Science in the Spotlightwww.the-GIST.org
Science in the SpotlightThe ModernSpace RaceMiriam explores the new spacerace to the moon and beyond.Space races are exciting, there'sno denying it. However, unlike theiconic space race of old betweenCold War rivals, a slew of billionairesare vying to come out on topof this new competition. With 2019marking 50 years since the Apollomoon landing, nothing seems tohave captured public attentionmore than this historic event. Havingsaid that, the space sector iscurrently undergoing a renaissance.In this era, coined "New Space"[1], NASA has obtained a reducedrole. It's not countries that will besector leaders but business leadersinstead. And in the near future, itmay well be that anyone with a bigenough chequebook can become aspace tourist [2]. In the golden ageof spaceflight, widely considered tobe the Apollo era, it would be difficultto imagine that NASA's supremacywould be diminished.However, with strict budget cuts andprivate companies like SpaceXshowing that they can launch rocketsas well, the tides are changing[3].You might think that a space tripis the top answer to a billionaire'smid-life crisis. Nevertheless, theseprojects have been in the pipelinefor many years and when they havethat much spare cash to burn, whocould blame them [4]?Elon Musk, Richard Branson, andJeff Bezos are together pushingboundaries with, to all appearances,an unlimited budget. Butwhat goal are these billionaires tryingto attain? Jeff Bezos, thefounder of Amazon, was the first toemerge onto the private scene withhis company Blue Origin in 2000.The company believes that "in orderto preserve Earth, our home, for ourgrandchildren's grandchildren, wemust go to space to tap its unlimitedresources and energy" [5].Blue Origin is well known for theirwork developing the New Shepardrocket, named after Mercury astronautAlan Shepard. New Shepard isa suborbital rocket that travels highenough to reach the edge of outerspace without having the energy toachieve orbit. This incorporates acrew capsule with the aim of carryingfuture paying customers forsuborbital space tourism. Decembber11th of 2019 marked NewShepard's sixth space flight. It hascarried numerous experiments overits multiple missions [6].Elon Musk's SpaceX came to lightjust two years after Blue Origin. Hiscompany aims to "revolutionizespace technology, with the ultimategoal of enabling people to live onother planets". In 2010, they becamethe first private company ableto return a spacecraft from a lowEarth orbit. Since then they havegained global recognition for theirachievements. They were the creatorsof the Dragon spacecraft whichdelivered cargo to and from the InternationalSpace Station successfully.Commercially, this spacecraftwas the first of its kind. In recentyears, they began launching theirFalcon Heavy, "the world's mostpowerful operational rocket" [7].Richard Branson's Virgin Galacticis attempting to be the first to offercommercial human spaceflight.Their mission involves "using spacefor good" by trying to open up spaceto everyone [8]. However, currentattempts have not been withoutagony. Five years ago VSS Enterprisescattered pieces of itself overthe Mojave Desert during a testflight. The result was the death ofthe co-pilot, a father of two [9]. Thisis a sobering reality of spaceflightbut something astronauts andspace sector employees understandas a risk of the job.Years on, they have regrouped.As the company prepares for commercialflights, it has been able toraise $450 million by going publicon the New York Stock Exchange.They haven't given a date for theirfirst planned commercial flight, butit's presumed that it will be sometimein 2020. Their crews have, onprevious test flights, entered spacetwice. In anticipation of commercialwww.the-GIST.org
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