Category Archives: Space Travel

A mission to Mars is just one of the many out-of-this-world pit stops for USC Roski School of Art and Design alum Richelle Gribble.

I am an expeditionary artist, and my art is my passport, she said. I travel to far-reaching and unassuming places to reflect where humanity, technology and the environment collide.

Gribble was one of a select group of people chosen to experience the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. Its an analog habitat for human spaceflight to Mars that is located in an isolated area near the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii. The area has Mars-like features and resides at an elevation of approximately 8,200 feet above sea level.

USC Roski alum Richelle Gribble on her mission to Mars. (Photo/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

As soon as the crew arrives at the habitat and the airlock door is shut behind us, the Mars analog simulation begins, Gribble said. I was the vice commander and creative research specialist on a crew with five other women.

The first HI-SEAS study was in 2013, and NASAs Human Research Program continues to fund and sponsor follow-up studies. The missions are of extended duration from four months to a year and replicate isolated and confined environments, such as Mars500, Concordia and the International Space Station.

The purpose of the missions is to determine whats required to keep a spaceflight crew physically and mentally sound while on extended missions. The simulated Mars missions conduct research into food, crew dynamics, performance and other aspects of space flight. In addition, the HI-SEAS researchers carry out studies through a variety of daily activities.

Gribbles work, a convergence of art and science, is the type of solutions-based endeavor USC Roski School Dean Haven Lin-Kirk sees as a result of artists unique insight.

Artists tend to have a great deal of empathy and understanding of the human spirit, she said. I am immensely proud of how far our former artists and designers have gone and to see the tremendous impact they provide to society on Earth and perhaps beyond.

The HI-SEAS analog habitat location is surrounded by red, rocky terrain much like the iron oxide dust and regolith of Mars as well as a network of caves where the crew can carry out research during their simulated spacewalks, as seen in a video diary by Gribble and her all-female crew.

Our days are quite busy with packed schedules and a lot to be done in a short amount of time, mimicking the experience of astronauts in the International Space Station, Gribble said. We wear a full body spacesuit with a built-in communication system and oxygen machine. We cook with all dehydrated ingredients and track our food and water supply to correlate with the missions duration. We undergo daily exercise, sleep in small enclosures, have access to a science research laboratory, grow plants under grow lights, track daily medical reports and pursue both individual and team research and projects.

In addition, the HI-SEAS study by NASA is trying to understand crew dynamics such as morale, stress management and problem-solving. While working together as a group, each crew member is assigned a specific task to aid in the overall success of the mission.

Together, we delegate tasks to maintain the health and well-being of each other as well as oversee the systems and operations of the habitat, Gribble said. We each have daily activities and reports that are submitted each night, complete with a 20-minute communications delay, like Mars to our Mission Control.

Gribble said she wanted to join the HI-SEAS simulated mission to Mars as part of a multiyear voyage to broaden her artistic perspective by witnessing different places firsthand.

It led me to make art in unassuming yet far-reaching places, Gribble said. Ive traveled atop glaciers near the North Pole, in a traditional Japanese paper mill in rural Japan, underwater and within the Amazon jungle, in the Biosphere 2 in Arizona and inside a habitat on an analog Mars mission with NASA.

Gribble is currently developing an entire collection of art inspired by her journey to Mars. Works of art that stemmed from the HI-SEAS Mars simulation include the following:

Animated paintings of Martian rocks

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Cave Paintings of the 21st Century

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Eco-Footprints

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

To Space, From Earth: A space art DNA time capsule

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Living Light

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Crew members selected to take part in the HI-SEAS study are chosen based on the research projects proposed as well as the position for habitat operations and systems.

I encourage people from all backgrounds and disciplines to attend a space analog mission, especially as we extend our reach through commercial space travel, Gribble said. My hope is that analog missions can help accelerate our understanding of our social and environmental responsibilities on Earth and in the greater cosmos.

More stories about: Alumni, Roski School of Art and Design, Visual Arts

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From artist to astronaut, this USC alum is on a mission to Mars - USC News

A space capsule with a hole in it. A rocket that failed 31 miles over Earths surface. An orbital lab with misfiring thrusters.

