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Originally Posted by jasonchild
I live in New Mexico, in the town of Alamogordo to be exact. Recently the town has been all aflutter with news of the commercial space travel "industry" and the X-Cup. It seems that this area has been selected for these projects.
I was wondering what the rest of the "world" has to say about this. Does the idea of a small handfull of companies exploiting orbital vehicles appeal to more than just complacent Americans looking for The Next Big Thing (tm) ?
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The X-Prize had teams from USA, Canada, UK, Romania, Israel, etc. so it's not just an American thing. Richard Branson recently started up the Virgin Galactic which will begin suborbital flights in a few years, and probably orbital soon after that.
I don't see this as just another fad, if that's what you meant by "The Next Big Thing". It's the beginning of something fantastic.
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I am also interested in heard what others have to say about issues such as:
* Safety. Most of the vehicles produced today for this end would be more or less harmless if gravity were to win out, so to speak. But with the advent of what could be considered the "jumbo-jet" of space travel (and when I refer to "travel" I mean low orbit only..) would any of us feel safe knowing there is a large hunk of metal and plastic looming overhead?
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There are already thousands of objects in orbit, though most of them small there are some big ones too, such as the space telescopes, the ISS and soon again the shuttle.
And don't forget all the aeroplanes, civilian and military, flying above us all the time. Huge hunks of metal swooshing above our heads is surely not a new issue, and I don't feel unsafe about it.
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* National Security concerns. Not only for the USA, but for EVERY nation. Is it a "good idea" to let anynone with enough cash orbit anything they want around the globe? The practicality of this isnt my point, but more the philosophical nature of it. In this modern age of "terrorist" threats and whatnot it seems the ultimate weapon would be one that could descend from the heavens.
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Indeed. That's one reason the Americans got worried about the Soviet Union launching the Sputnik. Theoretically they could then launch nuclear weapons and aim at the US and its allies. It never happened, but now we know about military projects in space during the cold war, both US and Soviet. They usually never left the planning or prototype stage.
The terrorist threat is complicated and I won't get into a discussion about the factors behind it, but I don't think that's an issue more than civilian aeroplanes is a problem when it comes to terrorism, that is, of course there are risks, but not necessarily more than before.
In countries that will regulate civilian spaceflight, there will be laws and regulations and agencies, the usual stuff when the government is involved, and so that will keep the standards at certain levels. This means security and safety will be constantly made sure to meet the standards, including things such as the security measures at the spaceport.
What is more worrying is theocracies and other dictatorships developing their own abilities to launch ICBM's and satellites.