Best answer:

Answer by Capercorn
The field that works on building spacecraft is the branch of Aerospace Engineering known as Astronautical Engineering.

Take lots of Physics in High School, and do good in Math and Science classes. You have to be very good at Calculus as well, once you get into College. If you really, really want to do it, you wont have any problems.

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Does anyone have any thoughts or more information about this?

Best answer:

Answer by Harley Drive
not really space travel and certainly not safe or commercially viable

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Best answer:

Answer by gintable
You are completely correct.

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Space studies conducted in 2002 by Futron and 2006 by Spaceport Associates indicate a definite interest in space tourism. Our focus is based on suborbital space flight as orbital space flight is currently only available on the Russian spaceship Soyev to the International Space Station and at a cost exceeding Million.

The space studies show worldwide interest mostly from males (78%) and also indicate a wide age separation, from 22 to 67. Since 2005, Virgin Galactic the world leader, has stated over 370 individuals have already registered and over l00,000 have requested further information. This clearly indicates a market exists for private space travel.

In the near future m,any groups will develope space vehicles to provide a variety of opportunities. Over the next few years it is probable that many of these flights will begin and more people will want to register and participate.

Different strokes for different folks. Some vehicles will be dropped from another carrier, some will take off horizontally and land horizontally, some will take off vertically and land vertically and some will even be launched from a balloon.

Studies indicate the most desirable is to be a horizontal take off and landing, however, the preference of each individual with their confidence in each vehicle and company will be the initial determining factor of choice.

No matter which vehicle carrier you travel within, all participants will experience, some weightlessness, feel the G-forces and the thrust of rockets, view the Earth and see its curvature and go through some pre-flight space training. Some vehicles will take you solo while with others up to six or maybe more can travel together.

Why are many interested persons waiting to sign up? Because some expect costs will come down. Many want to know things are completely safe and will wait to see how others that fly react before they sign up. Still others want to choose from amongst the carriers that have shown themselves safe and reliable.

Currently, costs range from under $ l00,000 to about a quarter of a million dollars for a suborbital high adventure space flight experience. For comparison, a list of all space companies, their progress and developments, vehicles, projects and costs, can be found on Wikipedia under ‘SPACE TOURISM’.

World-wide registrations probably exceed 500 with over .M in deposits already paid. This without any doubt, indicates a strong interest in suborbital space flight.

It is still too early in the industry to be sure who will get there first, become most popular, offer the most discriminating experience, etc, etc, etc. It is for you to explore options and opportunities. Safety always comes first. April 12. 2011, the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s famous suborbital space flight. He was the first man in space. This time of global celebration brings man into the next 50 years of space and allowing the private sector to dominate space exploration, recreation and monetization. Space hotels will open within a few years and those interested in the further development of space and the excitement of what is offered will attract many more to become a part of what the future of space travel will be.

The next few years will pave the way for dare devil adventurers, space enthusiasts and thrill seekers to satisfy their quest and go where so few have gone before, to the edge of space. If YOU want to become a part of the early pioneers of space flight history, now is clearly the time to act.

Best answer:

Answer by Marcus Stevens
Yes. Why would we need antimatter? It has nothing to do with making it, we already can and we wouldn’t need much (like none). The issue is containing that amount of energy. However assuming that we figured out nuclear fusion we’d be set. Or if someone just threw a shitload of solar panels onto something they might be able to fly at the sun.

I mean once you get into space you don’t really need that much energy to move. Honestly I don’t think antimatter would be remotely safe. How would you move it? The second that it hits matter you’re fucked. It’s probably going to throw around gamma rays which is no good. It’s not stable. There are better ways that require more material (then again, not exactly easy to make antimatter) but would be safer and easier and likely cheaper.