Thats the short list of the most dramatic mishaps involving the International Space Station in the last three years. The missteps have one thing in common: They all involve Russian spacecraft traveling to, or already attached to, the stationor station modules that recently arrived from Earth.

There was a time, 60 years ago, when the Soviet Union was the worlds indisputable leader in space. The USSR had the first space probes, the most ingenious manned spacecraft, and the luckiest astronautser, cosmonauts.

Today, the Soviet Union is no more. Russia inherited most of the old Soviet space infrastructureincluding what became the Roscosmos space agencybut Moscow has struggled to maintain it.

Far from being a leader in space, Russia is quickly becoming a liability, several experts told The Daily Beast.

That has serious implications not just for an increasingly isolated, militaristic Russia, but also for all the countries that work with Russia in orbit, especially on the International Space Station. The United States, for one, might cut Roscosmos loose as it organizes ambitious new manned missions to the moon and maybe eventually Mars.

The Russians have a worse record than any other major space power, David Burbach, a space expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, told The Daily Beast. China landed a rover on Mars on its first try, while every Russian attempt to reach Mars since 1990 has failed.

With every year that passes, NASA has more options for productive and safe space partnerships. With every year that passes, it needsand probably trustsRoscosmos less and less.

The competition has become much strongerSpaceX, but also other Western firms and Chinas improving rocketsand Russia seems likely to keep losing market share if it cant improve its product, Burbach said.

The most recent Russian space mishap was arguably the most dramatic. On July 29, a Russian Proton rocket blasted off from Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan, a new science lab attached to its top.

The long overdue Nauka labthats Russian for sciencesafely docked with the International Space Station. For a while, everything seemed fine aboard the 22-year-old station, which currently houses seven crew: three Americans, two Russians, and one member each from the European and Japanese space agencies.

Generally speaking, the NASA astronauts command the ISS and conduct science experiments. The visiting Europeans and Japanese are usually scientists. Roscosmos meanwhile sends skilled cosmonauts to maintain the stations hardware.

There are actually two separate neighborhoods in the ISS. One for the Russians. Another for everyone else.

A few hours after docking last week, Nauka abruptlyand totally on its ownfired its maneuvering rockets. The malfunction set the 356-foot station spinning around its axis, 250 miles above Earth. NASA controllers on the ground in Houston were powerless to intervene. Only controllers in Russia had access to Naukas remote controls.

But the radio link required a direct line of sight. It was half an hour before the ISSs orbit took it over Russia, and Roscosmos could turn off the thrusters. Yeehaw! tweeted Zebulon Scoville, the flight director in Houston. That. Was. A. Day.

NASA at first announced that the ISS spun just 45 degrees before the Russians regained control. Five days later, NASA admitted it was wrong. In fact, in its half-hour spin, the thin-skinned stationwhich is festooned with modules, solar panels, and heat-venting radiatorsrotated 540 degrees, in essence turning around one and a half times.

To restore the station to its normal position, NASA turned on thrusters for another half-turn. Station is in good shape and operating normally, NASA tweeted. The space agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NASA told Space.com the ISS crew was never in danger. But Scoville tweeted that hed never been so happy to see all solar arrays and radiators still attached.

Maybe the ISS was in no danger of disintegrating. But NASA and Roscosmos are lucky the station didnt suffer extensiveand expensivedamage to vital systems. Roscosmos did not respond to a request for comment.

Worse, the July mishap is just the most recent screwup for Roscosmos. Most famously, back in August 2018, a Russian Soyuz capsule,which helps shuttle people and supplies to the station,somehow escaped the attention of Roscosmos quality-controls and arrived at the ISS with a 2-millimeter-diameter hole in it.

Once the Soyuz docked with the ISS, it began sharing the ISSs breathable atmosphere and started slowly venting that atmosphere into space.

Controllers in Houston and Moscow eventually noticed the drop in air pressure and sent the station crew on a hunt for the source. The crew patched the capsule and sent it back down to Earth.

Inspections turned up chilling details. There were several attempts at drilling, Dmitry Rogozin, the controversial head of Roscosmos space agency, said in televised comments. What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?

A separate Soyuz was involved in another close call two months later. A sensor malfunctioned on the rocket boosting two ISS crewan American and a Russiantoward the station. The rocket failed. The capsule containing the passengers ejected at an altitude of 31 miles and parachuted safely back down to Kazakhstan.

