• Question: Do you think space travel will ever be a viable method of transportation?

    Asked by 482smgd53 to Aaron, Abbey, Keith, Natalie, Pete on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Aaron Boardley

      Aaron Boardley answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Definitely. Even in the last few weeks, we’ve seen reports about the ‘Sabre’ engine which could be used even on normal aircraft to get them up to speeds to get into space, revolutionising travel and meaning you can get to Australia in 4 hours.

      We’ve been able to go into space since the 1960s, managed to get to the moon several times in the 1970s, and even today there are astronauts travelling around the earth in space 24/7 on the International Space Station. We have robots doing work on Mars, and Nasa is working on plans to send humans to Mars.

      So your question really depends, what do you mean by ‘viable’? It is already possible, but very expensive. At the moment, we don’t strictly *need* to travel far in space – it is for exploration and scientific experiment. But as time goes on the human race may find a need to colonise Mars (for example). There’s only one way to get to Mars from Earth: through space! So yes, space travel is not only viable, but essential!

    • Photo: Keith Franklin

      Keith Franklin answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Yes!

      It already is – we transport satellites into space.

      If you mean will it be a means of transportation for humans, I think definitely.

      Imagine explaining to someone living 200 years ago that one day we would be able to fly in aeroplanes!

    • Photo: Natalie Garrett

      Natalie Garrett answered on 20 Nov 2015:

      Well as Keith said, we already transport things into space all the time (your GPS and Satellite TV wouldn’t work otherwise!) In terms of transporting people, I think one day it will, but for transporting people outside of our solar system, we might have to just accept that some journeys will involve people spending their whole lives on a space craft, just so that their children have a chance to make it to a new world. I’m not sure I’d like that!

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