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But when crunch comes crunch, sure space is really BIG, but it is also very old. There’s lots of time available to explore and colonize starting a few light years outward at a time. Consolidate, and then expand some more. Repeat as often as required. The time it would take to explore and colonize the Milky Way Galaxy (that is, via interstellar travel) is but a small fraction of the age of that galaxy even if a race of ET’s never travelled at more that say 1% to 10% the speed of light. Such velocities, while pretty fast by our current abilities, shouldn’t be beyond the means of a technologically advanced race. Consult any elementary astronomy text for the relevant distances and volumes and ages and do the calculations for yourself if you doubt this.

And once here (within easy reach of, or in our solar system), having a nearby base of operations as it were, one can easily have a whole plethora of UFOs visiting Earth on a regular or routine basis.  It’s not a case of one UFO taking ten thousand years to visit, then returning home taking another ten thousand years in the process, and having hundreds or thousands of such alien spacecraft doing the same. If you want to explore the South Pole over the long term, you don’t make a daily commute from Sydney or New York – you set up a long-term base camp near or at the South Pole! 

If there are no advanced extraterrestrial races out there, and that’s a possibility that has to be considered, then eventually we’ll reach that hypothetical level of technology that we current assume aliens might have. Now while such significant, but still subluminal velocities are beyond the capacity of the human race today, eventually, perhaps 1000 years from now, maybe more, maybe less, we’ll advance towards and attain that level of technological sophistication. And 1000 years (give or take) is but a nanosecond in terms of cosmic and galactic time frames. Recall the level of technological sophistication humanity had 1000 years ago! Leaps and bounds have been made since then, and then some. What will another 1000 years bring?

[Note that intergalactic space travel (one galaxy to another galaxy) is quite another can of worms. The distance from one side of our galaxy to the other is tiny relative to the vast distances to our neighbouring galaxies. Even Star Trek stayed within our own galaxy, and they had warp drive!]

When viewing what exploration of space we’ve achieved to date, we note that the first pioneers weren’t the right stuff, flesh-and-blood human beings, but devices composed of hardier stuff, like metals and plastics. An orbiting metallic Sputnik preceded any journeys by Russian cosmonauts. The unmanned lunar surveyors preceded Project Apollo. Unmanned space probes have landed on Mars, Venus, Titan, boldly going where no human has yet even remotely ventured. And so that will probably be true as well as humanity extends its reach beyond our solar system.

Way back when, human society was mainly a rural one with manual back-breaking existences, not only for man, but animal as well. Then came the industrial revolution and labour got easier and machines took on more and more of the burden. Our mental burdens got easier too. We don’t have to read anymore as we have radio, TV, talking books and DVDs. We don’t have to add and subtract – calculators do it for us. We don’t need to spell as our PCs come equipped with spell checkers. Our technology isn’t just making our muscles less necessary, but our brains as well. And while human muscles and the human brain haven’t increased much in strength or potential intellectual capacity over the past multi-thousands of years, our technological muscles and brains have. It’s been pointed out that the average home PC today has vastly more ‘brain power’ than the computers used to guide Apollo to the Moon. And how many of us could beat a computer at chess, or checkers? Silicon chips are becoming ‘intelligent’ at a vastly faster rate than the brain stuff we are made out of – CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen & Nitrogen). Silicon’s ‘brain cells’ or computer chips, and the software to utilize them are becoming ever more sophisticated and at a rapid rate of knots. We’ve all seen a sci-fi robot, android, whatever. The phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ has entered into common usage.  How much longer before science fiction becomes science fact and silicon software replaces carbon wetware?  

The question has been posed whether or not artificial intelligence is the next logical evolutional step. And while humans may remain in control (or maybe not), they will be dependant on that technology, of that you can be assured. So, the question arises, why send CHON flesh-and-blood into space when silicon chips and software will do, and do better? It’s been argued that artificial intelligence can make the trip to the stars on our behalf. They don’t need life support – food, oxygen, a narrow range of temperatures, sleep, gravity, or as much protection from radiation, etc. They can exist on a minimal energy source, nuclear most likely.

It’s been postulated that artificial intelligent space probes could explore the cosmos, land on suitable abodes and using the local resources found there (minerals, metals, available energy supplies, etc.), ‘reproduce’ themselves from internal programming given before the fact, and thus spread throughout the galaxy. Such probes are called von Neumann probes, after the famous mathematician who advanced the idea.  Meantime, while they do all the dangerous dirty work, we humans just continue to inhabit Terra and live the good life.

