Right now, the only option one has to travel to space is become an astronaut at either NASA or the European Space Agency (ESA). However, an Arizona-based company is on the verge of creating a space capsule that would make space travel possible for just $75,000.
World View Enterprises is working on the most affordable space travel option. It was in 2013 when the company talked about possible travels to the stratosphere. The company proposes their space capsule would be completed by 2017. How would this be possible?
The company will be creating a small pressurizeD capsule that will be taken up in the air through a balloon filled with gas less dense than air. Once filled, the balloon along with the capsule will float atop the atmosphere of the Earth. The trip is said to take two to five hours.
Jane Poynter, the chief executive officer and co-founder of World View's the Voyager, revealed that a number of the engineers involved in the project were part of the StratEx Space Dive program. It was this project that successfully brought Google Executive Alan Eustace up in a high-altitude balloon 136,000 feet above Earth back in October 2014.
"Our team is comprised of some of the best aerospace engineers in the world and they've achieved some major technological advancements in the last few months. Those efforts have resulted in new and innovative technologies that will, without a doubt, make private travel to the edge of space routine in the years to come," stated Poynter.
As for the Voyager, aside from getting a 360-degree view of space, six people along with two crew members have access to Wi-Fi aboard the capsule. There's also a bar and lavatory while they float at an altitude of 100,000 feet. Tests have already been done with the space capsule. A replica spacecraft had been launched at an altitude of 100,475 feet.
"This sub-scale test flight demonstrated foundational technologies necessary for regular, operational flight, and proves that commercial flight to the edge of space via high-altitude balloon will serve as a viable and major form of transport in the emerging private space travel industry," stated the firm in a report by the Daily Mail.