A year later, Roscosmos had completed its investigation of the hole on the first Soyuz. But the Russians refused to say publicly what they found out. We know exactly what happened, but we will not tell you anything, Rogozin reportedly said at a science conference for kids in September 2019.

In the meantime, NASA and Roscosmos detected another slow air leak aboard the ISS. Efforts by the crew in late 2020 narrowed the location of the leak down to, you guessed it, one of two Russian-made modules.

If youre sensing a trend, youre not wrong.

When properly assembled and operated, the Soyuz is perhaps the safest spacecraft ever. But its not hard to conclude that Roscosmos cant be trusted to build and run the cone-shaped craft.

As for newer Russian space hardware such as Nauka its as often as not badly designed, badly built and badly run. The pattern of poor quality control in new hardware in the Russian space program has been around for many years, John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute, told The Daily Beast.

To be clear, space travel is hard and risky. NASA knows this all too well. The Space Shuttle, which NASA decommissioned back in 2011, was actually the most dangerous spacecraft ever. The bulky, fragile space-planes two fatal crashes in 1986 and 2003 accounted for 14 of the 19 fatalities that have occurred during space missions since 1961.

The worlds space agencies are eager to avoid adding to this grim figure, which helps to explain why relations between NASA and Roscosmos have gotten chillier.

The Russians used to enjoy a reputation for building old-fashioned, but rugged and safe, space tech. Today that tech is no less old-fashionedthe Soyuz capsule has been in use since 1966but a lot of its also looking less and less safe.

Pavel Luzin, an independent expert on the Russian military and space program, has a theory. There is a huge problem with human capital, he told The Daily Beast. Most people who worked during the Soviet and early post-Soviet times and knew how the Soviet technologies really workedwith all their pitfallsare retired.

The new generations of engineers and workers suffer from the personnel turnover, he added. Young professionals prefer not to stay too long within the Russian space industry because of over-regulation and lack of salaries. Even if they work according to all the instructions, they just dont know the pitfalls.

A lack of money is the toxic thread weaving through Roscosmoss problems. For a decade between the Space Shuttles retirement and the introduction of new American capsules, Roscosmos earned billions of dollars renting rides to the ISS on its Soyuz capsules.

The importance of those rentals belied the Russian space programs funding problems. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian space program has been chronically underfunded, Chris Impey, a University of Arizona astronomer, told The Daily Beast.

Its also possible Roscosmos, and specifically Rogozin, is a bit ... distracted. By movies, of all things.

In a surprise move in May 2020, NASA announced a plan to send actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman to the ISS to shoot a movie. We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists, tweeted Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator at the time.

But the Russians are determined to get there first with their own movie. Shortly after Bridenstines announcement, Rogozin threw together his own plan to send actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shepenko to the ISS to shoot a thriller that Rogozin would co-produce.

That production is scheduled to kick off in October, right before Cruise and Liman arrive. Rogozins fixation on making a movie in space, and doing it first, was reportedly the final straw for Sergei Krikalyov, a famous former cosmonaut who was working under Rogozin at Roscosmos but objected to his boss filmmaking ambitions.

So Rogozin demoted him, according to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. If Rogozin is worried about the safety and reliability of his spacecraft, hes certainly not showing it. But if the reporting is accurate, hes not shy about punishing dissent.

NASA needs Roscosmos on the ISS. The Russians effectively own half of the station and still provide vital services to the other half. But the ISS wont last forever. The Biden administration wants to extend the aging station out to 2030 before turning it over to private operators.

After that, NASA plans to shift its attention to a new station, the Lunar Gateway, which would fly around the moon in a wide orbit that would allow it to both support a new generation of lunar explorers and function as a staging base for a possible future mission to Mars.

NASA is enlisting the usual foreign space agencies to help out with Lunar Gatewaywith one big possible exception. Its looking likelier that Roscosmos wont be aboard.

Its not that NASA wouldnt love to keep working with the Russians, all things being equal. Its one of the rare areas where Washington and Moscow arent rivals. We are partners in space, and I dont want that to cease, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said following a June meeting with Rogozin.

