Thursday, March 25, 2010

A New Exit to Space Readies for Business

Barry, Dan. “A New Exit to Space Readies for Business.” New York Times 20 March 2010. 21 February 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/us/22land.html

The article “A New Exit to Space Readies for Business” by Dan Barry describes a new space port being built. In Upham, New Mexico in a small town in the middle of the desert there is Spaceport America. Spaceport America is a $198 million project by the State of New Mexico to create commercial flights to space. Spaceport America is mainly meant for tourism but could be used for other things. People would be able to go 80 miles up and view the earth from space. There is five minutes of weightlessness guaranteed on the flight. The cost of one round trip is $200,000. Virgin Galactic is the commercial space travel business that is located at Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic is owned by the British billionaire, Richard Branson and 326 people have already placed reservations for their trips to space. Virgin Galactic has received $44 million in deposits so far. This could all happen by 2011 but is highly unlikely because Virgin Galactic is mainly concerned about getting licensing and being safe rather than having it ready quickly.

This article affects people a lot. Once this spaceport is open for business, normal people will be able to take a trip to space, not just astronauts. This would change people’s views of outer space and the earth because they would see it in a totally different perspective. Once these space tours are available to the common people this may spur people to create new technology. This article also gives people an idea of what is going on in our country. The spaceport will be the first of its kind and probably many more will be built. This article shows how much more accessible technology is becoming.

This article, by Dan Barry was very well written. Right in the beginning the author grabbed your attention by setting the location. This article was very cleverly written because it included all of the details but kept it in a simple and readable way. I think the article went on a little too much because it included a lot of information that was unnecessary. Also, details of the physical appearance of the space crafts and the space station were left out so it made it hard to visualize what the spaceport may look like. Overall this article was well written and kept the reader’s attention.

6 comments:

  1. Naomi did a great job with the article “A New Exit to Space Readies for Business.” Specifically, she thoroughly explained what these new programs would be used for which made it easy to understand why the company choose to do this. Moreover, the fact that it was so concise and to the point made it an easy and enjoyable read. Lastly, Naomi thoroughly explained when this could actually happen and why it might not take shape until 2011.
    Although Naomi did a great job with this article I wish she further explained why the company chose to do these commercial uses. Also, since Naomi discussed when the project might be complete it might have been better if she discussed when the project began.
    Before reading this article I had no idea that going into space was actually a possibility for tourists. I find it really interesting and will want to stay up to date about this cool project.

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  2. Naomi did an excellent job when writing this article. A main thing that I liked about this was the detail that she put into this. She explained what the company was trying to do. She also explained the great risk that is involved by the amount of money that was put into this 198 million dollars is not an easy number to get back although they have already recieved 44 millions dollars from people that want to experience weightlessness. I have to say after reading this article It really made me want to experience weightlessness but not for 200 thousand dollars. Although this was a great article one thing Naomi could have done would have been to explain why they wanted to let people do this and also because this may not actually start until 2011 if she could have explained how it got started that could have better helped me understand. Overall this was a great and interesting article.

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  3. The review for the article “A New Exit to Space Readies for Business” was a very interesting review to read. It explained well on what the project was and the final goal, which is to get the common people to space. It also explained well the cost of the project and how much a round trip is. The highlights of the trip are stated, by going 80 miles per hour to space and feel five minutes of weightlessness, which only scientists and astronauts experience in space. Many people wish to travel to space, but all of the training the astronauts go through may not be possible to the average person. This allows people to get a chance at seeing Earth and space through an astronaut’s perspective, which is very interesting. Also, the review states well that the company, Virgin Galatic, is concerned for the safety of the people, which shows that the project is almost complete and is going to be made so anyone can ride can experience going to space.
    The review could have gone more in depth about how the people go to space and how far the ship is going to move. Will the ship go out of our atmosphere, or stay within, but very close to the outside? Also, the review could have explained on why the cost of riding these ships are so expensive. The review could have explained on what the ship is made of, which can explained why it is so expensive to build.
    Before reading this review, I believed that an average person going to space was physically impossible, but now knowing that these projects are being made and done give me a new perspective that even I can go into space one day. This is important to mankind because now we can expand our horizons in thinking and also inspire many others to become scientists. This is a very important step in technology, which is the making of the spacecraft that can take people beyond our atmosphere and show us the universe in another way.

