Escalation of Space Travel by @StephenTremp

As you've no doubt noticed, this has been Book Feature Week at my place. We started out with sci-fi, mixed it up with some YA paranormal, and now we're back to sci-fi with a guest post from author Stephen Tremp, who's celebrating the release of Escalation: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan.

Stephen writes sci-fi, but today he's going to tell us about some real life scientific ventures that only sound like fiction. Take it away, Mr. Tremp...





As we wind down the Escalation Blog Tour, I want to be sure to highlight some of what’s going on in the private Sector regarding things like commercial space flight, space tourism,

Virgin Galactic: Is an America-based, British-owned commercial spaceflight company within Richard Branson’s Virgin Group which plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites. Further in the future, Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft is launched from a large aeroplane, giving the spacecraft more initial speed and altitude than if it were launched from the ground. REFERENCE

Book a flight now for only $250,000. You will be joining our community of over 600 future astronauts which has become one of the most exclusive clubs in the world! REFERENCE

SpaceX: The brainchild of Elon Musk (PayPal and Tesla Motors) made history as the world's first privately held company to send a cargo payload, carried on their Dragon spacecraft, to the International Space Station. The capsule then brought back more than one ton of science experiments and old station equipment. It's the only supply ship capable of two-way delivery.

NASA is paying SpaceX more than $1 billion for a dozen resupply missions. Space X can reuse their spacecraft too. SpaceX has signed contracts with private sector companies, non-American government agencies and the American military for its launch services. NASA needs these “private space taxis” to help ferry cargo to the International Space Station.

The Moon: According to SpaceDev, a return to the moon from the private sector could be accomplished under $10 billion using existing technology, significantly lower than anything NASA could accomplish.

“According to SpaceDev's chief, Jim Benson, the private group has found that a more comprehensive series of missions could be completed in a fraction of the time and for one-tenth of the cost of the NASA estimate.” REFERENCE

Mars: An ambitious private manned mission to Mars aims to launch a two-person crew to fly around the Red Planet and return to Earth in 501 days, starting in January 2018.
This bold undertaking is planned by the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a non-profit company founded by millionaire and space tourist Dennis Tito that was officially unveiled on Feb. 27 after early details leaked.

Though the spacecraft would not land humans on Mars or even put them in orbit, it would bring people within a few hundred kilometers of the Martian surface — roughly the same distance between the International Space Station and Earth — and represent a major milestone in human spaceflight. If successful, the mission would go down in history as the first time a private company accomplished something government agencies were unable to do in space. REFERENCE

Asteroid Mining: The race is on. Who will bag an asteroid first? NASA or private industry. There is so much money to be made in a venture such as this because of the minerals that it’s hard to say.

I love this idea and think we will see it in our lifetime. But my problem is, the best way to do this is to bring an asteroid into Earth’s orbit without crashing it into us. How else are they going to mine it and bring the precious elements to Earth in a cost effective manner. Stay tuned.

Well, lots of crazy and exciting stuff on our immediate horizon. For better or worse. And I’ll be on top of each and every step of the way at my blog.


Stephen Tremp Is the author of the Breakthrough series. Together, Breakthrough, Opening, and Escalation follow the lives of the unlikely participants from innocence to a coming of age through sacrifice, betrayal, passion, lust, unconditional love, and hope. Escalation will appeal to fans of modern-day science fiction, action, horror, and even romance.

Stop by Stephen’s Blog for more information on the Breakthrough series, or download Escalation: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan at Amazon.

Thanks for coming by, Stephen & congrats on the new book!