But the sad state of affairs at the Russian agency, and Rogozins refusal to admit there are problems and fix them, might force Nelsons hand. Going forward the stresses in the partnership suggest that it will not last in coming years, Logsdon said.

And even if the Russians do join the moon station, they wont occupy half of it like they do on the ISS. If Russian hardware isnt reliable, or even safe, that probably reduces their leverage, Burbach said.

Its not just that U.S.-Russian relations are fraying as Russia descends deeper into authoritarianism, invades its neighbors, and interferes in foreign elections. For the United States, breaking up with Russia in space is also a matter of safety.

Excerpt from:

Inside the Dangerous Consequences of Russia's Space Screwups - The Daily Beast

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes. It provides an opportunity for non-astronauts to go to space.

Are you interested in travelling to space? Do outer space and its mysteries entice you? Then here's your golden chance to see the outer world from a very close distance. But then for this, you have to be prepared to shell outa hefty amount from your pocket. Space tourism is human space travel forrecreational, leisure, or business purposes.There are different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.The whole idea behind this is that those who are not astronauts but want to go to space for non-scientific purposes can get an opportunity to do so.

So to get a seat aboard one of Virgin Galactic's upcoming spaceflights you have to pay an enormous sum of USD450,000. However, it is still less than what a winning bidder paid for in June to fly with Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos inhis rocket ship, New Shepard. Through a winning bid of USD28 million, the bidder booked a seat for himself in therocket ship.Over 7,600 people had registered from 159 countries to bid for this seat. However, it did not go down too well with the common public and more than 50,000 people signed online petitions urging Bezos to not return to Earth after he took his space flight on July 20.

Earlier, Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Galactic, himself reached the edge of space on July 11 along with three employees from his company who also boarded SpaceShipTwo. Apart from Virgin Galactic, companies including Virgin Atlantic, SpaceX, XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin and Armadillo Aerospace are working on providing space tourism services to people.

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DNA Explainer: Want to become 'private astronaut' and try your hands on space travel, here's your chance - DNA India

Wally funk, who boarded the blue origin flight on july 20, was honored with a parade in her native grapevine, tx | image: blue origin

Shes a woman in space. Shes now the oldest person to ever go to space. Shes crossed two eras of space travel in a span of ten minutes. Shes a Grapevine local.

And now, shes being celebrated as a hometown hero.

Wally Funk, 82, boarded the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin with Jeff Bezos and a crew of two other tourists (Mark Bezos and Oliver Daemen) to take off from Van Horn, TX for a ten-minute flight that the world watched on July 20.

Her native city Grapevine hosted a parade in her honor on August 7, 2021. Funk rode in a white convertible down Main Street lined by a few hundred observers seated with a mannequin in her Blue Origin flight suit. August 7th was hence proclaimed Wally Funk Day.

Surrounded my the businessmen (and the teenage son of a Dutch millionaire) aboard, Funk was the oddity of the crew in the best possible way. Besides being the only woman crew member, the oldest crew member, and the actual aviator of the group, she represented the embodiment of two eras converging. following her streak of meeting every you cant with an I can.

She got her pilots license at 17, and participated in Dr. William Lovelaces short-lived Women In Space program at NASA in the early 1960s, an initiative designed to test womens capabilities for space travel. Funk, at 23, was the youngest candidate among the 13 finalists of women who participated in the program (now known as the Mercury 13 or the FLATs: First Lady Astronaut Trainees).

None of those women ever made it to space, for being women and for not having engineering degrees.

Except now, 60 years later Wally Funk.

The whole thing was so fantastic, she said of the flight to the gathered crowd in Grapevine. She described small bump before she went up to float in space for three minutes.

I had done that in Russia for about 15-20 minutes, so I knew what to do when I was taking the Cosmonaut test. So that was pretty easy for me. But Ive been a lot of places, and this was the most fabulous thing of my life.

Click here to read about another local hero in space: Commander Victor Glover Jr.from Prosper, TX!

