Space Tourism - Your Shot at Outer Space Exploration

Let's say you've got the right stuff, decent health and a burning desire to loose your bonds to planet Earth. If you are not scheduled to fly on the Space Shuttle as a professional astronaut by the Shuttle's retirement date of 2010, maybe space tourism is your thing. Don't have $20 million for an outer space adventure to the International Space Station (ISS)? Or $200,000 for a suborbital version of space exploration? As Star Trek's Spock used to say, there are always alternatives.

You could become a science fiction celebrity. William Shatner (Captain James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame) has been offered a free ride to suborbital space on Virgin Galactic's new spaceship Enterprise, under construction at Scaled Composites' Mohave, California facility. Mohave, you will recall, was the site of SpaceShipOne's X-Prize-winning flights. According to the UK's Daily Mail, Kirk turned down the freebie, saying he didn't want to get space sick, then die in a fiery crash with a cloud of vomit hanging over his funeral pyre. Picturesque, no? Probably just a negotiating ploy. Alien's Sigourney Weaver, however, is going on the two-and-a-half-hour flight.

You could become a teacher. Several of the new suborbital spaceflight companies, working through the Space Frontier Foundation's "Teacher in Space" program, are planning to give away free rides to pedagogues. Besides providing great PR and a tax write-off, this marketing strategy gives companies a direct link to the next generation of space travelers through people they presumably admire and respect.

How about striking for "outer space correspondent"? That was the title given Japanese private cosmonaut Toyohiro Akiyama (48) during his week-long visit to the (then) Soviet Union's Mir space station in December 1990. The Tokyo Broadcasting System paid a reported $12 million for the flight. Production costs brought the total to $37 million. As an aside, the Russians rushed a group of Soviet reporters to a space "bootcamp" after many griped about a Japanese citizen becoming the first journalist in space. U.S. efforts to loft a journalist faltered after the 1986 Challenger accident, but there's plenty of sentiment for trying again to get a wordsmith into orbit. As astronaut Story Musgrave has said, we've got to get spaceflight into the culture, or it will die.

Seek a career as a pilot or a crew member for one of the new spacelines. Or you could go with a government job. NASA hires pilots and payload specialists. The Europeans, too, are looking to expand their astronaut corps, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Participate in a space talent reality show. Virgin Galactic's boss Sir Richard Branson is planning something called "Astronaut Idol", in which six contestants will vie for a spot on one of his spaceships. Although the first flight won't take place until 2009, the show could kick off as early as 2007.

Of course, you COULD win the lottery.

Speaking of lotteries, it has become customary to propose a national spaceflight sweepstakes to put ordinary citizens into space on a regular basis. An editorial in Ad Astra, the magazine of the National Space Society, suggested it again this past January (2006). The idea echoed the SpaceShare plan described in Buzz Aldrin's (yes the astronaut) 1996 science fiction novel Encounter with Tiber. The idea didn't originate with Buzz. In 1991, a Texas company called Space Travel Services invited people to purchase a $2.99 chance for a trip to the Russian Mir space station (no longer existent). Two months later, the principals were arrested and charged with felony counts of sponsoring an illegal lottery. The Founding Great Grandfathers did a little better. Word has it that the First Great Virginia Lottery of 1612 provided half the budget for the settlers of Jamestown, Virginia -- the earliest permanent English settlement in America.

Start small. There are many cheaper alternatives. You can fly to the edge of space on a Russian MIG-25 for about $15,000. You can experience freefall on Zero-G's modified Boeing 727 for $3,750. Any adult, or a child, can attend the U.S. Space Camp at Huntsville, Alabama for as little as $400.

Space exploration is taking off. Aided by the "iron horse" of the American Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, and all the innovative vehicles of the space tourism industry, outer space is the new Wild West. Don't give up your place in history just because you are not rich. That ticket to space is practically in hand.

Laurence B. Winn is an engineer and spaceflight advocate. His web site, www.alienlandscapes.biz, provides information about traveling, living, and working in space, and about sustainable living on Earth. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurence_Winn

Space Exploration

Space exploration is defined as the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Exploration has taken space by human spaceflight and robotic space craft.

The observations of objects in space, which is known as Astronomy, is one of the oldest known scientific studies, pre-dating reliable recorded history. Fuel Rockets developed in the early twentieth century allowed space exploration to broaden and become a reality. Space exploration often creates political competition, pushing individual countries to pace themselves faster in an attempt to gain exploration first, such as the "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Space exploration has shifted from singular flights to reusable hardware which allows for greater exploration. Private interest has began in space exploration creating the urge for more competition and larger government missions.

The first orbital launch was made in 1957. A Soviet, unmanned launch named Sputnik, it orbited the earth at about 150 miles. Following the Soviet's success, the United States unsuccessfully launched Vangaurd 1 two months later. In 1958 The Unites States successfully launched and orbited Explorer 1.

In 1961 the first human spaceflight took place on the Vostok 1, carrying a 27 year old man. The spaceflight completed one orbit around the globe in around two hours. This triumph urged the world to continue space exploration. The US followed in the Soviet's footsteps within six months. The Mercury flight orbited the Earth six times on February 20, 1962. In 1963 the first woman orbited the Earth 48 times aboard the Vostok 6.

One of the main targets of space exploration is astrobiology which is the focus of the study of life in the universe. Astrobiology is primarily focused on the origin and evolution of life. It is also often referred to as exobiology. Astrobiologists consider the possibility of life that is entirely different from any other life discovered in the past.

Alex Sutton has worked in the telescopes profession for nearly 11 years. For more information please visit telescopes Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexander_Sutton