Out of Pod Experience

What about the radiation? The horrible space weather!!!!

While I would love to fly around in space and explore other planets I have to agree with Merin in this. I think humanity will eventually make space travel a routine thing but not for a few hundred years at least. The main reason being there isn't any financial reason to go to space at the moment other than for natural resources. Sure, there are a lot of resources out there ripe for the taking but getting to them isn't economically feasible let alone practical in shipping large amounts of cargo across the vastness of space. Not to mention figuring out a way to get all those materials back down to Earth's surface.

Commercial space is still in its early stages and as it develops I'm sure it be subject to many regulations since governments around the world probably won't like the fact that a private "space" company will be able launch anything and everything into orbit for anyone that can afford it. And in regards to space tourism becoming something of a "family vacation" it would have to be 99.9999999% safe. Imagine the financial devastation, and PR nightmare a space company would face if something went wrong and the rocket blew up/burned up with families/children on board.

For spaceflight to become routine like we see in sci-fi movies/video games we would need a major revolution in propulsion technology. The most costly part of getting to space is getting through Earth's atmosphere and the only way we know how to do that is by brute forcing our way through it. This is why our current rockets are something like 90% fuel since it takes most of the fuel just to get through the atmosphere. Therefore, it would take a complete departure from chemical rockets to make space flight truly cheap and at this point there is nothing on the horizon that would fit the bill.

One could argue about using ferry ships and SCRAM/RAM jets to help lower the cost and it will somewhat but it will still be extremely expensive to get anything to orbit, especially large cargo if it's even possible. We could argue on this from all points of view but the fact remains the laws of physics simply don't allow spaceflight to become "easier" by using a bigger engine, building a bigger rocket or using ferry planes.

Another problem with space travel is us, humans. Humans or any living thing for that matter isn't suited to live in space for a long duration. In our rockets we have to carry food, water, and all the other life support supplies. We are subject to large doses of radiation and muscle atrophy. Not to mention the boredom/cabin fever a crew would experience on a long duration flight cooped up in a tiny spacecraft. For instance imagine living in something the size your average van with a few other people for 9 months just to get to Mars; let alone years to get to anything past that.

For the next 20 or so years I think the major technoligical development will probably be fusion power plants and humanities' shift away from fossil fuel as the main power source(I honestly don't know why we haven't put more effort in solar power as it's free). But for interplanetary spaceflight to happen we would have to work together globally and make it our sole priority. And let's face it humans are more concerned with killing each other over natural resources here on Earth and seem less concerned with putting people on other planets at the moment.

Didn't that Space X guy once suggest that if the Dragon is given the go ahead he would personally partially fund a trip round the moon and back?

It would only take minor modifications to the dragon to allow enough air, fuel and food to get on a free return trajectory, and the reasons given for doing so?

Why not?

That's the kind of attitude I like.

yeah he totally did. lets see what happens this next week!