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Blue Origins Wally Funk honored with parade in Grapevine, TX - Local Profile

In looking back at the month of July, space milestones and events took center stage. Not only did July see the most important American accomplishment in space the Apollo XI landing on the Moon on July 20th, 1969 but it also saw the successful launch of two private industry human spaceflight operations

The first was the July 11suborbital spaceflight of the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceplane, with Richard Branson and five other crew members. The second was the July 20 flight of the rocket-powered New Shepard spacecraft developed by Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin LLC carrying Bezos, his brother, Mary Wallace Wally Funk of the 1960s Mercury 13 Women in Space program and one paying passenger (his payment went to charity).

But this July commemorated another historically important, albeit somewhat bittersweet, space event as well it was the 10 year anniversary of the last U.S. Space Shuttle flight. On July 8, 2011, NASA launched STS-135, which took the shuttle Atlantis and her crew of four veteran astronauts Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim on a routine trip to the International Space Station or as routine as any Shuttle flight could be. It was the 37th flight to dock at the space station, with the primary objective being to deliver supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. After several days in orbit, Atlantis successfully returned to Earth on July 21, touching down at Kennedy Space Center for the last time.

STS-135 was the final tour of duty in what was NASAs 30 year shuttle program, which performed a wide range of unique and groundbreaking missions for the U.S. space program from 1981 to 2011. Over those three decades which also saw the tragic Columbia and Challenger disasters the shuttle kept Americans moving up into space and allowed us to secure new gains in scientific advancement, exploration and understanding. At the same time, the shuttle program served as an immense point of national pride and interest not only did legions of Americans tune in regularly to watch shuttle launches, but in the context of larger geopolitical events, the shuttle program stood as a highly visible reminder of Americas space leadership, technological acumen, and adventurous spirit. In fact, over the course of the shuttle programs lifetime, Americas dominance in space was virtually unmatched.

But that all ended with Atlantis last run in midsummer a decade ago. And in the 10 years since that last mission, we have learned and perhaps relearned some painful lessons regarding space. On one level, after STS-135, we would be completely without an American-owned and operated human spaceflight system. After the retirement of the shuttle, the Russian Soyuz served as the only mode of human space transport to reach the International Space Station literally leaving American astronauts, their safety, and our role in space at the hands of the Russians. This gap endured until the first flight of SpaceXs Crew Dragon Demo 2 in May of 2020. And while we are now, thankfully, moving seriously forward on reestablishing our own serious space transport system, having to seek favor from Russia seems compromising at best and lacks dignity at worst.

At the same time and on a more strategic level, the fact that the U.S. which had led the world in space for generations now had to rely on Russia for space access smacked as a real step backward. Maintaining and operating a successful, reliable and safe space program that can transport human beings beyond Earths atmosphere is the insignia of modern, leading world powers. Conversely, not being able to make that claim, even if only temporarily, gives adversaries a talking point. This is a lesson our pacing competitors particularly China understand and take very seriously.

And on a final level, terminating the shuttle program without a coherent, funded plan regarding a ready backup had the effect of further delaying and dragging out the process for a replacement. In the intervening years, efforts to establish U.S. human spaceflight options for reliable and ready access to space have been costly, disruptive and elusive, with several presidential administrations and congresses differing on approach and underfunding NASA and its programs. One could argue that without space-focused billionaires, we still wouldnt be there.

Of course, the reasons for retiring the shuttle seemed to make sense to many policymakers at the time. The expense of the program was deemed too significant and some of the initial visions of the program were never met. And, safety concerns loomed large after the Challenger disaster, and even more so following the loss of Columbia. But the criticism of killing the shuttle program from some corners was notable.

In fact, at the time, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong commented in testimony before Congress that, We will have no American access to, and return from, low Earth orbit and the International Space Station for an unpredictable length of time in the futureFor a country that has invested so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this condition is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable.

Fast forward to the present, we are seeing what that half-generation gap in capability has brought. Fortunately, American efforts to get back to space on our terms, with our own technology look promising particularly with the private sector taking a significant lead to make American-driven human spaceflight a reality. But if the period after STS-135 is any reminder, a broad spectrum of complications, crises, funding concerns, or global distractions, could significantly challenge our ability to stay on track to reestablish and advance a human spaceflight program remember, even the private sector is reliant on NASA-paid demand. Congresss decision in late 2020 to cut funding for the Human Landing System is a perfect recent example.

