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Hayden Tanner
Professor Reynolds
ENG.1201.503
10/26/21
The New Frontier of Transportation
Imagine being strapped into a rocket ship about to be launched into the sky at

incredible speeds. Looking out the window, you see the ground below quickly start to

fall away, and the adrenaline starts to kick in as the g-forces start being applied. This is

what astronauts experience when leaving the Earth's surface but what if there was a

way in which every day civilians could experience the same thing. Commercial space

travel or space tourism could be the answer. This new principle of transportation could

see regular people using spacecraft and the frictionless environment of space as a

means of getting from point A to point B in a way that has only been dreamt of. With the

current rise in companies who are providing space travel and the immense amount of

research being done on the best ways to get average citizens into space, commercial

space travel will one day be the new wave of modern transportation that will bring a new

and exciting experience for traveling around the world and possibly to other areas of the

universe as well.

Since the 1960’s, humans have been exploring the concepts of the world outside

of our own atmosphere and have been doing immense research on how to get humans

into space. With the space race we were able to put humans on the moon, which was a

huge accomplishment and ever since that moment, we have been learning and

improving upon our past space excursions which have led us to where we stand today.

Companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are starting to make their
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own name within the space community with new methods and procedures that differ

from all other ways that space missions have been accomplished one of which being

the new process of making reusable space craft that can land safely on the ground and

be refueled and sent back up into space. SpaceX has had the most success with these

new spacecrafts, but it seems that there is a new race between companies to make the

most reliable version. The future of having the possibility to use space travel as a new

way for transportation hinges on the success of these re-useable vessels and will be

talked about in more detail later in this essay.

Like previously mentioned, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are the three

main companies who are heading the push for commercial space travel. The work of all

three of these companies has been monumental and has really started to gain interest

from the general public. The only problem as for now is that ventures into space

commercially are still in the very early testing stages. With our current technology, we

only have the capability to take around 5-6 people into space at a time and each seat

costs quite a substantial amount of money. Not too long-ago Richard Branson, founder

of Virgin Galactic, took a trip into space with a group of 5 other crew members. Although

this was quite a feat to behold, especially leaving the atmosphere in a “space plane”

rather than conventional spaceship, the experience only lasted for a few minutes before

they had to come back down to the surface of the Earth. The real kicker here though

was that to go on the journey, you had to pay a pretty penny. According to Adam

Rogers in his article titled “Space tourism is Not Worth the Human Risk” Virgin Galactic

is making something similar to the world's most expensive amusement park ride that is
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specifically made for the richest of individuals (Rogers). With today's technology, it is

not possible to take the capacity of passengers that a regular jumbo jet could carry.

Becoming an astronaut normally is a very lengthy and difficult process to go

through. There are a lot of different tests and challenges that have to be completed

before being able to be shipped off into space. According to the academic journal titled

Our Future in the Stars, “Earning a bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for

NASA positions, and the astronauts train beyond the classroom by swimming laps in a

space suit to experience zero-gravity. A day in an astronaut’s life might start by climbing

aboard the “vomit comet,” an aircraft that flies a parabolic path to simulate microgravity

conditions. Astronauts also accustom themselves to move and work in weightlessness

at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC)” (Helen Yang). It

is also a very competitive process in which astronaut candidates have to pass with a

higher score than their peers in order to become an astronaut. The main purpose for all

of this training is to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible. Leaving the Earth’s

atmosphere is by no means a safe activity. The history of space travel has seen many

difficulties when trying to get into space and we have learned from all of those mishaps

in order to make the necessary improvements needed to ensure the safety of everyone.

