Fri, Mar 26, 2004
Mars Panel Sees Affordable Space Travel
Forget about Hawaii or the slopes of Aspen, future vacations
could truly be an out-of-this-world experience. This is what some
scientists believe may be the future fad in holiday travel. They
claim everyday space travel could become affordable for tourists
and sightseers within a few years. This group of entrepreneurs and
scientists made their case Wednesday at a hearing on travel to the
moon and then to Mars. The meeting at the Georgia Institute of
Technology is part of a series of public hearings before a
presidential commission about the feasibility of the moon-Mars
concept. The commission will forward its findings to the president
in June.
Peter Diamondis,
chairman of the X Prize Foundation, was one of the attendees at the
meeting. He said space flight should become more of a private
industry that is profitable for businesses and practical for people
who aren't professional astronauts.
"What we need is a vibrant, real marketplace," said Diamondis,
whose foundation is offering a $10 million award to a team that can
pull off a space flight twice within two weeks. "We need thousands
and millions of flights."
Progress is difficult, Diamondis said, when whole programs stop
after a disaster like the Challenger or Columbia explosions. Jeff
Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace, believes space travel would become
more reliable if it were more common. He said the current 1-in-50
chance of a catastrophe is unacceptable. The panel agreed and said
NASA should bid out many of its needs to private industry.
"We're looking for the model by which the private sector would
invest in this," said commission chairman Pete Aldridge. "It does
have something of value to the entrepreneurial spirit."
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