Tag: space tourism

"It’s really science fiction becoming reality"

By Edward Willett in Blog
September 5, 2007
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“It,” in this case, is New Mexico’s new Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport. That’s my birth state!

Have space suit, will travel?

By Edward Willett in Blog
July 23, 2007
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In Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Have Space Suit, Will Travel, his teenaged hero, Kip, enters an advertising jingle writing contest for Skyway Soap, for which the first prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon. Kip doesn’t win, but instead gets a consolation prize, a used space suit, and ends up having incredibly adventures that …

A sleek, skin-tight spacesuit?

By Edward Willett in Blog
July 16, 2007
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This could do wonders for space tourism (although the focus is on exploration). Not to mention science fiction movies. Called the BioSuit, and under development at MIT, it’s… “…a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut’s body to protect it from the vacuum of …

Inflatable space module performing well

By Edward Willett in Blog
June 30, 2007
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Bigelow Aerospace‘s Genesis II inflatable space module continues to perform well; the company has released the first high-resolution photos from orbit. I like their slogan: “Getting you excited about space again.” Not that I’ve never not been excited, personally. I was pleased to watch my six-year-old daughter enact a flight to the moon in the …

Bigelow continues to plan big things

By Edward Willett in Blog
April 10, 2007
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Robert Bigelow continues to have, er, “Big” plans for “low” earth orbit: The Bigelow Aerospace commercial inflatable manned space module venture intends to have three large multi-module outposts in Earth orbit by 2015 to serve different user communities.CEO Robert T. Bigelow says his engineers predict 800 paying crewmembers could fly to Bigelow outposts over the …

Bigelow’s big plans

By Edward Willett in Blog
February 23, 2007
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Bigelow Aerospace has big plans for Earth orbit–and beyond: Even as Bigelow Aerospace gears up for launching its second prototype space station into orbit, the company has set its sights on something much, much bigger: a project to assemble full-blown space villages at a work site between Earth and the moon, then drop them to …

You go, professor!

By Edward Willett in Blog
January 8, 2007
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Stephen Hawking is planning a trip into space for 2009, courtesy of Richard Branson at Virgin Galactic. I can’t think of anyone who deserves a free trip more.

"Gradatim Ferociter!"

By Edward Willett in Blog
January 3, 2007
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The veil has been lifted on the secretive Blue Origin private space program created by Jeff Bezos (of Amazon.com fame–and fortune). Their website now boasts photos and video of their recent first test flight. Oh, and the slogan means, more or less, “Bit by bit–ferociously!” And if you happen to be a rocket scientist–they’re hiring! …

Canadians vie for the X-Prize

By Edward Willett in Blog, Columns, Science Columns
May 8, 2001
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Human beings have been going into space for 40 years, riding vast amounts of U.S. or Russian government money, poured into massive rockets that are mostly thrown away after one use. But many people think this is a terrible way to go into space. If we want to make space truly accessible (at a cost …