space exploration – Dabbling Adult

Let’s have a chat.

I was listening to a podcast at work the other day called “Space Nuts,” and I don’t recall the specifics, but at one point one of the guys said offhandedly, something-something “…now that the space race has gone commercial.”

I paused the podcast.

I was fully taken aback and had to let that reality absorb into my brain. I suppose growing up watching sci-fi shows set in years like 3000 gave me an unrealistic expectation of space exploration. The space race is commercial?! Already?! When I think “commercial” the synapses that go off in my head are: Ford, Jeep, Chevy, Dodge, and that old lady saying “Where’s the Beef?” and Walmart. Are we really about to make an orbital Walmart?!

Okay, not quite.

But there is a lot more movement than I thought in this idea of the average guy on in space.

Virgin Galactic

Let’s all take a beat to fully appreciate the name of this company. Side bar: Growing up watching corny sci-fi shows and movies, I thought there was no way words like “wormhole” and “holodeck” and “intergalactic” would be used seriously when the things in cinema became real. I assumed that they would come off too silly for serious endeavors. Yet here we have the Virgin Group stepping up to the plate with a name like Virgin Galactic. You’ve heard of all the Virgin airlines, and Virgin cruise lines? Yeah, this is them, except now they are creating a Virgin spaceline.

Should I say instead, THE spaceline.

Virgin Galactic is the first company entirely dedicated to building and operating spaceships to transport regular, paying customers to and from space. They build airplane spaceships. And as of December 13th, 2018 they successfully completed their first manned space flight! We could be taking weekend trips to space before you know it, y’all.

Orion Span, Aurora Station

If we do catch a redeye to space someday soon, we’ll need somewhere to stay on the other end! That’s where Orion Span comes in, apparently. Orion Span announced in April of 2018 that they are building the first luxury hotel in space, called the Aurora Station.

Here’s a rundown of their snazzy accommodations: A stay on the Aurora Station will be 12 days long, with only 3 other guests and 2 crew members. You want privacy? Space is your place. For a mere 9.5 million per person, a trip will include all amenities (including transportation, sorry Virgin Galactic), and food that you’ll grow yourself in orbit. Are you a ‘rise with the sun’ person? Well the Aurora Station will orbit Earth once every 90 minutes, so you’ll have about 16 sunrises and sunsets every day.

In all seriousness, this is a pretty cool endeavor, and according to their website all they are waiting on is the rest of their funding. Orion Span estimates housing their first space guests in 2022. The only thing that makes me weary as a potential customer is their training program. Obviously neighbor Joe Bob can’t wake up one morning and decide he’s gonna go to space, but the standard training to go to the space station takes 24-months. For the Aurora Station project, Orion Span cut it down to a 3-month program. 3 months. And part of your training is online.

Okay listen, I’ve taken online classes. I get it. Very convenient, super efficient, learn at a different pace. But if I’m preparing to be strapped to a rocket and shot off the Earth, I think I’ll take the year long, hands-on program, thanks.

That being said, they must know what they’re doing because a month after the announcement of the Aurora Station, NASA similarly announced a proposal to study “the future of human spaceflight commercialization in low-Earth orbit” with plans to research habitability in low Earth orbit. You beat NASA to the punch, Orion Span. Kudos.

Elon Musk, SpaceX

So the space race is commercial. With enough money, you can buy your way to space. But what if you think it’s too expensive? What if you go to buy a rocket, as one may do, and the sellers are asking too much? Why, you build your own rocket!

That’s exactly what happened to Elon Musk. In one lay-woman’s opinion, if any single person is going to make a difference in democratizing space, it’ll be Elon Musk. Afterall, his personal car is orbiting the sun.

What you may not know, though, is why he sent his car to space. It was actually not about the car at all, the flight was a test for the Falcon Heavy Rocket which SpaceX built to ultimately carry humans to space (particularly his colony on Mars, but that’s a whole other topic). Usually these rocket tests carry some fake cargo for a realistic weight in flight, but Elon Musk is anything but boring so instead of some arbitrary blocks of concrete he used a car.

No big deal. Let me just stuff my $100k car into a rocket head.

It was an efficient research tactic though, because they were also able to get an in-flight, in-space test of their new space suits on their dummy driver, Starman.

Actual photo from Elon Musk’s Tesla in space

Is anyone else as astonished as I am about commercializing space? I’ve researched space stuff and followed NASA’s goings-ons for years, but it wasn’t until that moment, when I heard someone so nonchalantly mention it, that it hit me that space isn’t only for astronauts anymore. As for me, I’m not very adventurous. I don’t see myself booking a flight to space anytime soon.

