The Future Of Travel
Hundreds of thousands of years ago travel was as basic as it could get. You packed up your belongings and walked to a new destination. Year’s later humans began using horses and carriages, and shortly after that boats were used to travel. In 1903 the Wright brothers became the first successful people to obtain flight. This would change the travel business forever. Today it is simple to hop on a plane and head to far off destinations, but what is next?
The world is forever changing. Everyday new inventions are being born and changing our lives dramatically. What is next for the travel industry? Advances in technology are inevitable. Our planes will get smarter and faster, but what about travel in general. The planet has already been uncovered; you can travel to anywhere you like, except maybe the deepest parts of the Oceans. It is not far-fetched to think that one day we could be taking trips to a city built at the edge of the Mariana Trench.
A more realistic destination is outer space. Although it sounds like a fantasy, there are several companies currently developing civilian vehicles to take travelers there. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, heads one of these companies. Blue Origin successfully 
tested its cone shaped spaceship back in November. The flight only lasted about 25 seconds and reached a height of 285 feet, but it still shows progress in the right direction. Blue Origin has no set timeline as to when they will launch civilian space travel.
Even though another company, Space Adventures, took four tourists to the International Space Station, there still seems to be a race between billionaires; and where there are rich people challenging eachother, Sir Richard Branson will not be far away . In September 2006 Branson unveiled his mock of a six-passenger shuttle, which is a prototype of a shuttle that won the Ansari X-Prize. The Ansari X-Prize was a $10 million reward, set up by a man named Peter Diamonds, and given out to the first group that could successfully make repeat flights to space within a two week period. On October 4th, 2004 SpaceShipOne won the prize, and claimed to reward.
Virgin Galactic plans to have the first passengers off to space by 2009. You can actually go onto their website and book your trip now. There is a three day training course you are obligated to complete in order to obtain bonding. Once this is complete, you will take the two and a half to three hour flight reaching a maximum of 360,000 feet above Earth. You will be allowed to get out of your seat and experience weightlessness, gaze at the stars, and down at the Earth. All of this will cost you a modest $200,000 USD.
Space Adventures currently offers a return flight to the moon for mere $100 million. Of course these are out of nearly everyone’s price range, but as technology progresses and competition grows, prices will inevitably lower. It might not happen in the immediate future, but one day it could be common for families to take a space adventure to the outer atmosphere.
There have already been whispers of companies building space hotels. Instead of taking the two and a half hour round trip, why not check into a space station and stay for a couple nights. The idea that you could be making reservations at the Fairmont Earth Orbit one day is an exciting. Nobody knows what the future has to offer, but if companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have anything to say, we will be headed to bold new worlds.
Every kid had the same dream of being an astronaut and flying to the moon. That dream might soon be reality.
For more information on the companies themselves, click the links below.
Archive for Articles
