SpaceX – the guys who last year became the first to launch a private spaceship into orbit and bring it home – are planning on sending humans to Mars within 10 to 20 years, according to a Wall Street Journal interview with CEO Elon Musk. These guys have an X in their name, so we should take them seriously.
Yesterday, Virgin America held an opening ceremony for their new Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport; press were ushered onto a waiting aircraft, and told to keep an eye out for Virgin-Galactic-related-things after takeoff. After about 20 minutes they were asked to look out of their windows, because White Knight 2 and Spaceship 2 were doing fly-byes.
You read that headline and thought, why should I care? Well I’ll tell you why, cause giant holes in the moon are a big deal, especially since they present an amazing real-estate opportunity.
Ha! Yes. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is looking at plans to send a humanoid robot to the International Space Station. Except by humanoid I mean it will look attempt to look sexy but end up being insanely creepy. Also, it’s going to post photos and text to Twitter.
Our Science and Technology minister didn’t mince her words announcing the arrival of SANSA (South African National Space Agency) yesterday using terms like “launch” and ”local scientific research sector” at free will. She even went so far as to say a decade from now South Africa would be a thriving space nation. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of Mzansi in orbit.