Axiom Space and NASA are taking the first steps towards creating a space hotel attached to the International Space Station. While this may sound odd or out of character for NASA, we are currently living an era where private companies, such as Boeing, Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX, are growing into prominence (to amounts possibly greater than NASA). The future of space is, right now, leaving government hands and going private. Forging the new industry of space tourism along the way.
The first "module" (or space hotel room) launches are set for 2024. In years after, the hotel will separate and form its own spacecraft.
These rooms will, of course, be first for the extremely wealthy and, many years down the road, more available to others (resembling car and plane travel). They will start more limited in technology, amenities, and activities and, over time, grow to resemble something like a space cruise ship. (Surprisingly and possibly uncoincidentally, Axiom is the same name as the spaceship in WALL-E, performing the same function too).
1. Would you ever go to space?
2. Do you think private companies that are less know, like Axiom, will be as safe as NASA? Will they be able to compete with the likes of Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Richard Branson (Virgin)?
3. Is there still a need to spend taxpayer money on NASA with these companies in the same field?
6 comments:
While innovation in space is always an extraordinary development, I'd say that the resources being allocated towards space should be reserved for research and educational purposes before it is used towards leisure. Space should be researched extensively before we become comfortable with it to be able to build a hotel there. If such a hotel were to be built, would there be any governmental jurisdiction in space? Would there be any sectors in space that a country would claim? Since the hotel is most likely going to remain private, at least in the upcoming years, many corrupt and wealthy individuals would take refuge in space to escape any accusations against them.
I personally think space is super dope, and have wanted to float among the stars since I was a kid. I understand that going to space is quite the ordeal, however, and am concerned about the safety of the transportation, as well as how the atmosphere of space can physically affect a person after an extended period of time.
I personally have no idea how these other companies compare to NASA, but I do know that people are definitely more into commercialized industry and travel than they are in science and research...
I think that NASA is still an important company, however, because it has been conducting the majority of space research since the 60's.
With regards to the first question, I don’t think I would ever want to go to space (unless of course it's necessary for the survival of myself and/or the species in general). As for the second question, I do believe that it’s in a company’s (public or private) best interest to provide the safest experience for potential customers. Logically, if they do cut corners, this could result in some unfavorable trips to the ISS (which of course would drop their value and desirability amongst other potential customers). It also helps that this isn’t a monopolized space (at least not yet), with companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic placing more competition into this new sphere. For number three, I don’t believe the answer is a clear cut yes or no. On one hand, our planet probably won’t be able to sustain the growing population, nor the abuse that our market society has become so dependent on. With this, the likely conclusion is that we should be looking outside of our planet, becoming a multi-planetary species in order to save the “human-race”. On the other hand however, by investing in space travel/exploration, I think we’re allocating too many resources to something that could possibly be prevented with more R+D on the domestic problems here on earth.
If technology reaches the point where commercial space travel is both (relatively) cheap and reliable, I think I would try to go to space at least once in my lifetime. I'm sure many regulations will have to be put in place to ensure that space travel is safe, and I believe private companies should be held to at least the same safety standards as NASA, since even with a 60 year old government program dedicated to space travel, accidents have happened. I personally am worried about the light pollution that will come with space travel: we may not see it too much now, but as more and more satellites and potential space stations/hotels are sent into orbit, they will start to block out our view of the night sky. NASA is involved with more than just space travel for commercial, recreational, and even Mars colony-related reasons, which are the main focuses of private space companies, so I see no reason to cut funding to it.
I would love to go to space if it became much cheaper and extremely safe just for the experience but at this point I think the environmental concerns outweigh the idea of the relaxing space travel. I would be a little more concerned about trusting smaller companies especially because they tend to have fewer funds which will most likely mean they end up cutting corners. This can create many safety concerns so I would trust NASA more because they have been researching since the 60's so they have proven their reliability.
I for one think an important question to consider is the economic ethics of companies going into space and replicating our bad capitalist methodology onto a relatively untouched place. Yes, space is full of debris from numerous space missions from the countries of the world, but many of these missions are for scientific purposes. The idea that corporations can just clutter up space for no reason other that to fulfill rich people fantasies may need some consideration as to how beneficial it is.
To the question 3 about taxpayer spending being necessary or not with the involvement of the private sector, I believe that NASA funding is absolutely necessary. There's an inherent difference about what a dollar into NASA goes towards versus a dollar in SpaceX or Axiom. It's important that we survey and study space as a means of furthering our own understanding of the world but also to watch for things like comets and asteroids that could do damage to the Earth - there's so much we don't know.
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