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Over the last 100 years, air travel has become
accessible to almost everyone through the
increase in airline safety and the reduction
in ticket prices.
But as current airplanes continue to evolve,
the limitations of physics have stopped us
from going faster and further.
But what if there was a new method to Earth
travel that would cut flight times massively?
Space companies Virgin Galactic and SpaceX
are trying to make this a reality by using
their rocket powered vehicles for super fast
travel here on Earth.
SpaceX plans to use their Starship rocket,
primarily designed for Mars, to transport
passengers to major cities on Earth.
Since these flights would go above the Earth’s
atmosphere, it would allow the rocket to reach
much higher speeds than an airliner.
This means that flights to anywhere on Earth
could be done in less than an hour.
The ride itself would not be smooth, as passengers
would experience g-forces during launch and
landing similar to riding a rollercoaster.
However, for the majority of the ride, the
rocket would be coasting through space and
passengers would experience zero-gravity.
This makes the design of inflight amenities
like bathrooms and food carts much more complex.
However, since the flight times would be so short, the need for such amenities might not be so high.
Virgin Galactic is also exploring the potential
of Earth to Earth spaceship travel - but their
method is completely different.
Instead of a rocket, Virgin is developing
a rocket powered space-plane which can be
carried up to high altitudes and launched
in mid-air.
Both methods could theoretically reduce flight
times by an enormous margin - but before either
of these companies can launch passengers around the globe, they have to overcome a lot of challenges.
In order for SpaceX to get around the enormous
amount of sound produced by their rocket,
launches would need to take place far away
from cities, perhaps out in the ocean.
All of this will require more transportation
for passengers getting to and from the launch site.
Virgin would likely have less trouble getting
regulatory approval since their take off and
landing procedure is much more similar to
traditional air travel and could use the pre-existing
infrastructure of airports.
Virgin has plans to build a network of spaceports
around the world including one in the south
of England which is currently under development.
This additional spaceport would allow Virgin
to perform transatlantic test flights to and
from their existing spaceport in New Mexico.
But even if both companies get passed the
regulatory approval, they still face massive
challenges in the form of ticket prices.
A rocket needs to be as reusable as an airliner
in order to achieve similar ticket prices.
Although Virgin’s plan seems more familiar
to current air travel, it will have a harder
time achieving a reasonable ticket price.
With such a small vehicle, only 6 passengers
and 2 pilots can fly at a time, making the
cost per ticket much higher.
Despite the price, almost 700 eager passengers are already on the waiting list for a
suborbital flight aboard VSS Unity.
But before these passenger flights can become
a reality, both companies will need to overcome
one of spaceflight’s greatest challenges,
safety.
In 2017, the aviation industry had just 1
death for every 60 million passengers.
So far, the spaceflight industry has a rate
of 1 death for every 32 astronauts,
since out of the 570 people that have been into
space, 18 have died.
Meeting the safety standards remains a challenge
across all commercial spaceflight, especially
after the tragic crash of Virgin’s VSS Enterprise
in 2014.
Although passenger travel could save us a
huge amount of time, one thing that is often
overlooked is the physiological impacts it
could have.
Travelling around the world this fast could
have weird effects on our bodies since we
would be deprived of the usual day/night cycle.
Passengers could wake up to watch the sunrise,
then travel across the world to watch the
sunset in less than an hour.
This rapid change in time zones would create
a much more intense feeling of jet lag than
we are used to from regular airline travel.
Whether SpaceX or Virgin Galactic can turn
the dream of Earth to Earth rocket travel
into a reality remains unknown.
However, commercial space programs are making
huge strides towards achieving this revolutionary
method of transportation in order to make
our future much more exciting!
In order to achieve this ambitious goal, both
of these companies will need to hire people
like you that are interested and passionate
about all things space.
Even if you don’t have a formal science
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using Brilliant.
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Their problem solving approach allows you
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Thank you very much for watching and I’ll
see you in the next video.
