Will There Be Airport Parking Problems In Space?
Will there be airport parking – or should that be spaceport parking – problems in space? Just as the early inventors of the car would have found it hard to imagine the chaos that affects our roads at rush hour and the need to pre book off airport parking just to be able to make a flight, we may find it hard to imagine that one day similar problems may affect space. But with recent developments, it has to be a possibility.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two
Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship Two (surely it could have a more interesting name) is being unveiled this week in the Mojave Desert after five years of top secret development work. It’s the world’s first commercial space craft, bringing us one step nearer to the future envisaged by Star Trek and similar TV programs. Like much of what used to be science fiction, scientific developments have put mass space travel within reach – quite close reach, as Virgin Galactic is planning to run two test flights next year and take the ship to maximum altitude in 2011.
Space Ship Two will be carried to launch altitude by White Knight Two which was unveiled a year ago. Those who have shelled out the $200,000 a pop for their tickets will be looking at these developments, anxiously waiting for their boarding passes. For that price they will get a two and a half hour flight (up and down again) and will experience weightlessness for about five minutes. It doesn’t sound like great value, but they will be experiencing something very rare.
The rest of us will have to wait till space travel comes down to a sensible price, which could be sooner than we think as other groups are also building their own spacecraft.
Of course, others such as the Smithsonian’s Roger Launius, caution that consumer space travel is still decades away as there is no real tourism infrastructure in space and no improvement in propulsion technology to make access to space easier. He believes that the sub-orbital space travel which Virgin Galactic is planning will remain the province of the wealthy elite, while the rest of us remain on Earth.
That’s a real bummer, as I’d love to go one day (no, I don’t have a spare $200 grand lying around). If Launius is to believed, it will be quite a while before we need to consider parking problems in space. I guess I’ll have to stick to writing about off airport parking for now.
Find out more about the Virgin Galactic craft here.
Tags: off airport parking, offsite airport parking, space travel, travel
