Almost a century has passed since crossing the Atlantic in a luxury ocean liner was considered the crème de la crème of traveling. Since then tourism has changed quite a bit.
Virgin Galactic is taking tourism literally to new heights with the introduction of actual space tourism!
Yep, you heard right! This new ability is pushing boundaries that previously were held only in the distant future of science fiction dreamers.
This technology isn’t quite ready to visit the moon or take a lap around the International Space Station, but XCOR (another company looking into space travel) spokesman Mike Massee told USA Today in an April 27 article that the suborbital tours would allow passengers to “see stars and easily the curvature of Earth. And aside from the visual experience … it's also the ultimate roller-coaster ride."
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| www.gizbuy.com |
This adventure would certainly be the ultimate roller-coaster ride! According to the same USA Today article passengers will also experience genuine weightlessness from flying 68 miles into the air and being at the edge of space.
Thankfully, aerospace companies aren’t in too big of a rush to send civilians out to the stars. Both Virgin Galactic and XCOR are still in the testing and tweaking phases. Columnist Leonard David for Space Insider reported April 22 that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its first flight in October of 2010. The most recent and longest flight lasted just over 14 minutes on April 22.
To be fair, these real-life spaceships do not resemble any traditional spaceship you might be envisioning. The craft that six passengers and two pilots will be taken into space in (like SpaceShipTwo) will be launched from the center of its mother ship (WhiteKnightTwo) 50,000 feet in the air. All together it looks like this:
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| www.crunchgear.com |
The entire structure is very impressive. Composed of carbon composite construction rather than aluminum or another metal, SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are relatively light and incredibly durable.
The Virgin Galactic website spares no effort to show potential passengers the safety of their craft. President of Virgin Galactic Will Whitehorn expressed the importance of safety to Space News in an April 2006
“For us, the biggest risk is a medical incident in space. Heart and blood circulation -- those are our big issues. SpaceShipTwo is designed so that the passengers would survive even a catastrophic failure of the craft during flight.”
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| iainclaridge.co.uk |
With every precaution being taken to ensure that these spaceships are safe and functional, don’t be ready to take off with them quite yet. A ticket into space costs a pretty penny. An April 27 Time article reports a trip to space costing $20,000, however the goal of Virgin Galactic is to get the price down to the equivalent of an SUV.
Abby--I’ve also loved reading your blog this semester, I’ve learned so many interesting and innovative things and you have a really nice overall style/tone in your writing that makes it enjoyable to read. As far as top picks, it was a difficult choice, but these are the ones I am going with:
ReplyDeleteFlying to new, strange heights in advertising (March 11)
This was overall just a really nice post. You did a good job referencing and incorporating sources and quotes. The video conveys it’s message and is hilarious to watch! The other images too are placed well and make the post just look nice. I also thought you did an especially nice job in this post of stating your own opinions on the matter.
The not so dangerous call after all? (March 3)
Something I really liked about this entry was the variety of voices/perspectives you incorporated--you explained the viewpoint of “professionals” as to why the rules are in place, but you also shared the feelings of more “regular people” with the blogger saying how annoying it would be to have people talking on the phone. Using all of these different sources really gave the post a well rounded feel of the whole issue.
Google going to new heights with newest acquisition (April 20)
You explained this topic really well by using both source quotes and your own words to make the issue easy to understand. Your use of sources is excellent; your “linked words” are also especially good in this article. I also liked how you related this article to your readers--like by clarifying what ITA software is and how readers are likely familiar with it.
I have found your blog to be very interesting and educational throughout the semester and I think it has grown and improved nicely. Keep up the good work. If I am going to travel I may just read your blog first :D
ReplyDeleteHere are my suggestions for the final portfolio:
April 27th
Found this blog post very very interesting and cool. I would love to be a space tourist lol. The multimedia and links work well in this post and the flow is good.
April 20th
Liked this blog post, though the one video doesn’t seem to show up…might fix that before making the final portfolio. Other than that thought you had good links and pictures with this blog and brought a new and newsworthy topic into your blog.
March 30th
This was also a very interesting article that made me want to learn more. It was well structured and flowed well. Would include in final portfolio.
March 3rd
This went well with your blog’s overall theme and also had good multimedia and links in it. I would add this for sure in the final portfolio :D
Feb. 18th
I liked your links and multimedia in this blog and thought it had a lot of your voice in it. I also liked all the examples you gave and thought that the blog post flowed well and was very interesting
I have a love for technology and "gadgety" things. Your blog has been my favorite to read over the semester because you have been including so many things related to just that. I would suggest using the Kimmunicating Around the World, article in particular. It was a very easy read and extremely interesting. After that one I would pick the Talking with Technology blog post. That was very interesting to see how all of those technology gadgets worked! After those two, I would suggest using your latest 3 blog posts.
ReplyDeleteAll of your posts have been well written, you use a personal voice, relevant links...And you do the best job out of all the other blogs I have seen of including media and pictures. I think the more media, the less reading the "reader" feels they are actually doing. It is a good distraction to be able to look at pictures or videos, which you include in the posts I picked out. Great job, good luck with the final "stuff".