With these most recent ventures into space, everyone had to go through training

before they were able to take off. Jared Isaacman, who used to fly fighter jets for an

aerobatic team called the “Black Diamonds” and who is now the CEO of Draken

International, a company which runs its own private Air Force, had the opportunity to

travel into space as one of the first tourists. After reaching an agreement with SpaceX,

Isaacman was set to leave Earth’s atmosphere with a group of 4 other crew members.
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Before anyone was able to shoot for the stars immense training had to be done. The

five months leading up to the launch have been filled with training exercises for the

Inspiration4 crew. Isaacman, who was the commander, designed most of the exercises

and even flew the crew members in his MiG-29 fighter jet to ensure that they could

handle the immense g-forces that they would soon experience when leaving the Earth’s

surface. Another exercise saw the crew take a hike ten thousand feet up Mount Rainier

(Kluger). On top of Isaacman’s training procedures, “The rest of their training has mostly

involved the usual NASA-style simulator and classroom work, only on a compressed

timeline. On a recent day at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., the crew

practiced opening and closing the hatch, what to do in the event of a pressure leak in

the hatch seal, techniques for earth observation, and splashdown and recovery

procedures—and that was all before lunch” (Kluger). The likelihood of everyone getting

trained on safety procedures and other scenarios before going to space may weigh out

a lot of people who want to use space travel as a new way of transportation.

Kluger goes on to mention how the principles of physics have a much greater

effect on those who wish to travel through space than compared to a normal airplane.

The speed and g forces associated with traveling to space can be very hard to deal with

for a lot of people who have not yet experienced something of that caliber. When

traveling on an airplane, companies try to make the experience as comfortable as

possible. Obviously, things such as weather patterns and turbulence can’t be controlled

but the experience of flying on a commercial jet is all around pretty comfortable. When it

comes to traveling to space, as for now, there is no way to control the comfort of lift off

and reentry. A lot of people would say the moments of discomfort would all be worth it
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after having the chance to feel weightlessness for the very first time and I would have to

agree but, in order to make commercial space travel available for all who want to take a

much faster trip, the level of comfort will have to increase.

When it comes to travelling on Earth, the three main options are by car, by plane,

or by train. As well as space travel, the main concerns for these modes of travel are

cost, protecting the environment, and how long it takes to get from one destination to

another. Travelling by car is a great way to get somewhere that is relatively close to

your starting point without having to spend a lot of money on a ticket but, the cost of

stopping to get gas on the way could eventually equate to the price of a plane or train

ticket pending on how far one must travel. Trains are good for longer distances but

depending on the type of train it could be a longer trip between start and end points.

Lastly, travelling by air is definitely the fastest modern mode of transportation but the

price for some tickets, especially around any holidays, can be really expensive. Another

thing to consider with these other modes are the safety risks involved. Of course,

everything we do as humans has some form of safety risk, but we tend not to think

about such things when we are looking forward to something like a vacation.

Each of these modes is attached to its own separate experiences that all add to

the fun of traveling. Being in a car for long durations of time allows for more bonding

experiences with family and friends and the option to stop along the way to get some

good rest or to do something fun. A lot of people have not experienced traveling on a

train and being able to ride on such a large vehicle can be quite exciting. Of course,

being able to watch the ground fall beneath you while you fly high in the sky and feeling

the rush of speed during take-off is exhilarating in and of itself, and then being treated to
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beautiful views of the ground below really makes for an unforgettable experience. I am

saying all of these things because space travel also brings a new and exciting

experience for those who are capable of taking the journey. Being pushed through the

air by a rocket travelling at incredible speeds would be an unforgettable experience.

Once out of the Earth's Atmosphere, passengers will be able to experience

weightlessness while also looking back and seeing our home planet in a way that they

have never been able to before. Just like other modes of transportation, the experience

usually outweighs the negatives one may be thinking about.

As mentioned earlier the three main companies spearheading the commercial

space travel industry are SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. Although these

companies are in their own form of “space race” against each other, they are all still

doing quite a bit in order for commercial space travel to one day be a viable means of

transportation. SpaceX, founded in May of 2002 by Elon Musk, is a private company

that has been making their own rocket motors and crew capsules that have seen great

success in the past few years. This success comes from the drive of the founder which

is “Musk's relentless quest to get humans to Mars as soon as possible” (Marks). So far

SpaceX has been able to make some incredible technological advancements which

include completely reusable rocket stages that have the capability to land on the ground

safely after they have re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, called the Falcon 9 rocket, as well

as the improvements to crew capsules that was capable of bringing people to the ISS.

