How the folly of the billionaire class could soon become a reality for a mass audience
Throughout the decades, the gallivanting escapades of the Starship Enterprise – traversing the depths of where no-one has gone before – has enthralled and inspired generations. What seemed like a distant dream for those wishing to cruise the final frontier, could soon become a reality. This year we are expecting several private companies in the US to start taking humans to space, most for the first time since the trip to the moon. And with the opening of the Spaceport America in the Mojave Desert, New Mexico last week, Virgin Galactic will be bringing their interstellar enterprise to Spaceport Cornwall, based in Newquay. If all goes to plan, this could be a vital step towards making space more accessible.
With the enterprising spirit of some of the world’s leading business moguls striving for the expansion of space tourism for Hollywood A-listers, Asgardia is another company seeking to boldly launch themselves to the forefront of space residency, and for a mass audience, in what is proving to be the most transformative year in the 21st century space race.
“2019 does feel like the year that’s going to be the culmination of two decades of development work that have gone into space tourism,” says industry analyst Caleb Williams from consulting firm SpaceWorks. “And if we’re lucky, we’ll see the birth of an entirely new industry.”
Space tourism has indeed experienced many false dawns. Companies have come and gone that have offered everything from trips to the Moon to a new home on Mars. However, it now looks like space travel will be a reality for a far wider audience. The current space race has been dominated by the billionaire moguls who are hoping to take the most wealthy and exclusive celebrities into space, but what Asgardia seek to offer will appease all from society.
With over a million followers and 300,000 signed up residents, the appetite for space residency is tangible. With hugely exciting research into anti-gravity and protection from solar radiation, it is the ambition of Asgardia to facilitate for the first birth in space in the next 25 years. Once that achievement is accomplished, Asgardia will spear their research into creating a permanent home for humans in space, opening up doors for millions to secure a new home.
Dr Lena De Winne, Head of Information and Communications at Asgardia comments on the desires of Asgardia to home millions of people;
“Space residency must become a reality for human beings if there is any hope for the sustained longevity of the human race. We already have the technology to destroy the planet and life. The survival of the human race is too delicate to not have a vanguard in place that can secure our future. We also know that the lifespan of the sun is finite, meaning that humans one day will inevitably have to leave Earth in order to survive.
Creating a new community that will not only be a vanguard of the human race, but also protecting the Earth through our proposed defences against Near-Earth Objects, Asgardia will prove to be an ethical exponent of space exploration.”