So this year, as we marvel at the recent notable strides made by the private sector in moving humans back into space and which may help usher in a new era of interest in space and space travel we also need to reflect on what the last 10 years since STS-135 have meant. We also need to remember that last flight of Atlantis and what it represented as well as what the entire U.S. Space Shuttle program achieved and meant for our nation. In looking 10 years back on the last mission of July 2011, and at the lack of an American spaceflight option after STS-135, we need to learn our lesson. With peer competitors deadly serious about their roles and ambitions in space, it would serve us well to not leave any gaps for our adversaries to exploit whether to Earth orbit, to the moon or even to Mars.

Grant Anderson, P.E. is the president & CEO of Paragon Space Development Corp., a leader in life support and thermal control in extreme environments. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Op-ed | The Last Shuttle Flight A 10-Year Lesson - SpaceNews

Blue Origins successful launch and landing of New Shepard may be a step closer to fulfilling the promise of space for all, but who really benefits? Jeff Bezos does.

It has been pointed out that no taxpayer money was used to fund this launch, but although no direct taxpayer money was used, Jeff Bezos used his private wealth accumulated from Amazon to found Blue Origin, which he owns privately. I would argue that, because Amazon does not pay its fair share of taxes, the American taxpayer subsidized Amazons bottom line which, in turn, funded Jeff Bezos wealth, which he used to found Blue Origin. He even thanked his customers and (underpaid) employees. How about thanking the taxpayers?

Now I probably wont utilize space travel in my time, but do you know who will? The ultra wealthy (who cares) and Big Business. I watched an interview Mr. Bezos had with NBC in which he said We need to take heavy industry, polluting industry, and move it into space. I equate that with selling your home and moving to a new one because your current house is messy.

Friends, we need to learn how to clean up our messes before we move them into space. Its a new and exciting frontier, but lets remind our leaders in big business and government that most of the inhabitants of Earth will always live here. Its dangerous and naive to think that space industry wont affect our planet. Please tell Jeff Bezos.

Kelly MilewskiWestbrook

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Letter to the Editor: Only Bezos benefits when Bezos goes to space - pressherald.com

Gone are the days of Salman Khan-hosted Big Boss and Keeping Up With The Kardashians, reality television producers are eyeing the International Space station as the location for the hottest new shows. Word is that The Discovery Channel is considering Who Wants to be an Astronaut while a competitor, Space Hero is hoping to land somewhere else.

Who Wants to be an Astronaut relies on traditional reality television tropes, whereby contestants will vie for an all-expenses paid trip to live on the ISS for eight days. According to CNN, the as-yet unknown variety of extreme challenges are designed to determine which competitors have what it takes to be a real astronaut, and passage to space will be provided by Axiom Space.

The Discovery Channel on the other hand has enlisted former astronaut Mike Massiminos consulting services. Massimino, on a mission to repair the Hubble Telescope in 2019, had personally shot footage of the ISS for the Hubble documentary via a IMAX camera giving viewers a close-up and realistic look at what goes into the process of repairing the telescope. He predicts a future where more people with special, non-astronaut skills like filming, are trained for missions. Hopefully, well get better movies out of it, and better entertainment thats what Im hoping for.

However, Massiomino also highlights a challenge the ISS is narrow and cramped, and it wasnt built with big cameras in mind. You cant have a whole crew. You are not going to be able to launch 50 people to the space station. But advancements in camera technology and a reduction in barriers to space travel have broadened the scope of what is possible on the ISS.

The report says that Who Wants to be an Astronaut is entirely US-based, but Space Hero is attempting to bring a global component to the TV-in-space sector. Creators Deborah Sass and Thomas Reemer plan to make sure that space travel isnt limited to countries that already have a stake in ISS. Space Hero, which is privately-funded, plans to feature 24 contestants 12 men and 12 women from around the world. Twelve men and twelve women, twelve from underdeveloped countries and twelve from developed countries, says Sass. And they will be put into a Space Village, kind of like the Big Brother house, but with wearable technology and biometrics testing.

Also Read: Climate change will prove catastrophic for the world

In Space Hero house, activities and challenges will narrow down the list of candidates until only one person remains. The global audience, naturally, will be encouraged to vote for their favorite would-be astronaut. Reemer predicts that the demand for an astronaut from lesser-known countries is there. There is Nigeria with two hundred million inhabitants, never had an astronaut. Thats where the hunger comes from. India, the last astronaut from India was 1985it means something to be the first astronaut of your country.

