Private Company Seeking Professional Astronauts
Mr Bigelow, from Las Vegas, already has two test models of his inflatable space modules in orbit around the Earth, launched by Russian rockets.
He plans to build orbiting hotels to provide out-of-this-world holidays and has his sights set on the Moon and even Mars too.
Bigelow’s modules, which can be linked together sausage-style to form a space station, are launched in compact form and then expanded to full size.
Space duties spelt out in the job offer include:
* Performing as a professional astronaut aboard the Bigelow Aerospace Station Complex;
* Managing all on-board aspects of employee and customer astronaut personal safety;
* Maintaining the space stations inside but with some spacewalks too; and
* Helping clients with payloads or experiments.
On Earth the spacemen will train new astronauts and operate mission control.
Mr Bigelow, who made his fortune from Budget Suites of America, is aiming to bring the cost of a ticket to space down to £30,000-£60,000.
His other big ideas include a cruise ship to carry 100 passengers and 50 crew on a trip around the moon.
As well as the unspecified number of astronauts’ positions the company has 44 other job offers on its website.
_Telegraph_via_ImpactLab
NASA stopped being a space venture when Al Gore was placed in charge of the NASA budget back in the 1990s. Under Obama, NASA has made the full transition to a catastrophic global warming government agency, begun under Gore.
It falls to private enterprise to pick up the slack, if Americans are to have anything to do with mankind's future in space.
Labels: Access to space
posted by al fin at 12:30 pm
4 Comments:
NASA may block private enterprise in its quest to enter space. Back when I subscribed to The New American the magazine reported that a group of investors had wanted to buy the Mir space station from Russia, but the station needed some work to function. The investors wanted to export the necessary parts from the US to Russia in order to have the parts sent aloft to space in order to have cosmonauts do the repairs. According to the article in TNA, NASA used its authority to prevent the export of the parts, thus dooming Mir and our first private space venture.
I haven't made an attempt to research this tale, and at this point it is all hearsay. But I find it plausible that a government agency past its prime would engage in these sort of shenanigans in order to squelch any competition. I think this kind of behavior is even more likely during an anti-progress administration.
Checking wiki I find that there was an attempt by private investors to save Mir. link
In fact, the private investor group even has its own page on wiki here. Apparently the story is true, NASA pressured Russia to destroy the station and blocked the export of a technology called a "space tether" until after Russia had destroyed the station.
Nice.
I forgot one other thing. Most private space businesses rely on Russia in some way. What I have never understood is why Russia didn't compete in this market itself. If I remember correctly the Soyuz vehicle was originally designed for a two week mission, hence why it has three section. The vehicle has a crew section, a work section for experiments, and a propulsion/mechanical section. Russia could have designed a simpler vehicle that only had two section and only served to take passengers from Russia to the ISS. By eliminating the work section, and shortening the time in flight the mechanical section could be downsized and the whole vessel could then be at least 50% lighter. The new, lighter soyuz could then replace the obsolete shuttle and would serve until Richard Branson perfects his spaceplane.
Once the spaceplane arrives rockets will be obsolete for human travel to space.
The Obama - Pelosi regime does not like private commerce at all -- unless they are taking a big cut for themselves.
Private space enterprise is a big threat to the established order, because of all the potential wealth and real estate. Not to mention being higher up in the gravity well.
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