With all companies though, you can’t have success without failing first. There have been

a lot of tests by SpaceX that have not gone the way they were originally intended but

that can be seen as a good thing. Buzz Aldrin, who was lucky enough to walk around on
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the Moon’s surface, applauds SpaceX’s failures saying that “So let’s press ahead

beyond a failure to future successes. Cultivating new capabilities that drive down costs

and further secure a private sector toehold in low Earth orbit is a clear window to see

our space future” (Aldrin). He also commends how SpaceX was capable of finding ways

to transport goods from the Earth to the ISS all while doing so in the most cost-effective

way. The future of commercial space travel depends on being able to make the industry

as cost effective as possible.

Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, is the closest competition to SpaceX

at the moment in terms of reusable spacecraft. With their “New Shepard” spacecraft,

Blue Origin is capable of taking cargo or a six-person crew out of Earth’s atmosphere

for an eleven minuet, sub-orbital flight (Blue Origin). Suborbital flight refers to the

trajectory of the spacecraft once it has exited the atmosphere. If the spacecraft fails to

complete one full orbit around the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere, it is

considered to be a suborbital flight. Blue Origin has a much smaller craft compared to

SpaceX but have seen similar success. In July of 2021, Bezos and a crew of three took

the “New Sheppard” craft for its first manned suborbital flight and it went without a hitch.

After some more testing, Blue Origin has plans to allow tourists to experience space.

Similar to SpaceX, a lot of testing and safety measures have been put in place to

ensure a successful launch. The way that Blue Origin is more targeted towards the

consumer world rather than the private industry really emphasizes their dream of putting

everyday humans into space. Disregarding the price, which is unsurprisingly high, being

able to experience space at a more reasonable altitude allows for a larger interest group

which could help in the future by reducing costs.

Founded by Richard Branson in 2004, Virgin Galactic is another private company

who has their eyes set on bringing people into space. Like Blue Origin, they offer a paid

experience that brings passengers out of the atmosphere and into the weightless

environment of space. They too have a reusable spacecraft, but it has a different means

for getting off the ground and landing. According to Virgin Galactic “Our launches begin

with a smooth runway takeoff before our spaceship and mothership climb together to

just below 50,000 feet. Once past the thickest layers of atmosphere, our ships don’t

require huge amounts of fuel to reach space. We call this energy-efficient, flight-like ride

an Air-Launch. Next, our pilot releases spaceship from mothership. The spaceship’s

rocket ignites, sending the craft up to space a little over Mach 3. The colors outside the

window change from blue to indigo to midnight black as you reach space and the rocket

motor switches off” (Virgin Galactic). As you can tell by the phrasing of this passage

from the Virgin Galactic website, they are all about selling the experience to a customer

and are most likely leaving out some key information, like price and overall flight

duration but disregarding that, the way in which you get to space is a little unorthodox.

The spacecraft is carried up by a “mothership” to a certain altitude before the rocket

motor starts and carries passengers the rest of the way up. After re-entry, the

spacecraft extends its landing gear and lands back on the ground similarly to a regular

airplane. This way of getting to and from space is quite different from SpaceX and Blue

Origin and would ultimately give a completely different experience that could help to

bring more comfortability to the trip allowing for a broader audience to be able to take

part in the experience.

Even with the possibility of commercial space travel someday becoming more

accessible to everyone, some still think that it is not a good idea in the slightest. Out of

the three companies that were listed prior, Virgin Galactic is the one who has more

interest in the tourist aspect of space rather than trying to explore more of the universe.

Adam Rogers from wired.com says “And it's a mistake to lump that kind of endeavor

with Virgin Galactic. Exploration and evacuation are not its value proposition. The

technology SpaceShipTwo employs is not, except perhaps in its broadest description,

designed to take humanity off-world. It's genius engineering, but it isn't about exploring

anything except the legitimately difficult challenge of a rocket plane that can go very,

very high. It is about making space tourism into a viable business” (Rogers). Rogers

continues by saying that space tourism can be exciting and eventually be a profitable

business, but technology should be used more for when Earth becomes inhabitable for

humans (Rogers). While this does make sense, I think that it is important to continue

pushing for more space exploration even if it is through more of a business standpoint

because if there are more people with experience traveling in space, the more prepared

people will be for the possibility of evacuating the planet in case of emergency.