The minds behind the global reality show have already started reaching across borders to foster relationships with other space agencies. Space Hero claims that multiple agreements have already been forged internationally. Furthermore, NASA is on board with the expansion of uses for the ISS. Who Wants to be an Astronaut is currently taking applications through its online portal and Space Hero will open on December 21, 2021.

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Reality television producers are eyeing the International Space Station. - Plunge Daily

Popularity in civilian space travel is increasing as several of the worlds billionaires have an ongoing friendly competition. As the space exploration companies send their first crewed vehicles to the edge of space, how soon will space tourism becomes widely available?

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo space plane Unity returns to earth after the mothership separated ... [+] at Spaceport America, near Truth and Consequences, New Mexico on July 11, 2021. - Billionaire Richard Branson took off July 11, 2021 from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space, a voyage he hopes will lift the nascent space tourism industry off the ground.A massive carrier plane made a horizontal take-off from Spaceport, New Mexico at around 8:40 am Mountain Time (1440 GMT) and will ascend for around an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 kilometers).The mothership will then drop a rocket-powered spaceplane called VSS Unity, which will ignite its engine and ascend at Mach 3 beyond 50 miles (80 kilometers) of altitude, which marks the boundary of space according to the United States. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Virgin Galactic Space Flight

The Virgin Galactic VSS Unity is the most recent civilian spacecraft to push the envelope. Several final suborbital test flights are happening in late 2021 before the company gets clearance to take commercial passengers.

Company founder Richard Branson, three Virgin Galactic senior leaders, and two pilots flew to the edge of outer space on July 11, 2021. The VSS Unity flew to what the United States considers the beginning of outer space at 80 kilometers (approximately 262,000 feet).

To spark a little controversy, most nations consider the Krmn Line at 100 kilometers to be the official start of space. Other space tourism companies are striving to reach this boundary instead of where Virgin Galactic currently flies to.

The successful trip means Virgin Galactic is one step closer to letting civilian flights begin with the first flights departing in early 2022. So far, the company reports 600 active reservations, with each ticket selling between $200,000 and $250,000.

The company is having a raffle drawing for two seats on the first flights. Entrants can make a donation to Space for Humanity by September 1, 2021, to enter the giveaway.

The Virgin Galactic space experience takes place on the VSS Unity craft built for six passengers and two pilots. Flights depart from Spaceport America in Truths or Consequences, New Mexico.

Guests can enjoy the view of a lifetime and spend several minutes at the edge of space. There are 17 ship windows to look outside. The craft also has several in-cabin cameras to record the experience for posterity.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin is also sending its first crewed suborbital space flight on July 20, 2021. Thats nine days after Virgin Galactics first flight, but the Blue Origin vehicle will fly an additional 20 kilometers to the Krmn Line.

The July 20 test flight is Blue Origins 16th voyage for the New Shepard vehicle but its first with passengers. Its possible to watch the flight live online at BlueOrigin.com. New Shepard will launch from Launch Site One in Van Horn, located about 120 miles away from El Paso, Texas.

The passenger manifest includes Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three passengers. Two of the other passengers are Mark Bezos (Jeffs younger brother) and Wally Funk, an 82-year-old female test pilot from the 1960s space training missions.

The identity of the third passenger hasnt been revealed yet. However, the lucky passenger paid $28 million in a charitable auction. The proceeds go to the Club for the Future philanthropic foundation to support STEM education.

Currently, Blue Origin has a Federal Aviation Administration license for human space travel through August 2021. If the first crewed flights are successful, the public can potentially start space tourism flights in early 2022.

Just like it was a race between Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin to see which company founder can go suborbital first, it can be a fierce competition to see which company successfully launches the first space tourism flights.

SpaceX

SpaceX is the third American competitor for space tourism. The company doesnt have plans to send its founder, Elon Musk, to space yet as its space travel model is a little more exciting. In typical Elon Musk fashion, SpaceX plans on sending travelers into actual outer space for a multi-day journey. Travelers might be able to stay aboard the spacecraft while orbiting around Earth.

