Future of Space Travel Research Assignment Paper

Future of Space Travel
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Future of Space Travel
Introduction
Space travel is defined as the travel through space for the purposes of visiting or exploring other worlds. Often, it is referred to be a form in which travelers enter space, a region approximated to be one hundred kilometers above the crust of the earth (Aerospace Corporation, 2017). Initially, space travel was restricted to astronauts working for various governments agencies’ research. However, in the recent past, humans have been intrigued by the outer space, creating a need for space travel, especially after the successful launch of spacecraft in the 20th century, successfully taking astronauts into space and the moon (Aerospace Corporation, 2017). The intent of the paper is to analyze the future of space travel, looking into space tourism, asteroid mining and future interstellar ship.
History
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first artificial satellite named Sputnik 1 into space. Few years later, on April 12, 1961, Lt. Yuri Gagarin from Russia became the first human to orbit around the globe, lasting about one hour and forty-eight minutes in the space, and reaching an altitude of 202 miles. Over the years, there have been a series of other successful space explorations, with Astronaut Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to land on the moon on July 1969 (Aerospace Corporation, 2017). With the development of the first America’s first space station named Skylab, there has been numerous improvements in the industry, leading to the development of an international space station. The station has been very useful in monitoring security, surveillance of weather, navigation purposes and monitoring disasters.
Formation of important bodies such as The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which encourages exploration and monitoring space has played a major role in ensuring that space exploration can be done efficiently and effectively (Dick, 2007). Space exploration and travel is a very important concept as it promotes science education. With the rise of global warming, agencies such as NASA have helped in environmental research and studies on issues related to climate change.
Future of Space Travel
Asteroid Mining
Over-exploitation has led to depletion of the earth’s resources at an alarming rate. In future, this could lead to limited natural resources, leading to negative effects on the industrial developments that require these resources. However, space exploration through asteroid mining has been viewed as one of the remedies to the forecasted problem. Asteroid mining refers to the exploitation of raw materials and natural resources from asteroids and other planets. The minerals include iron, copper, nickel and gold, as well as water, which has been viewed as another valuable resource. These minerals could be utilized in the space, or transported to earth using rockets. The realization of the aspect has created a competition in developing the required machinery, with NASA and ESA sending colossal spacecraft to space. Private firms are also trying to establish models to help them benefit from the asteroid mining (Szondy, 2016).
Despite a drop in the co...