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Spain has been one of the most popular holiday destinations for UK holiday makers for decades. Long days of sun, sea, and sangria at the end of an inexpensive short flight has proved a winning combination. Well, how about trying something a bit different next year? How about a trip into space?
A product of the 21st century “space race”, space tourism is already a reality with companies offering trips into space. Future plans include a huge rotating space hotel and much further down the line, the holy grail: to put humans on Mars – permanently. It does feel like a Hollywood movie.
Once upon a time there was another space race. At the end of World War II, political tensions escalated between the United States and the USSR, which led to the start of the Cold War. Keen to outdo each other wherever possible, the space race between the two nations began in 1957, lasting for 15 years, before they decided to collaborate rather than compete. During that time, many milestones were reached on both sides and frontiers were constantly pushed “to boldly go where no man has gone before”. The first satellites were launched, and dogs and chimpanzees were sent into space. Famously, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter space, and, in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to land on the Moon.
The modern space race is different; it’s no longer the United States versus Russia but a competition between private companies. Space exploration is a fast-growing industry that is currently valued at $447 billion compared with $162 billion 20 years ago and there are several hundred global companies who all want a piece of this very lucrative pie. Around 20 of those companies are capable of satellite and orbital launches; notable examples being Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Boeing. SpaceX have been pioneers in this field over the past 20 years by being able to lower costs with their development of reusable rockets.
…To read the full article, head over to Issue 31: Science in the 22nd Century
Written by Kevin Boyle (he/him), who studied Chemistry as an undergraduate and later pursued a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh before undertaking a Masters in Chemical Biology at Imperial College London. He now works as a full-time Chemistry tutor.
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