Tag Archives: space travel
The International Space Station: Benefits and costs
The mold for the space station was broken with the creation and use of the original Mir in the 80′s and 90′s. Previously, space stations had not seen continuous use to a great extent, but the idea that Space Station Mir saw at least one person living in it on end for almost a decade was an inspiration for other space complexes to follow. This enterprise, while an achievement of science, unfortunately did not wholly reflect the sense of global community the sciences in their purest form aim to promote, as Mir was distinctly a Soviet-/Russian-run construct. The International Space Station, meanwhile, is a credit to its name because its continued construction has only been possible through the cooperation of several nations. While economic realities may have greased the proverbial wheels of this agreement, the fact remains that the Space Station is a byproduct of funding from the American space program (NASA), as well as contributions from the governments of Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. The International Space Station is quite possibly the most expensive item ever made, costing its international patrons billions of dollars. Certainly, it is the largest object, space station or otherwise, to be … Continue reading
The difficulties of space travel
Space exploration is a popular subject for science fiction writers. Often, the setting of the story will involve a distant date in the future that is hard for most to contradict as plausible, and capture the wildest fantasies of those who follow the story. Of most interest here, the workings in the plot will often be shaped by the space travel of man to likewise distant worlds which are also inventions of the writer’s yet equally impossible to disprove. While some predictions of future worlds have already failed to come to fruition with the passing of the deadline years predicted in their works, others have yet to be verified or refuted. At present, though, space exploration is a risky business, and most of the information we have collected from our own solar system is not the result of manned space travel but rather the data collection of unmanned probes. There are a number of challenges facing humankind’s transit through outer space today. Below are some of these difficulties: 1. Difficulties of repairs – Previous manned space exploration missions have had their share of problems with needed repairs and failed launches. At worst, spacecraft have failed to get off the ground … Continue reading