Two objections can be raised to a galaxy filled with space travelling artificial intelligences. Firstly, it’s going to take a lot to extinguish the human spirit of exploration. We want to experience the cosmos, and exploring via a surrogate isn’t going to cut the mustard in the long term.

Secondly, I find it difficult to visualize a space probe, however artificially intelligent, that can somehow reproduce itself from scratch using the raw resources of another planet. I find that a pretty tall order.  Just visualize the various technological processes that would require. It would have to be able to mine, perform smelting operations, manufacturing, fine detailed precision work, all at various locations etc. I won’t say it can’t happen, but I somehow doubt it will happen.

All up, while silicone and steel might be the pathfinders, CHON, even if it’s alien CHON, will ultimately explore, colonize and rule the galaxy. Again, for the purposes of explaining the Fermi Paradox, there exists no extraterrestrial CHON, only terrestrial CHON, so that explains the ‘where is everybody?’ question.

Artificial intelligence apart, human beings have taken control of their own evolution, it’s no longer just natural selection, but artificial enhancement. For quite some considerable time now, we’ve augmented our flesh-and-blood with artificial materials and devices, cosmetic and life enhancing – plastic heart valves, hearing aids, artificial joints, wigs, dentures, etc. And while not quite artificial in terms of non-organic materials and devices, we now have artificial selection in the sense of genetic engineering, the era of the designer baby.

So, sooner or later, humanity’s flesh-and-blood, assuming we’re still flesh-and-blood and not composed mainly of sturdier materials (CHON plus iron and silicon and plastics and ceramics, etc.), we will desire to get away from it all (Earth and our solar system). That’s true even if we have evolved into something more akin to a hybrid of the biological and the artificial, and/or evolved ourself into a race of quasi-supermen (and women). 

But desire is one thing. Might there be something even stronger forcing us to ‘boldly go’?

So what’s that other more seriously driving incentive to ‘boldly go…’? I mean scientific curiosity is all well and good, but it’s going to be expensive to satisfy that curiosity. Wanting to vacation on some idyllic planet around another star system is fine, but extra-solar tourism is a luxury, not a necessity. There is another incentive, a far more powerful one, and that is survival. No star lasts forever. Sooner or later, our star is going to make our existence a misery. In fact, sooner or later, our sun will be the death of us all. If humans are still around when that peril makes itself apparent, we’ll need to escape to another star system. Finding a suitable one is going to call for us to be ‘boldly going…’! Of course other earlier disaster scenarios could force us to flee sooner – the threat of a swarm of killer comets dislodged from either the Oort Cloud and/or the Kuiper Belt heading our way or the likelihood of a nearby star going supernova would give us incentive to get the hell out of here!

Further readings:

Gilster, Paul; Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration; Copernicus Books, New York; 2004:

Macvey, John W.; Interstellar Travel: Past, Present, and Future; Stein and Day, New York; 1977:

*Let’s assume that this is not only not impossible, but also safely attainable.

You have been selected as part of a government program dedicated to ‘deep space exploration.’  The way you were selected was as ironic as it was random.  For the purposes of constructing this wildly sci-fi hypothetical, let’s say that you actually volunteered to do this.  However, you weren’t 100 percent aware of the decision you made at the moment you made it.  And let’s also throw the subject of astrophysics off to the side completely. The last time you changed your address, you applied for a new driver’s license.  It was pretty simple, just filling out a few forms, proving your residency, nothing special.  Except when you attempted to fill out the section to elect whether or not you wished to donate your organs and tissues, there was another inquiry option available which was titled “participate in government exploration initiative.”  You read up on this in the brief summary that followed the inquiry box.  The summary basically said that if deep space travel were ever to be viable, and deemed safe by the appropriate agencies within the government of the United States, that you would be willing to donate your “time” to Science. Of course, you thought this was absurd, but you also thought it would be really funny to show your friends your new ID with a funny looking “Deep Space Donor” logo right beneath your picture. Well, what you did not know, is that rocket science had progressed faster than you ever thought it would, and it was also much more advanced than you thought it was to begin with. A couple years after you made this decision in jest, you are approached at your doorstep by federal agents.  Believe it or not, you’re going into space, buddy!*

