(Newswire.net — December 18, 2018) — Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin changed human history when he entered Earth’s orbit – becoming the very first human being to leave the safety of home and usher in a new age of space flight and exploration.
What The Future of Space Travel Holds
And we’ve seen tremendous innovation and advancement in the field of space flight, from more refined rockets, modern technology, and plenty of rumours that we could begin to see space flight commercialised and made available to a much wider public within the next 50 years. Many believe that privately-owned space companies will begin to offer people the chance to take off from Earth and become part of a period of space tourism.
It’s estimated that by around 2060, millions of people will have gone to space, with thousands more living in space stations or on permanent outposts established on the moon. It’ll take time and plenty of money to achieve, but we may see a future where the average person is able to book a flight to the moon for the cost of a plane ticket today.
Privatisation
For the better part of the last century, space travel has been exclusive to government-run organisations, such as NASA, who have been at the forefront of exploration, having sent two rovers to the surface of Mars. But things are shifting more and more toward the private sector as multiple companies have expressed interest in turning space flight into a profitable venture that could see people flying from space ports in comfort while potentially watching movies or playing pokies online.
One such is Virgin Galactic, who have high hopes of taking people into orbit for as little as $200,00 per seat – which is admittedly a large amount of money for most people, but can also be seen as a future benchmark from which the prices will slowly drop over time as more people from around the world show more interest in blasting off of the planet for their next holiday destination. Other companies, such as Space Exploration Technologies, are currently developing crewed vehicles that would be able to take up paying customers to commercial space station, one of which is under development by Bigelow Aerospace, fronted by hotel tycoon Bob Bigelow.
Some predict that space flight could become part of our daily activities over the next few decades, especially as more space-related jobs become available. A space commute would be necessary to undertake for those whose work was based off-planet.
Over and Above Tourism
Although tourism is by far the leading industry for future space travel, many hope that other industries will be born as a direct result of tourism. One of these is deep-space mining, where we could see mining vessels extracting materials one of countless asteroids that are currently residing in our solar system. Another could see an industry that extracts water from one of the moon’s many water stores, potentially helping with any water problems that we may be facing back home. Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying that the future of space travel looks bright.