The biggest thing that needs to be done in order for commercial space travel to

become a more cost effective and customer friendly venture would be to make

spacecraft capable of carrying much larger amounts of passengers. As for now,

companies are only capable of taking up to six passengers, which is why prices are

extremely high.
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Fig. 1. This image shows the seating capacity of the Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two

spacecraft.

Mark Johnson in his article “Space Tourism Needs an 'Orbital Megabus' to Truly Lift

Off” makes it very clear that in order for space tourism and commercial space travel to

truly be a successful business, there needs to be a way to take more passengers

aboard a single spacecraft (Johnson). These large capacity spacecrafts would most

likely have to resemble Virgin Galactic's “Spaceship II” space plane but would have to

have the capability to maintain orbital flight which would allow to travel to destinations

farther away. Opening up the possibility to travel into space to the public rather than

focusing on relying on the rich in order to make money would surely see the commercial

space travel industry skyrocket, no pun intended.

The possibility to travel in space is a dream for many but as for now, it will stay a

dream until the capability to carry more passengers has been reached. On top of this,

the reliability of safety measures need to continue to be tested vigorously to ensure that

all passengers are safe for every single flight. As with everything, safety is the number
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one priority and in order to have a successful industry, safety must be at the top of the

list. Commercial space travel is an enterprise for the future in its current state. The

success we have seen so far has proved that we are getting closer and closer every

time we see a launch. The failures experienced have been used as learning tools and

efforts to improve upon all weaknesses should definitely be commended. Without the

hard work and effort put into finding issues and finding ways to fix them we would not

see any of the successes that we have thus far. The greatest path to success would be

to gather all of the innovations from each of the main companies in order to compromise

and come up with the best course of action to achieve success but without proper

competition, we may never see any other groundbreaking advancements to commercial

space travel. With college coming ever so closely and the goal to become an aerospace

engineer, this expansion of commercial space travel is something that I could see

myself working on in the near future. Working alongside the top companies and helping

to improve upon the great success they have experienced could see this enterprise

grow faster and be available sooner than expected. If all the kinks are sorted out such

as tightening up safety procedures, allowing for more than just the rich to participate

and to allow for more accommodation with larger space craft, commercial space travel

will soon be the next frontier of transportation. It Is very exciting to see the progress that

has been made thus far in order to make commercial space travel a feasible venture

that will allow for those who dream of going to space a reality in the near future.
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Works Cited

Aldrin, Buzz. “Buzz Aldrin: SpaceX Failure Shows We Need More Commercial Space

Travel—Not Less.” Time.Com, July 2015, p. N.PAG. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=103666930&site=eh

ost-live. Accessed 23 October 2021.

Helen Yang, et al. “Our Future in the Stars.” Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal,

vol. 9, Spring 2015, p. 6. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=118014541&site=eh

ost-live. Accessed 9 November 2021.

Johnson, Mark. "Space Tourism Needs an 'Orbital Megabus' to Truly Lift Off." Space

Exploration, edited by Michael Ruth, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing

Viewpoints. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010989209/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=d7197ae7. Accessed 23 Oct. 2021. Originally published in

Theconversation.com, 16 July 2014.

Kluger, Jeffrey. “The Next Frontier. (Cover Story).” TIME Magazine, vol. 198, no. 7/8,

Aug. 2021, pp. 26–33. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=151926492&site=eh

ost-live. Accessed 23 October 2021.

Marks, Paul. “SpaceX’s Explosive Start.” New Scientist, vol. 249, no. 3326, Mar. 2021,

p. 30. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(21)00470-x. Accessed 25 October

2021.
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“New Shepard.” Blue Origin, https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard. Accessed 28

October 2021

Powell, Seymour. “Virgin Galactic Spaceship Cabin Interior In Space.” Virgin Galactic ,

28 July 2020, https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-reveals-

spaceshiptwo-cabin-interior/. Accessed 30 October. 2021.

Rogers, Adam. "Space Tourism Is Not Worth the Human Risk." Space Exploration,

edited by Michael Ruth, Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010989210/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=4b8705d6. Accessed 23 October 2021. Originally published as

"Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For,", 31 Oct. 2014.

“Virgin Galactic.” Virgin Galactic, https://www.virgingalactic.com/. Accessed 23 October

2021.