The legitimacy of space travel as a viable option in the near future came to my attention yesterday when reading the New York Post. (It was also picked up by the AP and reported by everyone from MSNBC to The St. Petersburg Times). It seems that cyberspace Goliath Jeffrey Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is looking to make the journey into outer space, proving that with billions of dollars you can make even the most impossible dreams a reality.
His company Blue Origin (see http://www.blueorigin.com/), whose novel goal (I'm sure the starving populations in third world countries and our equipmentless troops in Iraq would agree)is to make space travel possible for mere civilians at an affordable price. They have been operating in secret since 2000 and have just unveiled themselves to the public.
Blue Origin is currently looking to hire experienced propulsion engineers and experienced turbomachinery engineers, as well as a senior leader to head the turbopump group (Translation Not available). Folks with turbopump or propulsion experience on large, modern, cryogenic engines such as the RS-68, please note that this is incredibly different than the R2D2, are of particular interest.
For those with the qualifications listed, be sure to send those resumes out stat. Blue Origin estimates that we will have space travel by the year 2010. They recently launched their space craft Goddard, named after rocket pioneer Robert Goddard, in November and had a succesful test flight. The rocket, which takes-off and lands vertically, mimics the design of the DC-X, a rocket tested by NASA in the early 1990s. It can hold a limited number of passengers, but the hope is that the design can be developed into a larger craft.
Bu Bezo's isn't the only one with a Trekkie fantasy. Other companies are working towards civilian space travel as well. For the out-of-this-world price of $20-million, intergalactic travelers can hitch a lift on the Russian Soyuz craft. In 2004 SpaceShipOne successfully visited space twice in a fortnight. Richard Branson is also looking to launch a fleet of such crafts as the 'space airline' Virgin Galactic. They have already started taking bookings, and may begin flights as early as 2008.
This is amazing and beyond belief. With the way technology is moving, by the time I am sixty I may be living on Mars recounting to children how I, gasp, "Grew up before teleporting and invisibility cloaks." Already children are dumbfounded that there was ever a time without computers and can not understand what people did with their free time or how anyone did school work.
But children's disbelief is just one of the results that are sure to accompany this revolutionary new shift to space life. A new culture will be born, new governments will be put into place and a new way of living will come into existence.
A few things I am looking forward to include:
-Sex in space. The Karma Sutra will be brought to a whole new level in zero gravity conditions.
-Space food. In fifth grade they gave out astronaut ice cream. It was crumbly, stale, yet tasted oh so good.
-Space slang and euphemisms. "Listen you son-of-a martian, I will kick your jet pack so fucking hard it will be hurting until the next eon." "Would you like to see my rocket. He's vertical and read to blast off."
-Las Venus. Visited by the Jetsons, Las Venus is the gambling capital of the universe.
Things I am not looking forward to:
-Intergalactic Battle. Light sabers, incinerating flash guns, huge aliens with an anti-capitalist agenda; this is a battle we are sure to lose.
-Interspecies Rape and Involuntary Captivity. Aliens have been watching us for years and now they have a chance to get up close and personal. While most psychologically normal aliens will only want to put humans into their zoo's, there will be those freaks who will want to force themselves sexually on our race. And oh my god, probes. I am not looking forward to probes.
-Accidental Suffocation: Right now heart attacks and 'accidents at home' are some of the leading ways people die. In space, especially in the beginning, glitches and malfunctions in the oxygen supplier are bound to be numerous and deadly.
-Flesh Eating Space Bacteria. No doubt space will be a relative interplanetary brew of diseases we have no cure and no idea how to combat.
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