Take Me to Space!

A Trip Outside of the Ozone

by Lauren Whitby

When Neil Armstrong took that first step onto the

moon in 1969, millions of Americans witnessed ,a
huge victory for the United States through blackand-white, rabbit-eared television boxes. They had
won the great space race and succeeded in landing
on the moon. Armstrong had a small glimpse of what
the future held as he spoke his iconic words, but his
giant leap seems miniscule compared to the possibilities we can see in the near future. Soon travelers will
get to choose between Miami, Morocco, and Mars
for their next big family vacation.
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Concept art of SpaceXs Dragon landing on Mars. A trip to Mars is the ultimate goal of commercial space expeditions.

Holly Hutchison, a Payload Integration

Manager of the International Space
Station, has an insiders view of current space travel advancements. We
have been steadily moving forward
over the years, which I believe will
continue because of mankinds need
to explore, she says. Humans are
naturally very curious, and I think
this curiosity and want for adventure
will continue to push us forward to
explore the unknown.
Just as many have a curiosity to
explore new places on earth, space
enthusiasts have been pushed to see
farther into our solar system, our galaxy, and beyond.
The big questions about space
travel are (1) When will space travel
be available to the public and not just

[
2 fall 2016

people with huge pocketbooks? And (2)

Is space travel actually realistic or is it
all just false hopes and dreams?
Programs like Virgin Galactic are
taking space travel beyond fantasy.
Virgin Galactic is a commercial airline
with plans to take people to space.
They state their mission on their
website, virgingalactic.com: We are
here because we believe we are at the
vanguard of a new space industry that
is defining the future of exploration
and that we will ultimately make space
accessible to more people and for more
purposes than ever before.
The airline seems to be heading
commercial space exploration. It has
the goal of bringing typical travels
outside of the atmosphere, but the
program still has a way to go.

Hutchison says, Currently, Virgin

Galactic has already sold seats to go up
into space. I believe per seat they are
charging $250,000 and are set to fly in
the next couple of years.
Paying the price of a decent home
to go to space doesnt seem reasonable
to middle-income families, and even
these flights dont have firm schedules
or departure dates.
Working in the space industry, I
know that flights are never on schedule, and my prediction is that it will be
at least another five years before they
fly, says Hutchison. The day they fly
will definitely be an awesome day.
Hutchison also provides a bit of
hope for those of us who dont have
250 grand lying around: Eventually, I
think space flight will become similar

Humans are naturally very curious

and I think this curiosity and want for
adventure will continue to push us
forward to explore the unknown.

This mindset may be caused by the

many science fiction films that have set
the stage for space travel. The starship
Enterprise from the Star Trek saga has
a mission similar to the current exist-

Fictional stories even include the

stories of unsuccessful expeditions.
Interstellar, released in 2014, portrays some of the dangers of entering
unknown territory in space and on
other planets.
Last year, The Martian awed audiences with the story of a man who gets
abandoned on Mars after an unexpected storm in space. The science
fiction tales of successful and failed
missions coincide closely with the
reality of space travel in the twentyfirst century.
Obviously, it doesnt take long to
come up with risks associated with
traveling light-years away from home.
Hutchison provides insights to some
of these risks and ensures that groups
like the International Space Station are
very aware of safety concerns:
Space travel is hard. There is no
doubt about it. The environment outside of our atmosphere is not suited
for humans and is very dangerous. A
number of things could go wrong such
as a malfunction of hardware, a glitch
in the software, and/or space debris
damaging systems, Hutchinson says.
The way to combat all these different
problems from happening is having
a numerous amount of back-ups and
fail-safes. That way, if one computer
stops working, youve still got a

[
We will first
go back to the
moon as a sort
of test mission,
but Mars is the
ultimate goal.

to air travel. It will be affordable and

accessible to almost everyone. This
will take at least a few decades to
reach though. It will take a significant breakthrough for space travel to
become affordable to the middle class
American. SpaceX just got us closer
to that with the successful landing of
their reusable rocket.
SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer
and space transport services company,
has a far-reaching and impressive mission to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling
people to live on other planets.
So it may become possible for many
people to go to space within their lifetime in exchange for their yearly trip
to the Caribbean, and ultimately, they
may be able to take permanent residence on earths sister planet.
Hutchison says, Right now, the big
expedition many people are working
on is sending humans to Mars. We will
first go back to the moon as a sort of
test mission, but Mars is the ultimate
goal. I think everyone would like to
see a non-problematic variation of
The Martian happen within the next
couple decades.
However, many would never even
consider the possibility of personally
going to Mars; they consider the prospect to be a work of fiction.

ing space programs in the real world.

The mission of the Enterprise is to
explore strange new worlds, to seek out
new life and new civilizations, to boldly
go where no one has gone before. Star
Wars, a film franchise equally as explosive as Star Trek, takes place in an entire
galaxy where pilots can hop from planet
to planet in a matter of seconds.

The inside of Crew Dragon, which in the future will take humans to the International Space Station and even farther into space.

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The Crew Dragon spacecraft, designed by SpaceX to take humans into the depths of the solar system.

second one to take over.

With any trip, there is always
potential danger. Travel over land, air,
or sea comes with a certain amount
of risk. Certainly these concerns are
magnified when man travels farther
and farther away from home. But with
proper preparation and new technology, it appears that hiccups and other
dangers will be avoided.
Advances in space travel are exciting and greatly anticipated. From a

4 fall 2016

young age, many children proclaim

their desire to become astronauts, and
even adults dream of soaring through
space. Hutchison, a self-proclaimed
space fanatic, is no exception. She
sums up these sentiments:
I think it would be an experience
of a lifetime to go into space! I believe
just about everyone who works in the
space industry has at least a small part
of them that wants to go up in space.
Space research did not start with

the idea of people vacationing on

Mars or enjoying a drive-by view of
Planet Earth. It began with important
scientific issues. However, continuous
research and curiosity has led to the
reality of space travel for anyone who
wishes to travel beyond earths atmosphere. Soon, many will proclaim
their childhood fantasies a reality
as they travel beyond the ozone and
into outer space.