Space Travel

Space and the myriad mysteries of the universe have fascinated and intrigued mankind for generations. Naturally, space travel is the greatest and most extraordinary journey one can ever go for. From science fiction buffs to space and astronomy aficionados, anybody and everybody would love to have an intense "out-of-the-world" experience. When it comes to space exploration, there is no limit to discoveries. Sadly the fact is that only a very small part of the world's population gets the opportunity to go for space travel.

The first realistic space travel proposal was made by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian, in a book "The Exploration of Cosmic Space By Means Of Reaction Devices" which was published in 1903. But this book did not gain much popularity outside Russia. However with the work of a Robert H. Goddard in his paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" in 1919 that space travel seemed possible. For the first time space flight was deduced to be a reality that can be engineered by the right kind of technology.

Journey into outer space is made through space flight, which uses the technology of rockets. Other than space travel, space flights are also used for space explorations as well as activities related to commercial purposes like space tourism and communication via satellites. A space craft is propelled into outer space with the help of a launch pad. This launch pad is used to give the rocket a gigantic push which in turn helps the craft defy gravitational pull and ultimate get driven into space.

Space exploration does become difficult and extremely expensive because of its limitless expanse. There are also a lot of problems that scientist face. One of biggest is the rocket problem. Since the rockets have to travel great distances and there are no methods of refueling, rockets tend to give less mileage. Ironically, where rockets require a great amount of fuel than normal vehicles, it does not get them. Hence the further it travels, the more fuel gets burnt. It is not possible to even carry extra fuel in abundance. Hence, lack of mileage is one of biggest problems that is faced during space travel. Fortunately, scientists are coming with methods and ideas to tackle this problem.

Ways to reduce the expenditure of space travel are in the making. Technologies like scram-jet can lower the cost of orbiting to space. Scram Jet is supposed to have the ability to travel in great speed. Moreover a Scram Jet is only required to carry the fuel and not the oxidizer.

Interest in space crafts and space travels is not confined to astronomers and scientists only. Many commercial companies, as well as rich and famous personalities are demanding the use of space travel to broaden their range of business and activities.

The most exciting and phenomenal kind of space travel is one that includes human beings traveling into space. The first human flight was made in April 12, 1961 when astronaut Yuri Gagarin of the USSR orbited around the earth. At present the only spacecraft that used for sending human to space are Soyuz spacecraft developed by Russia and the U.S. Space Shuttle of NASA. Human space flights have certain issues of concern too. Weightlessness or zero-gravity exposure for a long time can cause many health problems, some of which can be permanent. There can be major bone loss or damage to muscular tissues, etc. Then again Space Adaptation Syndrome is another problem that at times develops due zero gravity of short term duration.

No matter how much world wide approval and acclaim space travel always receives, unfortunately we have had many space disasters despite the technological advancement. Nevertheless space travel never ceases to capture our curiosity and attention.