Spacex is a new company trying to privatize spaceflight, they build their own rockets and ships, free from government interference and NASA. This company wants to take the average person into space if that individual can afford it. If you or I had the money, would we go and experience it?
I have always wanted to experience the weightless that being in space provides, that and to see our beautiful blue planet from outer space. Before I did that I would want certain aspects of the experience to be fine tuned first. There is a certain amount of thrust you need to break out of the earth's gravity and into orbit, the G force apparently is incredible and a normal person would black out when he or she was subjected to it without proper training.
Then we have the problem of being in space if we have made it successfully into orbit, the space station. Despite what you may think, the station itself is pretty small, you are basically in a long tube surrounded by delicate electrical panels, wires, and hoses. There are no extra sleeping quarters or private washrooms. There is a fine dust that is always floating around with you, and it will be inhaled with every breath, that dust is actually dead skin cells, or maybe beads of sweat from other people. They have to constantly clean the space station manually every day for their own health. Imagine 5 new lazy ass tourists coming to stay for few days.
Maybe Spacex needs to start building a hotel first, before deciding to take non astronaut participants with a lot of money, up to the station for a visit. This trip sounds like a nightmare at the moment and not a very fun experience and the worst is yet to come.
When you leave the station and have to come home, you get to do it in the same way as every other astronaut, free fall through the atmosphere in a burning fireball before you land in the ocean, hopefully with everything in working order, especially your GPS for the company to be able to find you.
There is a lot of work to be done if they are planning it to eventually be public. For it to viable they are going to need to have the trip be a smooth ride there and back, a place to stay where I'm not huddled together with 7 other people in a tube, and an almost 100 percent safety guarantee or some incredible safety specs. If you lose power on a ship on the water, someone can come help you, if it happens in space, you are on your own.
I think they are ahead of themselves, and Spacex needs to do a lot more before anyone will be going on a Public Space Flight.
Scott Goerz
