Bring the subject of human access to space up in a room full of commercial space advocates and NASA officials, and the tension level gets unbearable.
Despite the public's hunger for space tourism, commercial space business argues that NASA's overly cautious safety requirements have left the public with the perception that space flight is limited only to an elite group of astronauts.
A 1997 NASA study showed that about one-third of Americans are interested in taking a trip to space. And a company called
. The company has built a piloted commercial single-stage-to-orbit space vehicle called the Roton.
"By 2030, if we can’t take humans into space, we can call the whole thing off," said Bob Davis of Kelly Space and Technology in San Bernardino, California. The company has built a prototype that looks like a plane that has sprouted rocket engines.
The commercial industry believes that in order to tap this potential explosive market, there needs to be a sea change in the American public’s perception of astronauts.
"Once people can see that regular folks like them can fly into space, then the perception of a government monopoly will not exist," said Gregg Maryniak of the
. The organization is offering a $10 million payoff to whoever builds the first privately funded Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) that can take a pilot and two passengers up 62 miles (100 kilometers), return them safely, and repeat the feat within two weeks.
But these idealized views of the astronaut corps runs deep in the American psyche, formed during the Cold War era when winning the space race was a matter of national security. Convincing Americans that they too can do what their heroes do will be a daunting task.
"They represent to us the ultimate in risk-taking," said Anna Askounis, a clinical psychologist in Washington, D.C. whose father was a test pilot in the 1950s.
Askounis tells how her Greek immigrant father joined the Army Air Corps and worked his way up to being one of Edward’s Air Force base’s first guinea pigs for flying new planes. "What he talked about when he talked about flying was pushing the limit," she said. While it may have pushed this daughter of a poor immigrant to obtaining a Ph.D. in psychology, she has only "thought about" venturing into space but has no real desire to get there.
Much like the American public’s perception, what Askounis’ father did for a living seemed unattainable. "People need a visual representation," she explained. To do what our heroes are capable of doing is too lofty a goal for most mere mortals.
In order to change the public’s us-versus-them perception of spaceflight, we have to get the message across that astronauts have the same limitations as the rest of us. "We need to let people know if they can do it, we can do it," Askounis said.
Meanwhile, industry entrepreneurs are going ahead with their launch vehicle plans in hopes of putting non-astronauts in space with in cheaper, more reliable spacecraft.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, "Reusable Launch Vehicle Programs and Concepts," some of the major events in the reusable launch vehicle industry in 1999 were:
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