Jon-McBride-makes-predictions-future-travel.html

Introduction to my CAJ topic - Space Tourism

Science fiction predicted it years ago, but what actually is space tourism? Space tourism describes a concept suggesting that ordinary people may sooner or later be able to travel to space and back for recreational, leisure or business purposes. In fact, it is very similar to the tourism existing on earth. The only small, yet significant, difference is that space tourism, as its name already indicates, is supposed to take place in space. According to various predictions there will be space hotels, specific space activities (things to do on your orbital holiday), as well as specially created space sports adapted to zero gravity. 

This project is yet to be realized, but market research has shown that the idea of space tourism is extremely popular. According to a survey, many people even wish to go out repeatedly, and live and work there one day. What is more, an increasing number of commercial enterprises have been starting up over the last few years. The progress that has been made recently is incredible and gives all the more rise to the supposition that space tourism will soon become reality. However, the question is when and how will it come into existence? So far a great deal of problems, notably the high costs, has kept space tourism from developing any further. 

  

The fascination of Space Tourism is completely comprehensible. I mean, who would not like to look at the Earth floating in space? Who would not like to admire the stars from close up? And who would not like to have the amazing experience of living in zero gravity, if only for a few days? In a world where people are more and more seeking to experience unusual and unique adventures, to do things that no one has ever done before and to go to places no one has ever been to before, it is very likely that people wish to go to orbit at least once in their lifetime as well. If this is true, space tourism may be the biggest unexploited new market of the 21^st century.

(main source: http://www.spacefuture.com/tourism/hotels.shtml)

Narrative article homework - Malaysia flight MH370: Families vent anger

“Tell us the truth, tell us the truth...!” That is what the outraged relatives of the passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are chanting incessantly Monday morning in front of the Malaysian government building. After three weeks of continuous search for the missing plane no evidence has yet been recovered. Therefore, the despaired family members are still clinging to a tiny glimmer of hope that their loved ones might still be alive. However, suspecting the Malaysian prime minister to conceal the truth, the protestants are determined to find out what really happened. Although the protest is overall peaceful, the situation is bound to escalate. People are waving Chinese flags and holding banners with inscriptions such as “We want proof. We want dignity.”. Every now and then a sudden outcry of a desperate family member can be heard in the chanting crowd. The protests have been going on for quite a while and probably will be going on until the truth is finally revealed.

PSA warning against the use of after-death avatars

“Oh my god…Is…is that really you?” – “No, honey, it’s not me. It’s a useless computer-controlled robot using past online communications and social media profiles that has absolutely nothing to do with who I was. My existence will not in the least help you to get over your loss and to move on with your life.” That’s just what an after-death avatar usually tells his buyer at first sight. NEVER. Can you imagine interacting with your deceased beloved ones? No? You shouldn’t have to! There is only one answer to the use of after-death avatars. Thanks, but no thanks. Let the deceased rest in peace. End of story.  

 

A day in the life of…ME

A typical day in my life looks like this: I get up pretty early (around 7.30) in order to profit fully from the day. First of all, I have breakfast. Right after, I usually have to go to university until at least lunchtime. After having attended all of my classes, I have lunch (either alone or as I prefer - with some friends) and try to get done some of my many homework assignments. Now the fun part of my day beings: whenever time allows I go meet up with some friends (either for having some coffee, for simply enjoying the sun in one of Graz’s numerous city parks, for going shopping or just for hanging around). Then, having reloaded all of my energy, I usually try ( ! ;) ) to get some studying done. After one or two hours of more or less intensive studying, I go out again to do some sports which helps me to relax. Depending on which weekday it is, my evening program either consists of going out, relaxing at home with a good book or movie, or simply listening to my favorite music. Unfortunately, however, I often have no choice but to stay at home to study for exams.