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  4. I thought Naomi did an excellent job with her article, “A New Exit to Space Readies for Business”. Naomi’s review of the article was very straightforward and informative. Naomi did a good job capturing the point of the article without boring us with unnecessary, confusing details. While doing this, Naomi still managed to explain what exactly Virgin Galactic is doing as well as why it is important. I agree with Naomi’s critique of the article, because people need to stay up to speed with today’s technology and the way it affects us. If Virgin Galactic works quickly and efficiently on this project, some of us could be experiencing zero gravity within the next year.
    I think Naomi’s review could have been made better if she included a description of how Virgin Galactic has been able to accomplish such a great feat. I also would have liked to have learned about similar programs that have been doing this type of thing before, and how they differ from Virgin Galactic.
    Before I read Naomi’s article, I was unaware of Virgin Galactic and their efforts to allow the common man to experience life in space. This opens up a new opportunity for people who have always dreamed of experiencing zero gravity but are not astronauts. I think this article is important because new technology and new experiences change our lives, and Virgin Galactic has the potential to do so for many people. Reading about it is opening our eyes to the possibility of a new, exciting experience, that maybe some of us will someday be lucky enough to experience for ourselves.

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  5. An excellent part of the review was the second paragraph in which Naomi listed many examples of how this will affect our lives, all of which were detailed but concise. Her critique of the article itself in the third paragraph was also very strong and well thought out. Lastly, this article was very detailed, especially involving facts such as amounts of money, which is very important.
    One thing that could’ve improved the review is if it flowed better, and the sentences weren’t so choppy. Most of the sentences were one-clause statements that weren’t structured very well, which was a bit annoying. Also, I think this article could have been better if the reasons behind this project were listed, and if she further explained any similar projects taking place around the country, which she only briefly touched on.
    Before reading this article and review, I was not aware that space was turning into a private sector industry. I thought that NASA was the only organization that could be involved in space, but I was proved wrong, and maybe this new private sector will have positive affects on our economy and lives.

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  6. James Faville 4/5/10

    I liked reading Naomi's review of the New York Times Article "A New Exit to Space Readies for Business." She did a great job of separating out the important facts from unnecessary information to avoid overwhelming the reader, as the original article might have. She explained what this experience would be like (5 minutes of weightlessness, and the cost) well, and did a detailed job of explaining how this is important to our country in the second paragraph by talking about how it will make advanced technology such as space travel more accessible.

    Part of the appeal of the original article, however, was the extent of background information that was told to set the scene, as Naomi mentioned in the third paragraph, and Naomi left much of this out, only briefly mentioning the location and owner while focusing on details about the project itself. While this might have made her review more interesting, it is a fine line to cross because in a brief article review, too much detail might confuse or bore the reader, so I think Naomi did do a good job controlling how much information to put in the review, although a little more background might not have hurt. Also, Naomi's review (and the original article) lack an explanation of some of the challenges Spaceport America is facing that make them so pessimistic about the 2011 "deadline." While this information was not in the original article, it could probably be found easily by further researching the topic on the internet.

    This project has been going on for a while now, and I remember reading about it a couple years ago. I was surprised to hear from Naomi that remarkably, they are still moving ahead with this project and will likely be finished in just a few more years. Up until now, using space travel for tourism, and any widespread private space travel, has been solely the realm of science fiction, and it is quite hard to imagine it anything but science fiction. In the nearly fifty years since Kennedy shocked the world by proclaiming that the United States would send a man to the moon, we have somehow managed to perfect the technologies involved enough to take space travel into the private sector, an outstanding accomplishment for Truth and Consequences, New Mexico, the US, and the world as a whole.

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