*Let’s further assume that you of course go through the following emotional progression:  disbelief, shock, denial, stupor, skepticism, and then grief.  For sake of brevity, let’s cut to the part where you finally are being sent into space.
The agents tell you that you have 6 weeks until you are required to start your 8 week training course prior to your departure from Earth.  They also lay out rule number 1. Rule Number 1.  You may choose up to 6 people to accompany you for the rest of your/their lives. Who do you choose?  What is your ‘pitch’ going to be when you are trying to convince up to 6 people to spend the rest of their lives with you in a pod travelling at 650,000 MPH into the vastness of outer space?  Do you rely on a PowerPoint slide presentation?  What ratio of women to men do you choose?  How desperate will you get if nearly everyone says no? Knowing that you are not allowed to bring pets for some strange reason, does that exacerbate your anxiety?  Answering all of these questions in just six weeks time will be an extremely tough task.  How much of this time will you devote to pondering?  This will be the most important decision in your life.  It will also be one of the few decisions in which your decision is ultimately final.  After you make this decision there is NO going back.  In space and in time, you will only be able to go forward.

When pitching to your ‘select six,’ do you tell them about Rule #2?  OR… do you do all of this… alone? Rule Number 2.  During your 8 week training course, you are joined by a NASA design team.  Within safety constraints, you can make your space pod as big and as luxurious as you want it.  You are allowed as many design collaborators as you want, and as aforementioned, you have 8 weeks to come up with the design.  The only drawbacks are that your living quarters must be able to achieve the speeds needed to travel deep into space, and that it must be safe.  However, you are allowed as many iterations of your design as feasible in that 8 week period. A lot of hypothetical conclusions will need to be pole-vaulted to here.  Basically, you’re probably going to have a space pod similar in size to a nice upper-middle class family’s home.  Except you are also probably going to have beyond state-of-the-art technology available to you.  Keep in mind that you’ll probably want to make sure the amenities you choose are durable and useful.  Remember, you and your entourage will probably be living in space for about 65 years, and there is not really any repairs or upgrades that can be made to your equipment.  With that said, do you think you could design your space-travelling dream home in a matter of 8 weeks? Rule Number 3.  Streaming TV. You are allowed to watch streaming television from the comfort of your space pod.  But again, there is a catch.  Due to the high amount of bandwidth required to stream television into deep space, you will only be allowed to have access to three channels. Which three channels do you choose?  Do you consult your entourage?  Do you have enough of a movie library to last you for 65 years of 3 channel entertainment? Also keep in mind that the farther you are from Earth, the longer it will take to get the streaming media to you.  Say you launch in 2016, you pick CBS as one of your channels, and in 2035 you are watching the 2025 NCAA Mens Basketball Final Four (also take the leap of assuming that Court Tv has not somehow completely captured the rights to the Final Four). Let’s not get into food, fuel, or oxygen supply and just assume that NASA got all of that figured out for you.   Let’s take a look at the last rule.  Rule #4. Rule Number 4.  After 10 years, there is no law precluding you from exiling 1 of your 6 pod mates. As part of the contract that you really had no choice in signing, you are pointed to an “exile clause.”  The exile clause states that after 10 years, you may do away with one of your podmates and release them into deep space.  This obviously is incredibly morbid and absurd, but it is nonetheless in the contract. 

