Will Space Tourism help bring about the "D" word?

I was thinking about this the other day and then I seen the story about another space tourism start up company that claims they will begin operations in 2010, so I decided to see what some of you guys think.
First of all, heres the story I'm referring to.
Space Tourism

Weve all seen the videos of what looks like crafts shooting across space during the space shuttle flights and of course we also have the famous Tether Incident video but these guys are govt pawns and they really dont react to these things like someone who hasnt signed a non-disclosure agreement would.

So how about these civilians that may soon be racing to the lower threshold of space, about 200,000 feet, according to the article?
Is that even high enough to be able to see what the shuttle astronauts appear to see on their missions?
Will the Govt either shutdown these companies before they get in full swing or will they force strict guide lines them, making them and their passengers sign a non-disclosure agreements as a condition before allowing them to operate?

I, for one, will be patiently awaiting the many hours of video of either empty space or something more interesting that will be taken by the passengers.
There are people that say that these craft are all around us just outside of our atmosphere, its getting real close to the time that we find out if they're right.

I think this will have a HUGE impact on believers and non-believers alike.

You raise an interesting point. I'm not certain that disclosure will come through commercial spaceflight, however discoveries are certain to be made.

Commercial spaceflight will mark an important milestone along our path of development into off-world activity. But in my view, the big discoveries should start rolling in at about the time that Private Spaceflight hits the scene (should be the next revolution in space-flight, post commercial).

When private citizens are able to afford their own personal space-craft (like we do with automobiles here on the surface) then those interesting in research will have the means to do so first-hand.

There are so many questions we have about our solar system, it's past and it's present.

I'm particularly interested in the 'Voyager Anomaly', and how this effect will be observed by humans when we finally make it to the edge of the heliosphere.

I'm certain that new discoveries will be made though through commercial spaceflight ventures. The Ocean makes a great comparison here...

Government Spaceflight = The Swimming Pool, we are afforded a limited look at what's 'allowed' to be there. Data from Government Spaceflight can easily be quarantined, and sterilized, just like the control we exert over our own swimming pools. No life, just a place it's okay for the 'kids' to go.

Commercial Spaceflight = Playing on the beach, and swimming in the tides. While it's a whole lot harder to 'control' what's available for the public to see (and understand) with commercial spaceflight, we are still actually sending humans 'out there' at least to the borderlands, to explore and investigate on their own. It's a huge step in the right direction, but just like the beaches along the California Coast, there will still always be a 'public zone' for just anybody to wander into (more sanitized, less to see and do) and an 'elite zone' for those with 'access' like the private beaches in Santa Monica. At any rate, this is the place I believe commercial spaceflight will take us. We'll be there to look and listen, but we still won't have independent control over where we get to go and what we get to research.

Private Spaceflight = Taking your own submarine into the deep and looking for the giant octopus in person. While I'm all for the other various levels of progress, this stage should be our true goal, and I believe it's also the very LAST thing that NASA wants to see happen. We need to be able to research without restrictions, and to report to the public the raw data that we find. Until there are humans out there (preferably private citizens, not beholden to a government or corporation) I really have a hard time believing that ANYTHING has been thoroughly investigated. Yes, our robots are pretty neat, but compared to a human with reasoning capacity, they're the equivalent of a walking security camera.

At any rate, that's my take, thanks for making me think this morning
I haven't seen you in a while Kronos, nice to read one of your threads again!

-WFA

Thanks for your insight witness, this is a topic that really interests me because I'd like to be a customer on one of these ships someday.
It would be really cool if this technology filtered down to the personal level some day but I dont see it happening anytime in the near future, the same predictions were made about personal airplanes and heli's back in the 50's.

Honestly, I figured there would be more interest in this topic, simply because of the interest that is generated by the NASA Shuttle videos.
I know when these flights happen they are going to be super short, I watched the first commercial ship to reach space on some channel, he broke atmosphere and floated some skittles to prove he was weightless and then glided back down to earth.
I believe that Steve Fossett was the pilot on that flight.