Maybe by the year 3000 I’ll be ready.

https://www.industryweek.com/transportation/commercialization-space-selling-final-frontier

https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/first-space-flight

https://spacenews.com/startup-announces-plans-for-low-cost-commercial-space-station/

https://www.orionspan.com/orion-span-announces-space-hotel

https://www.orionspan.com/aurora-station-crowdfunding

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/charting-the-future-of-a-commercial-space-marketplace

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2018/11/05/spacex-says-elon-musks-starman-and-tesla-roadster-beyond-mars/1889455002/

Also, Check out Space Nuts Podcast, wherever you listen to your podcasts!

neptunetritonvoyager — Photo of Neptune and Triton taken by Voyagers

Looking at my google news the other day I saw an article titled “Voyager 2 Spacecraft Approaches Interstellar Space.” I was thrilled but in the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit, I had forgotten about the voyagers until I saw this headline. Out of sight out of mind, right?

For those of you who don’t know or may have forgotten: The Voyager 2 and it’s twin, the Voyager 1, are sedan-sized, unmanned spacecrafts that were born and launched into space in the late 1970s. Their original mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn, but after having such wonderful success NASA decided to see how far they could push these explorers. Voyager 2 went on to see Uranus and Neptune, and Voyager 1 shot off towards the great wide open.

Originally, these little spaceships were only built to last for 5 years; That means NASA assumed that both the Voyagers would be obsolete by 1982! I think the moral here is to not underestimate a flying saucer. Now they expect them to stay in contact with the Deep Space Network (DSN) until 2025 and remain functional until 2036. NASA has already turned off most of their extraneous equipment and will lose that remote access once the ships get out of range, but with none of that pesky friction up there in space both of the Voyagers should theoretically continue moving along until they hit something.

After the Voyagers were done exploring our solar system, NASA set their sights on interstellar space. The Voyager 1 made history when it left our solar system in September of 2012 and now very soon the Voyager 2 is getting it’s day in out of the sun.

heliospheregraphic — Graphic from the original article showing the Voyagers position in the Heliosphere

So my biggest question was: How do they know? I mean, it’s not like there is a border wall on the edge of the solar system (yet). I saw the drawing of the heliosphere and understood the concept, but after I read the original article on NASA’s website and they defined all of the “helio’s” then I comprehended.

“The heliosphere is a bubble around the sun created by the outward flow of the solar wind from the sun and the opposing inward flow of the interstellar wind. That heliosphere is the region influenced by the dynamic properties of the sun that are carried in the solar wind–such as magnetic fields, energetic particles and solar wind plasma. The heliopause marks the end of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space.”

This instantly reminded me of seeing freshwater meet saltwater. Obviously it’s all water but the differences in density and salinity keep each body suspended separately. It’s also not unlike a droplet of oil in a glass of water, for a more microcosm comparison. Well apparently, space stuff works the same way! Who knew, right? As our sun burns, it puts off a certain combination of “stuff” (very scientific, I know) that radiates out from all directions and then hits up against the interstellar space around it, which is putting off a different combination of “stuff” that doesn’t mix with our heliosphere.

Just like the oil droplet, the heliosphere shifts and flows dynamically but doesn’t ever mix with the rest of space. The solar magnetic field stays inside and the cosmic rays from deep space stay out. And that is precisely how they know; by measuring these cosmic rays around the Voyager 1, NASA was able to track it’s approach towards open space and predict when it would cross through the heliopause.

Fast forward to the present and the Voyager 2 is starting to pick up more cosmic rays, leading NASA to believe that it will soon join it’s twin out in the void. That’s what is happening at the moment. So the Voyager 2 isn’t in interstellar space yet, and there isn’t a way to definitively say when it will be, but we do know that it is getting close.

The real question now is, what happens now that they’ve actually gone where no man has gone before? At this point do they serve as less of an exploration effort and more of a testament to how far the human race has explored beyond what we thought was our farthest reach? They were built in the 1970s after all. And if that is the case, is that necessarily a bad thing? I think I can accept that sentiment. Even when they are out of reach of our most advanced equipment, when they are lifelessly drifting into the stars, even if the golden records are never found by alien civilizations, the Voyagers’ discoveries and legacy will live on forever.

I highly recommend checking out the galleries of all the photographs taken by the two Voyagers of our outer planets. (Jupiter is my personal favorite.) They also took several other photos not just of the planets and moons such as the famous “Pale Blue Dot” photo that was taken right before they turned off their cameras on Valentine’s Day of 1990.

palebluedot — “Pale Blue Dot” photo of Earth taken by Voyagers

Voyager Image Galleries:

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/images-voyager-took/

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/

The original article I read:

Voyager 2 spacecraft approaches interstellar space

The official NASA article:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-voyager-2-could-be-nearing-interstellar-space

My other references: (What, you thought I pulled all that stuff out of thin air?)

https://www.space.com/39161-fate-of-the-voyager-spacecraft.html

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/science/thirty-year-plan/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/images

https://www.space.com/22797-voyager-1-interstellar-space-nasa-proof.html

Also, a fun fact for my fellow December babies out there: the Voyager 2 is actually headed right towards the constellation Sagittarius! The Voyager 1 is headed for the star Alpha Centauri in the Little Dipper, which is pretty cool too. Alright, I’m finished geeking out now.

-Emily

voyager2launch — Voyager 2 preparing for launch

Dabbling Adult

An amateur grown-up's corner of the world.

Tag: space exploration

Outer Space Wal-Mart

So Long & Thanks for all the Pics