Space travel is no longer a distant dream, but a reality that is within reach for those who can afford it. This summer, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each made a sub-orbital flight on their respective supersonic rockets, ushering in a new era of space travel. But what does this mean for civilians? Will they be able to travel to space and when? In this article, we explore the possibilities of civilian space exploration and the potential impact it could have on the study of space. The speed of light in a vacuum is about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second, which means that one light-year is equivalent to about 9,461 × 1012 kilometers (5,879 trillion miles) or 63,241 AU. While these speeds are still far from what is required for interstellar travel on human timescales, they represent a reasonable reference point for what could be achieved within several decades.
Companies such as Japan's Shimizu Corporation are already looking into designing an orbital hotel in space with rotating rings to provide artificial gravity. The distances between stars are usually expressed in light years (defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a Julian year) or in parsecs (a parsec is equivalent to 3.26 ly, the distance at which the stellar parallax is exactly one second of an arc). To overcome these distances on human timescales, many different spacecraft propulsion systems have been proposed, including nuclear propulsion, beam-propelled propulsion, and methods based on speculative physics. One such method is the Ramjet Bussard, a fusion rocket proposed by Robert Bussard. This rocket would collect diffuse hydrogen from interstellar space, burn it on the fly through a proton-proton chain reaction and eject it from the rear. The crew of an interstellar ship would face several major hazards, including the psychological effects of prolonged isolation, the physiological effects of extreme acceleration (if it exceeds 1 g of acceleration), the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation from space and possibly from the ship's engines, and the physiological effects of weightlessness on muscles, joints, bones, the immune system and the eyes. Another possibility is an elevator that soars tens of thousands of miles into space.
This is something that scientists and businessmen are currently considering. Majd Mayyasi (GRS'09, '1), senior researcher at the Center for Space Physics at the University of California, recently discussed this topic with Doug Most, editor of BU Today. He noted that "what's most interesting [is] to be able to have the opportunity to go to space".DeMicco and Silvia Ciccarelli recently wrote “Outer space as a new frontier for hospitality and tourism” which will soon be published in an issue of Hospitality Educator. We had to experience three times the force of gravity when we fell, which is what people would experience when going to space and flying sub-orbital with the Virgin Galactic module. As technology advances and more companies invest in space exploration, it seems likely that civilian space travel will become more accessible in the near future.
While there are still many challenges to overcome before interstellar travel becomes a reality, it is clear that space exploration has come a long way since its inception.
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