The other possibility is visiting the International Space Station. SpaceX already has the claim of the first post-Space Shuttle crewed spaceflight. This flight took place in May 2020 with two astronauts. Another successful trip Crew-1 Mission in November 2020 that successfully docked four astronauts at the International Space Station.

Theres no official word when civilians will be able to partake in these overnight missions. Due to the complexity of this travel itinerary, tickets can also cost more than $1 million each.

For now, Elon Musk bought a ticket to take a future Virgin Galactic spaceflight. In time, SpaceX hopes to take missions to the Moon and also to Mars. The Moon landings could happen as soon as 2024, according to the company.

Summary

Aspiring space tourists should first focus on flying either Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin. These flights are easier to do as they only go to the edge of space and will be significantly cheaper. If everything goes according to plan, space tourism can become a reality in 2022.

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Space Travel Updates: When Will We Be Able To Travel To Space? - Forbes

Virgin Galactic already has 650 people signed up to fly on its vehicle, including musician Justin Bieber and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, but while only accessible to the rich and famous for now, there is hope such flights may one day be more affordable for the general public.

Yesterdays flight wasnt only about bragging rights. Suborbital flights also allow for important scientific work to be done too. Researchers flying with their own science is very , very valuable, says Laura Forczyk from the space consulting firm Astralytical. On this first flight was an experiment from the University of Florida tosee how plants respond to microgravity. Future missions will study how dust behaves on asteroids, and practice techniques for performing surgery in space.

Crucially that can be led by the researchers themselves, such as Alan Stern from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas and the lead on NASAs New Horizons mission to Pluto, rather than relying on remote systems or astronauts on the International Space Station. Stern, for example, will test an astronomical imaging systempreviously used on the Space Shuttlethat could perform useful observations of the solar system.

For 150 years theres been a theorised population of [asteroids] inside the orbit of Mercury, says Stern. The best way to look at them is at twilight from space. On the space station, the twilight phenomenon only lasts 30 seconds as youre traveling at 18,000 miles per hour. But on SpaceShipTwo or New Shepard, the phenomenon persists for minutes.

There are, of course, plenty of valid criticisms of two billionaires racing to space amid a pandemicand it's unlikely many of us will ever be able to afford the trip for years to come. But the childish Branson/Bezos competition should still pave the way for more people to get up there than ever before, scientists included.

This is not just billionaires and rich people, says Forczyk. This could be the dawn of really true commercial space tourism.

It shows that commercial space is ready for primetime, adds Williams.

Correction: We amended the location of Spaceport America. It is in New Mexico, not California.

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Richard Branson just flew to the edge of space. Heres what it means for space travel. - MIT Technology Review

July 15 (Reuters) - An 18-year-old physics student whose father heads an investment management firm is set to take the place of a person who put up $28 million in an auction to take part in the inaugural space tourism flight for billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company.

Blue Origin said on Thursday Oliver Daemen will join the four-member all-civilian crew for Tuesday's scheduled flight after the auction winner, whose name had not been made public, dropped out due to unspecified "scheduling conflicts." Daemen becomes the company's first paying customer.

His addition means that the flight is set to include the oldest person ever to go to space - 82-year-old trailblazing female aviator Wally Funk - and the youngest, Daemen, according to Blue Origin. Joining them for Blue Origin's suborbital launch will be Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos.

Daemen is working to obtain his pilot's license and is set to attend the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to study physics and innovation management in September, Blue Origin said. His father is Somerset Capital Partners CEO and founder Joes Daemen.

The elder Daemen "paid for the seat and chose to fly Oliver," Blue Origin said. The company declined to say how much was paid.

"Flying on New Shepard will fulfill a lifelong dream for Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the Moon, and rockets since he was four," the company said in a news release.

Bezos has been locked in a race with billionaire rivals Richard Branson and Elon Musk as they seek to usher in a new era of commercial space travel in a tourism market that Swiss bank UBS estimates could be worth $3 billion annually in a decade.

New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall (18.3-meters-tall) and fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo that cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft. The launch is set for a site in West Texas.

Branson, the British billionaire businessman, was aboard his company Virgin Galactic's rocket plane for its pioneering suborbital flight from New Mexico on Sunday. read more

Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Teenager to fly with Bezos in inaugural space tourism flight - Reuters