Elon not the only one with stars in his eyes
Musk's SpaceX has some competition
Now others are following in his heat trail. Blue Origin, a rocketship company, successfully test fired its BE-4 rocket engine, completing a 50% burn for three seconds. It's Amazon's Jeff Bezos company and though staying mostly quiet on its goings-on, has now made its presence known in the competition for space flight.
Bezos Blue Origin to fly low orbit missions
Bezos company's approach, however, is to not so much to merge with the stars but to maintain an alliance with mother earth. While Musk guns for Mars, Bezos rockets will be low orbit bound. The focus his company says will be how to use rocket flight for commercial purposes here on earth. From Engadget
Vector of Virginia Space another player into factory flights
The Vector-R vehicle is a low-cost rocket intended to meet the growing demand from the microsatellite sector, which is expected to become a $7.5 billion industry in five years. At less than $3 million per launch, Vector is aiming for a 20th the cost of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
An additional advantage for Vector, Cantrell said, is its mobility. Vector requires minimal infrastructure to launch its rockets — as little as a concrete pad. From CNBC
To further illustrate the point of reducing costs, Vector is planning for a large manufacturing facility to churn out rockets auto plant assembly style. The plan will be for the rocket plant to go up in Tuscon, Arizona.
Virgin Galactic is also on the hunt for rocketing around the earth. Richard Branson says his company will launch a rocket in four months. His approach is similar to Bezos.
Elon Musk wants to put humans on the Mars in seven years but Richard Branson says he and fellow space-focused billionaire Jeff Bezos remain focused on the Earth.
"Elon is absolutely fixated on going to Mars and I think it's his life mission," Branson said on "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. "Jeff and ourselves [at the Virgin Group] are more interested in how we can use space to benefit the Earth." From CNBC
However, the pair is interested in going farther out to space, eventually. Bozo's Blue Origins is developing a more powerful engine that can take rockets to the edge of orbit in its New Glen project. Branson has Virgin Orbits LauncherOne for similar purposes.
The world's rocketmen may be dodging a lot of low orbit space debris. Over the last 50 years, there have been over 7,000 satellites sent out to space. There is a lot of room out there but it still could get crowded as man-made objects in space could swell to around 18,000 in the coming years.
China, the US, and Russia have routinely blown their space junk out of the sky but that just spreads numerous smaller bits of debris. And there is the problem of satellite collision spreading even more debris.
"It's a serious, serious challenge," Launchspace founder Marshall Kaplan told Space.com in 2013. "This is not a US problem ... it's everybody's problem. And most of the people that produced the debris, the serious offenders, like Russia, China, and the United States, are not going to spend that kind of money. It's just not a good investment.
"We've reached the point of no return," he continued. "The debris will continue to get worse in terms of collision threats ... even if not another satellite were launched, the problem will continue to get worse." From Engadget
New technology from the world's space scientists could alleviate the problem. The US has a plan for a 6-mile magnetic net to capture debris and send it back to earth. The Europeans would like to harpoon satellites to capture them.
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans to launch in four months
Elon Musk wants to put humans on the Mars in seven years but Richard Branson says he and fellow space-focused billionaire Jeff Bezos remain focused on the Earth.
"Elon is absolutely fixated on going to Mars and I think it's his life mission," Branson said on "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. "Jeff and ourselves [at the Virgin Group] are more interested in how we can use space to benefit the Earth." From CNBC
However, the pair is interested in going farther out to space, eventually. Bozo's Blue Origins is developing a more powerful engine that can take rockets to the edge of orbit in its New Glen project. Branson has Virgin Orbits LauncherOne for similar purposes.
Space debris a problem new robots may sort that out
The world's rocketmen may be dodging a lot of low orbit space debris. Over the last 50 years, there have been over 7,000 satellites sent out to space. There is a lot of room out there but it still could get crowded as man-made objects in space could swell to around 18,000 in the coming years.China, the US, and Russia have routinely blown their space junk out of the sky but that just spreads numerous smaller bits of debris. And there is the problem of satellite collision spreading even more debris.
"It's a serious, serious challenge," Launchspace founder Marshall Kaplan told Space.com in 2013. "This is not a US problem ... it's everybody's problem. And most of the people that produced the debris, the serious offenders, like Russia, China, and the United States, are not going to spend that kind of money. It's just not a good investment.
"We've reached the point of no return," he continued. "The debris will continue to get worse in terms of collision threats ... even if not another satellite were launched, the problem will continue to get worse." From Engadget
New technology from the world's space scientists could alleviate the problem. The US has a plan for a 6-mile magnetic net to capture debris and send it back to earth. The Europeans would like to harpoon satellites to capture them.
A US firm has created a robot system that will snag space debris, fling it to further out to space, and use that interactive energy to send the robot to other debris. From Engadget
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