Shall We Winter On Mars Or Venus? - space travel consumerism predictions - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 2001

Within about 20 years, space travel will be a common occurrence and become commercialized, enabling those who can afford it another recreational option, predicts Kalmanje Krishnakumar, associate professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. He expects space travel's cost to drop and its frequency to increase.

"By 2020, we will have daily space travel? Krishnakumar forecasts. "It could be one, two, or three flights per day." Space travel costs about $10,000 per pound, but, by 2020, that will likely drop to about $100 a pound, he suggests. "This will take space travel to the next level where we were in the 1960s with air travel--that is, the very rich and elite will use it." Private business will become involved and will begin using offers of space travel to bring in revenue.

To meet these needs, future space vehicles will be larger and carry bigger payloads. Switching from the space shuttles to a single-stage vehicle will reduce ground operation costs, as fewer people will be needed for pre- and post-flight inspections.

An increase in space flights, both manned and unmanned, combined with the development of multiple micro-satellites, will result in a much more crowded outer space and the creation of a new profession, Krishnakumar indicates. "Space traffic controllers will become necessary."

Within 20 years, television viewers will watch live broadcasts of tiny, artificial intelligence "beings" roaming other planets, Krishnakumar claims. These man-made beings would have individual characteristics and be capable of making decisions based on what they encountered. Their exact responses would be unknown, making for intriguing television.