You begin to think to yourself, even if someone got so under your skin due to 10 years of living together in such close quarters, could you ever do this?  Would you ever think of doing this?  Would the situation you are in drive you so crazy that you would begin to think “well, it’s not against the law.”  Also, with nobody else (i.e. law enforcement) able to step in since you are so far far away, who is to say you wouldn’t think of this before the 10 year mark and maybe begin to plot who you would kick out into the vacuum of space?  Would it be plausible to think that everyone would be nice to you since they know you have this power?  Even though some clerk at NASA could be watching you through a camera feed, they would only be seeing what happened a long time before that by the time the video transmission had reached them.  And at best, they could only scold you. Just thinking about this may be enough to drive you crazy.  Knowing that you would even think these thoughts probably worries you.  Which leads to one last hypothetical inquiry:  does thinking about a situation that may drive you crazy… begin to drive you… crazy?

Through the many centuries of Earth’s history leading to space travel and the capability to travel at the speed of light to visit new civilisations in the 24th century, the population of Earth has never been alone. The Galactic Police Federation has been around for thousands of years, gradually expanding as new civilisations reached the age of light speed and aware of its existence. Before this new scientific age, classed as Ratio-5, came into being, only invisible observation was accepted. Some planetary cultures caused their own self-destruction in the incredible advancement of technology. Others struggled and were set back a century by the quest for individual power and territory. Many planets never survived their own planetary environment and though earthquakes wiped out the surfaces of these worlds including meteorite bombardment and destructive weather, after several thousand years survivors were ready to start again.

The speed of light now allows a single spacecraft and crew to travel to the nearest star systems to visit other civilisations, the Galaxy Police Federation openly visiting and initiating diplomatic relations in the form of a Galaxy Police Embassy. Huge circular space stations belonging to the Galaxy police were placed all over the galaxy, some covert, some overt. A signed charter protects the planet and its inhabitants from being an aggressor to another civilisation or falling prey to a high technology advanced group of predators. Police Federation Headquarters is currently based in a small solar system near the centre of the galaxy, incorporating two suns and five planets. Three of the planets are fully life supporting and the principal Krakor specially manufactured and landscaped by the ancient ones of light – primeval creatures of the spirit and guardians of the galaxy. Krakor is a place of great beauty with oceans, rivers, lakes, streams and waterfalls viewed throughout the landscape. Recruitment for the Federation is from every life-bearing planet in the galaxy above Ratio Five and the other two planets are living quarters for five million members and their families. 

Transport for the Federation consists of Inter-galactic craft (IGCs) that travel at light speed and then switch to a time space warp drive, an alternate dimension that diverts the craft out of time, allowing it to travel 10,000 light years in just 24 hours. Travel from one end of the galaxy to the other and back can be achieved in 20 days in the same time continuum, allowing occupants to arrive back at Krakor with only normal time loss. In space warp they would be shut into horizontal containers in a cryogenic state where the IGC was basically out of normal existence travelling on a time line. Movement beyond 2 feet in any direction meant instant death where the body would be flung into sub or normal space.

Only the ancient beings of light understood the fundamentals of this travel, operating and controlling the time line. The time line was part of the astral planes not the physical universe.

 In some areas of the galaxy, inter-dimensional problems are now causing anxiety and the ancient beings of light have introduced two new computers of immense size and power, positioned at the centre of the planet Krakor. The CTD computer (Coextensive Transcendent Dimensions) allows its recipients unlimited travel to other realities of time co-existing alongside our own, facilitating inter-dimensional transportation. The second computer TC (Telepathic Computer) permits the spirit to travel out of body in astral flight in the domain of the spirit world.

Only two men have the knowledge and operation of the computers activated by their own brains and engaged by bracelets operating on their wrists: Chairman of the ruling Galaxy Police Federation Supreme Chief Officer Vanders and Space Agent Jim Long. Jim is one of a very few specially trained space agents: a man of high integrity and moral standards but with normal human instincts and vulnerability, and an unusual sense of humour. He always aims to attain a higher level of understanding.

Jim travels with two fellow officers – Gail Farmer a computer expert and Norman Clark a top grade engineer of craft and engines. Two special gift bracelets allow Jim to travel within or without the boundaries of time and space. Their missions lead them into other dimensions where strange inter-dimensional aliens live beyond the laws of physics. Other missions involve leaving the world of physical existence and voyaging into the out-of -the -body world of the spirit.

