Published on : Friday, May 31, 2019
And NASA is keen on considering the commercialization of the lower Earth orbit in the coming days.
Therefore, NASA has urged companies that are part of the emerging space economy, for ideas and inputs to set up a plan for the same. This will assist them to make a decision on the future of the International Space Station (ISS) and commercial human spaceflight.
NASA has chosen 12 companies that have some experience in space technology for its simulation. The companies are – the Boeing Company, Blue Origin, Deloitte Consulting, NanoRacks, and Maxar Technologies to name a few.
These companies managed into different possibilities for commercializing the lower Earth orbit, the region that is 2,000 km above the Earth’s surface. They considered the rules and strategies that would be required to make this plan work and what role NASA would play in the same. Also, they investigated habitats that people would live in and if they become a part of the international space station or free-standing.
To quote Sam Scimemi, Director of the International Space Station division at NASA Headquarters, “When the International Space Station was established, we could not have anticipated all the benefits it would provide. We’re excited to receive this input from the commercial market and aerospace experts to help shape a future thriving in space economy in which companies contract with each other to conduct research and activities in low-Earth orbit.”
NASA’s ISS is the role model for all of these experiments that they based the entire research on, as it has been in use for the last 18 years. It aids human life and it contributes to major research work.
The companies mentioned that they would carry on with research and development like they did before. But they also considered newer markets like video production, space tourism, and transportation of human, sports events, etc.
Tags: Space tourism