Bring in the Competitor...

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-Image by Satoru Kikuchi-

Competition

We need competition in space! Yes, competition. We need companies who will be willing to go the extra mile for their customer, to provide them the safest ride to and from space. We need it done effectively, and we need the price to come down drastically. We need a new space market that would allow people to get excited about the future of space, and help regular people realize the possibilities of this grand solar system which they ignore everyday. 

Actually, all of this already exists.

We saw the beginnings of this space market through the work of MirCorp, the first private space business. We witnessed the Ansari X Prize, when Scaled Composites won the 10 Million prize for sending their vehicle into space. Quickly afterwards, Virgin Galactic was created, who will be sending thousands of people up to space very soon. Virgin Galactic has drastically brought down the flight of space travel. It is normal to see people getting rides into space for $50-$100 million, now it will be done for only $200,000 ( that is .4% of 50 million). That is insane.

Can the price of space travel get lower? check this out...

Think about this. A company named Space Adventures, the single company responsible for sending the only private astronauts into space (besides MirCorp) in our history, wants to drop the price to $100,000!! Amazing! They are teaming up with Armadillo Aerospace to create the vehicle, and Space Adventures will sell the tickets.

Who is Space Adventures?

This company is very interesting. I have already mentioned the fact that they are the only ones sending up private astronauts. These private astronauts all stayed aboard the International Space Station for differing amounts of time (usually around 1-2 weeks). They also give zero-g flights, so you can experience zero-g without having to pay the cost to go to space. Here is a quick video to show you the experience: 

 They just announced a couple of weeks ago this partnership with Armadillo Aerospace, which will involve sub-orbital missions just like that of Virgin Galactic (did I mention at half the price? oh yes I did...sorry, just too excited). Also, if you go to their website, you will see an option for a lunar mission. Lunar as in the moon? Yes the moon! They want to provide the first private lunar mission for around $100 million per seat. This company has done already so many amazing things, I believe it is well within their capability to do this. To read more about it, I highly suggest checking out their website.

Who is Armadillo Aerospace?

This company was founded by John Carmack, a video game industry revolutionary who was a founding member and technical director of id Software. This game company was the creator of amazing PC hits such as DOOM and Quake. Needless to say the successful launch of these game titles and more made him a good deal of money. He decided to start his own aerospace company after funding a couple of smaller aerospace teams, and now his company is doing amazing things. This is due to the fact that they take a whole new approach to rocket design than NASA. Where NASA looks to test everything to complete perfection prior to first launch, Armadillo takes a "design, test, fix, and test again" approach to rocket design not unlike a typical computer software designer. This is to be expected from their leader, given his prior background. 

They have tested over a dozen different rocket designs for use in competitions such as the X Prize Lunar Lander Challenge, and X Prize cup. They have been making great strides with their designs, just recently they posted this video demonstrating their engine's capability to propel itself upward, shut off, fall, and then re-ignite and regain stability all in midair:

They have also developed the first set of rocket engines for the up and coming Rocket Racing League, an amazing new sport featuring rocket propelled planes, that race across their Raceway-In-The-Sky augmented reality system.

Here is the official video released by Space Adventures, explaining their partnership with Armadillo Aerospace, and the upcoming suborbital missions. 

The competition is here!

The beautiful thing about what Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures is doing, is that they are already competing in a tourism market that has yet to send it's first set of tourists. This means they will be working to innovate, and lower their cost, while improving the safety of their vehicles, in order to ensure customer confidence when they are ready to fly. The upside is all in favor of the customer, which is YOU! Keep in mind that Virgin and Space Adventures are not the only ones vying to send you upward. Rocketship Tours and XCOR based out of Mojave, CA, is also looking to send customers on a ride close to space for $95,000. They fly only about half the distance of Virgin or Space Adventures planned, but you still get a good weightless experience.

We are only at the beginning of such a great industry, and thousands of people have already bought their tickets in anxious anticipation for the day when they will go to space. After the first thousand, 10 thousand more will line up to experience the thrill of space travel for themselves. We will not only be limited to sub-orbital missions, but they will expand to orbital, lunar, and possibly even Mars missions! If you are not convinced yet that it will happen, I can respect your skepticism. However, I would recommend keeping your ear to the ground, and watching what happens in the next couple of years. It is going to get even more exciting than you can imagine.

What do you think? Make sure to leave a comment! =)

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