Where are Africa’s young Spacefaring pioneers?

Where are Africa’s young Spacefaring pioneers?

By E. Stanley Ukeni

A pioneer is a person or a group of individuals that are among a brave few who venture on a new endeavor that blazes trails for others to follow. In this emerging era of commercial space tourism, Africans needs to be on the forefront of experiencing outer space.

For long now, the opportunity to experience life outside of our planetary biosphere was only reserved for astronauts—who were almost all non-Africans. Of cause in recent years, a rear opportunity for space travel was opened up for the idle rich to experience outer space—as space tourists. This incredible opportunity was made possible when, the Russian Space Agency—in an effort to raise much needed funds to augment their unfunded operational costs, began allowing non-astronauts to secure seats aboard the Soyuz—the Russian Space Capsule, for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the International Space Station, for a tidy sum of twenty million dollars. A few lucky individuals took advantage of this rare opportunity before the program was halted by the Russian Space Agency, amidst a forceful chorus of protest from their international partners.

  

This idea was eventually taken up by a number of private venture companies who saw an unfilled demand for space tourism. One of those companies is Space Exploration Technologies, which has developed and successfully tested their Space X spacecraft—with a seven person crew capacity. The company announced in 2012 that it would start ferrying non-astronauts into space at the cost of twenty million dollars per seat. The Dragon space trip will be a sort of Low Earth orbital flight into a 370-kilometer orbit—the first of which is scheduled to lift-off by the middle of 2015.

Before anyone begins to argue that twenty million dollar is a steep price to pay for a mere space holiday, they should factor in the intangible benefit of inspiring a crop of new generation of African space engineers who would be inspired to pursue a careers in rocket science and space aviation—and perhaps advance a space industry here in Africa. And then of cause there are the next generation spacefarers who would be inspired to follow in the footsteps of the space trailblazers. I must add here that I am of the opinion that space travel is a heritage of all humans, and as such Africans must not be left behind this emerging age of space exploration.

Alright, perhaps twenty million is arguably a lot of money, even for the growing number of idle rich individuals who can quite easily afford the cost catching a ride aboard the Dragon Spacecraft; there are cheaper alternatives in the near horizon. Intergalactic research and advancements in commercial spacecraft technology have opened up cost-effective opportunities for safe outer space travel experience for non-astronauts cost-conscious individuals.

Companies like Virgin Galactic are pioneering outer space flights a relatively affordable cost of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars. The Virgin Galactic Space Ship Two—featuring the state-of-the-art Astrobatic cabin, has the capacity to ferrying six up to sixty-eight miles above the earth’s surface. The maiden flight is scheduled for late 2013, and already many young wealthy individuals from North America to Asia—driven by a pioneering spirit, are signing up in droves for a space voyage ticket to experience this unique space odyssey. Africans must not allow themselves to be left behind.

Although outer space tourism is still in the preparatory stages of taking off, bookings for some near future space flights are currently on-going. Interested individuals can probably book their trip online or through the company’s accredited space tourism agents. The earlier the reservation is booked, the quicker a candidate can venture on a space travel. 

Copyright 2014-2015 © E. Stanley Ukeni. All Rights  Reserved

Photo courtesy of NASA

Photo Courtesy of SpaceX