Absolutely, I watched it also, you're talking about SpaceShip one, using the White Knight carrier, both built by Burt Rutan. Probably IMHO the most exciting project ever carried out by man!

I totally agree, we've got a long way to go before the infrastructure is there for private space-craft. Many of the reasons we all don't have personal airplanes (safety is a big one) will apply to space-craft also.

However, if we can make 'breaking orbit' less expensive, this future might be closer than we all think. A lot of people are talking about space elevators, using carbon nanotubes for their inherent strength. Personally I think that the white knight style carrier is the way to go. It costs much less fuel to burn from the top of the atmosphere than it does to escape the gravity well from the surface.

A few years ago I designed something similar (it was never published, maybe one day...) I called it the SOLP, for Sub-Orbital Launch Platform.

The idea was basically to erect a floating platform, using lighter than air technology on a massive scale (I think it had to be at least ten football fields to support the launch mass). Take your rocket for a ride to the top of the atmosphere, and then launch from your stable floating platform.

My design had a large open section in the middle of the ship, and looked a bit like a huge rectangular donut. Anyway, I'm also surprised by the lack of activity in this thread. Thought experiments like this are the only way we're going to figure out how to 'get there'

-WFA

Space tourism, if it ever happens in a large scale, will simply open up more opportunities for people to see things then can't explain. Just like with airplane travel. It doesn't mean anybody's going to suddenly "discover" something groundbreaking or definitive. Just more unknown stuff. That's my prediction.

You know I was thinking about this further last night Nohup, and in a way your comments above inspired this thought.

Just as it was easier to call something 'unidentified' if it was in the air before the time of human aircraft, it will also become much more difficult (from the ground) to isolate truly unidentified spacecraft once we start putting our own commerical and private craft up there.

Right now, in 2008, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that when skywatching when you see an object that is clearly in orbit, it's either:
1) A Satellite (or the ISS, also techinically a satellite of Earth)
2) An Asteroid/Meteor (depending on it's relative position in or above the atmosphere)
3) A possible 'Black Ops' Government SpaceCraft
4) A UFO

Once commerical spaceflight opens up, we'll need to add at least two more categories to that list of options:
5) Commercial Spacecraft from Earth
6) Private Spacecraft from Earth

At least from the ground, I believe that the skies (at the height of orbit, approx 52 miles up) are about to get a lot more crowded!

-WFA

(Chuckle) You nearly there guys.
Do you wanna know what will really happen?
If... and it''s a fairly big if, 'they' start commercial flights
into low orbit space, then after a couple of years, this area
if ATS will expand too.

Sfter banging our collective heads against all the cr*p thats
mis-identified up there, we'll come up with an idea that the
Grays/Zeta Reti... wel you are there, you what you say,
have moved out or are sparce because they now inhabit
the caverns of the Earth.

You really don't get it do you?
This has to go on or the advertising at the right of the site is
a waste of time.

(Chuckle) You're nearly there guys.
Do you wanna know what will really happen?
If... and it''s a fairly big if, 'they' start commercial flights
into low orbit space, then after a couple of years, this area
ATS will expand too.

After banging our collective heads against all the cr*p thats
mis-identified up there, we'll come up with an idea that the
Grays/Zeta Reti... welL you are there, you know what you said,
have moved out or are sparse because they now inhabit
the caverns of the Earth.

You really don't get it do you?
This has to go on or the advertising at the right of the site is
a waste of time.

Huh? why I'm I doubled up?
[edit on 27-3-2008 by IronMan]

[edit on 27-3-2008 by IronMan]

reply to post by IronMan


Oh I dont know about that Iron, there are plenty of other topics
for people to discuss at this site, the UFO/Alien category amounts to only about 1/10th of the things that people discuss on here.

Sooo, the aliens went underground, I guess you are a fan of Admiral Byrd's "journals" regarding the inner earth theories then.
Its an interesting topic but why would you think they would go underground?
If they came all the way here then I'm sure that they have a nice big craft to hang out in, rather than the dark damp inner earth caverns.

Who will be the FIRST ATS member to go sub orbital?! Maybe we can all donate 25c each for someone to ride lol