Space-travel notions depart realm of science fiction

Many people today may think of commercial space travel for civilians as unlikely and surprising as air travel was to those living at the beginning of the 20th century. Yet within the near future there may be commercial spaceports, spacelines and spaceships that will offer the opportunity to fly beyond the Earth’s atmosphere as easily as one travels from city to city by airplane. In 2004, Scaled Composite’s vessel SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X-Prize when it became the first privately financed, reusable spacecraft to twice travel into space within a two-week period. These suborbital flights demonstrated that commercial space travel can be a reality. SpaceShipOne also demonstrated that clever engineering designers can always improve upon existing technology. One of the principal challenges for NASA during the early days of space flight was to protect astronauts from the incredible frictional heat of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. This problem was resolved through the use of heat shields and ablative cooling, in which some of the surface material of the shields vaporizes at high temperatures, thereby acting to cool the remaining material and ensuring that cool temperatures are maintained inside the craft. New Mexico’s legislators have authorized $110 million for construction of a spaceport north of Las Cruces. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with completion in 2010. Virgin Galactic, a spaceline begun by Sir Richard Branson that will offer flights into space to the public, has agreed to locate its operations at the New Mexico spaceport when it opens. Other spaceports have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and are under development in Alaska, California, Florida, Oklahoma and Virginia. Planning continues for a Midwest spaceport in Columbus, Ohio. Australia, Singapore, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates plan to establish spaceports. Among the more ambitious plans for commercial space travel are those by Constellation Services International and Space Adventures Ltd. to eventually offer trips to the public, with tickets costing as much as $100 million to orbit the moon.