Following the success of the November conference, this Summit will focus on the future trends in travel and how the Internet challenges the travel and tourism industry. This time, though, we will hold several other interesting discussions including a ‘Travel Innovation Awards’ contest, and ‘The Future of Space Travel’.

‘The Future of Space Travel’ on March 17th will be promoted as a separate Summit as well as part of ‘Trends Innovation Travel Distribution & Investment Summit’ and tickets can be purchased separately for the one day event.

Overall, the conference will be highly interactive allowing you to sense, for instance, the magnetic personality of Dr. Story Musgrave, who is the US astronaut with the most missions, the longest service and the specialist who repaired and saved the Hubble Space Telescope.  Story flew on all the US space shuttles, is a professional photographer with a collection of his work and photos from space, he is now inspiring millions of people worldwide. Story will talk about his experience in space, he will show us incredible photos of our ‘Beautiful Earth’ which he took from space while on his missions, and share what the future space tourist will see and experience.

Story, along with other people who are launching space travel solutions or are involved in space tourism will provide insight of the various space travel offerings coming out into the market in the near future and how one can purchase a trip to space. Story will also participate on an Eco panel and discussion on ‘saving our beautiful planet’.

Kathy Misunas, former CEO of Sabre Group, CEO of Reed Travel Group and CIO of American Airlines, a 30-year travel and technology industry veteran, will be our keynote and participate on our Travel Innovation Awards contest Jury.

Along with the Travel Innovation Awards Contest, there will be an Expo to meet experts from leading travel technology and solutions companies. Over the first two days, selected innovative travel companies will present their unique and potentially revolutionary solution, with the 5 finalists selected and pitching to a Jury of industry experts and investors on the final day in order to win the Travel Innovation Award competition. Could one of these companies be the next booking.com or TripAdvisor….come find out. In addition, investors and investment companies will be participating and will be available to meet and network with.

On day 2 there will be multiple workshop sessions that are designed and go into detail on subjects such as online marketing and online solutions and the essentials for companies to take an informative decision on how to change and grow in the online world.

Please visit the website for more details and the full Agenda: http://www.eCommerceAcademy.net

This is one of the greatest opportunities for individuals from smaller countries to gain great recognition if they have the foresight, desire, and can afford the cost of space travel. Currently costs range from ,000 to about 0,000 for a suborbital space flight and only a few companies can virtually assure safety and the thrill of this future experience.

Can you imagine if you were from Romania, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Gibralter, Iran,St Barts, Indonesia, Israel, New Zealand or almost any of the less participating countries in space flight. The publicity to be the first space traveler from your native country establishes instant notoriety and press coverage once these flights have taken off and that will be most probably in early 2012.

This is a one time only chance to register as a space participant so that your name may ultimately appear as one of the earliest space pioneers and you could even be listed as a member of the civilian space flight history hall of fame should this come about and you wish to receive this recognition. Besides money, it takes courage, guts and the spirit of great adventure to register now. AS of late 2010 more than 400 adventurrers have registered.

There is still some question on which vehicle will begin to fly private passengers first. This will become more apparent as the summer of 2011 comes to a close as tests will provide unquestionable proof of concept for several space companies vying for dominance with safety always ahead of any schedules. Some adventurers, like Per Wimmer of Denmark, have registered with the two most dominant groups (Virgin Galactic and XCOR) to confirm, not only to have the opportunity to enjoy the different programs, but also to assure himself of being first whichever group begins their flights first.

Over the last few decades NASA has given recognition to those Astronauts with origins from different countries being the first space participants as well as other private pioneers, such as Anousheh Ansari from Iran, Charles Simonyi from Hungarian decent, Richard Garriott of British origin and South African, Mark Shuttleworth all of whom traveled to the international space station on the Russian Soyev space vehicle as part of the earliest private space explorers. Each experience cost between mm and Million.

To do more research on space tourism and finding out about the leading groups that will soon be flying private passengers to the edge of space please Google Wikipedia to obtain a detailed list and further information.