Space Tourist

Even though NASA may be winding down part of its space race program, it is not getting out of the biz altogether. In fact NASA is taking steps to insure that humans will be exploring space for eons to come.

The U. S. space agency has just put out the word that it is looking to spend around $200 million for a space fueling station that can safely store liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The liquid oxygen storage must be no loss (zero boil off) and the liquid hydrogen can be minimal loss.

This minimal loss of liquid hydrogen is acceptable for two reasons. First, liquid hydrogen has to be cryogenically stored at -423F. Second, the space fueling station will have to content with heat from the sun and other obstacles.

The space fueling station will not likely have any impact on space tourists flying into low earth orbit (LEO). But, in the future when tourists travel to the Moon, Mars or beyond, a space fueling infrastructure will be needed in order to carry passenger to and from locations swiftly and safely.

Everyone by now has heard of the hydrogen economy and rocket ships powered by liquid nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen. But, one company is proposing a new next generation method of propulsion called “mirror energy”.

This mirror energy or mirror power as they sometimes call it is based upon anti-matter. Energy USA theorizes that one day spacecraft will not only run on mirror power but travel to the tail end of comets to collect this anti-matter as well.

Mirror energy, then will be a commodity the size of about two nickels that can be sold to companies and universities for millions of dollars. Conceivably, also one day the space tourism industry will also run on mirror energy as well.

Is this a little far-fetched? Perhaps. Or more likely just ahead of its time. Many times science fiction precedes science, so don’t be too surprised if the next generation is vacationing in space with mirror energy to propel them in flybys around the Earth.