Space Race II: A 'Private' Astronaut (http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xprize-04h.html)


Ten years in the making, the Ansari X Prize -- which promises $10 million to the first team to fly a three-passenger ship to sub-orbital altitude twice within two weeks -- is in the home stretch, with the first test-flight of a homegrown rocket ready to reach space on Monday.

I love that this is finally happening.

I find myself wondering though, do you guys think anything will come of this in a comercial and/or scientific sense? or will it just become an expensive paragraph in "ripley's believe it or not"? will this just ultimately be a historical bump, leaving space travel in the hands of government forever? god I hope not but I don't see how this craft will lend much in either reusable space craft design or manned space travel in general.

any thoughts?

I think it will be in the history books as a first, and will inspire others to do the same.

I don't believe that governments will take over space travel. There's not enough in it for them. All governments want is power. The only real power in space is military, and the shape of warfare has changed forever. Having a "Star Wars" type of anti-missile defense system, or even a Xindi type of offensive weapon that can wipe out an entire nation, is not the kind of power that will do any good in the increasingly downsized types of conflicts that are coming to dominate human struggle.

You could destroy Baghdad or Damascus or Paris from space, but you can't destroy Al Qaeda or the Hezbollah because it's not concentrated in one place.

The only other kind of power in space is commercial. Zero-gravity and/or zero-temperature factories. Gigantic superconducting rings that could be used for cheap communication. The investment is too great for even the U.S. government to squeeze out of its beleaguered taxpayers, especially since no matter who wins the next election we're going to have to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into rebuilding Iraq.

The private sector always does things more cost-effectively than governments do. They may charge you six hundred bucks for a hammer or a toilet seat, but you'll never catch them paying that much for one.

The contest for the first private sector spacecraft guarantees success. Even if the first five craft fail or even (goddess forbid) crash and burn, there will be five more waiting to try.

Space travel isn't like railroads. It doesn't take a huge infrastructure that only a government can build. Small is beautiful when it comes to space travel. Unmanned is the best. Once the contest is over I'm sure the companies will return to sanity and stop building huge, slow, heavy vessels that can carry humans in comfort and safety. Small, fast, light spacecraft are the future. They don't need human crews.

I don't believe that governments will take over space travel.

huh? at present the world goverments have a total monopoly. I wasn't asking if they'll take it over, why would they when they already have total control over it? I was curious if you guys thought this private launch would lead to more commercial involvement or will private participation just fizzle out.

huh? at present the world goverments have a total monopoly. I wasn't asking if they'll take it over, why would they when they already have total control over it? I was curious if you guys thought this private launch would lead to more commercial involvement or will private participation just fizzle out.


It will just fizzle out.

LEO has been privately commercialized for communications and weather observation for some time now, with far more corporate and international hardware orbiting than government-issue. Satellite activity and local/suborbital joyrides (sign me up!) like we saw today should not be confused with "space travel", because the difference is like that between a human ancestor skipping a stone into the very edge of the ocean, and we today sailing the QM2 across it.

that was sort of my point. Though I find this really cool I don't see how it applies to cheaper, reusable, manned space flight. It's more like a VERY expensive carnival ride.

There will continue to be private space travel of course. I imagine at some point short range space vehicles may get pretty common. Though I suppose 'short range' is relative...