Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - July 5, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Pets........................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals.................................4,6
Looking Up...........................7
Weekend
Forecast
Hawthorne High Alum Gets a
Proclamation, Key to the City
Steven Baxter, a Hawthorne High School alumnus, last month received a City Council proclamation for his years of community service and devotion to family service and volunteerism. He was also issued
a replacement Key to the City of Hawthorne. Steven was in foster care until the age of 18 and his essay on his experiences won at the State level. Photo Courtesy of City of Hawthorne. •
High Interest in Space Tourism
By Rob McCarthy
The success of private space exploration
companies such as SpaceX in Hawthorne
hasn’t gone unnoticed by travelers looking
to expand their horizons and come back with
more than a t-shirt.
A new poll of Americans reveals a high
number would ride aboard a space vehicle
and endure the rigors of liftoff and a return to
Earth. Four in 10 people said they’d consider
making the voyage into space despite some
strong doubts space tourism will become a
reality within the next 50 years.
Pew Research Center asked Americans their
views about the new space race, both for exploration
and pure fun. Among people most
interested in traveling into space, 45 percent
say they’d go up for the unique experience.
Another 29 percent want to sightsee and
specifically look down at the Earth.
Elon Musk of SpaceX, Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos and Virgin Airlines’ Richard Branson
are huge backers of the new space race. They
and their space flight companies are testing
reusable rockets and space vehicles they
hope someday will ferry passengers around
the Earth and back safely.
Becoming a space traveler isn’t for the majority
of Americans, based on the poll results.
An overwhelming number -- 58 percent -- said
their bucket lists don’t include a flight that orbits
Earth. The cost of a ticket and the perceived
danger makes such a trip impossible to imagine
for many of them. Others said they’re too old
or not healthy enough to make that kind of trip.
If the days comes when manned space vehicles
fly like commercial jetliners, more men
than women are ready for departure. About
half the men (51 percent) say they would be
interested in orbiting the Earth in a spacecraft,
compared with one-third of women. The
men who aren’t interested in going to space
think it would be too expensive. The women
believe the dangers outweigh the adventure,
according to the poll results.
The interest in being a space traveler is
highest among young Americans born between
1981 and 1996. An impressive 63 percent of
the millennials told Pew they would definitely
or probably be interested in going up in space
for a look-see.
People in the survey were evenly divided
on whether space tourism will happen in the
next half-century. Americans were even more
skeptical about the possibility that mankind
would build colonies on other planets by 2068.
Still, there are believers out there.
Almost one-third of the people polled envision
colonies on other planets within 50 years.
That aligns with Musk’s belief that millions of
people could be living on Mars around 2060.
He raised the ante last September when he told
attendees at a space conference in Australia
that the first human visitors to the red planet
could reach Mars as early as 2024.
Public attitudes about space exploration and
who will drive future missions are changing,
the poll numbers reveal. While Americans
who profess to be interested in news about
space are confident that private companies will
contribute to the U.S. space program, a solid
two-thirds don’t want space exploration to be
privatized. Two-thirds of Americans polled
said it is essential that NASA continue to be
involved in space exploration.
President Trump has set a goal for NASA
to return astronauts to the moon, where the
space agency could build a relay station to
support the more ambitious missions to Mars.
The agency announced last year it has plans
to build a facility called the Deep Space
Gateway on the moon. The structure could
serve as a way station between the Earth and
the Red Planet -- a nine-month trip between
the planets using the fastest rocket NASA
has in operation.
Will space be a profitable venture for SpaceX
and the other transporters? Americans feel sure
they can, and believe these private companies
are well-managed and will control their costs
enough to make meaningful contributions
to the exploration of space in this century.
NASA currently uses them as contractors to
lift satellites into orbit and make supply runs
to the international space station.
NASA will send up another rover to Mars
in two years as part of the agency’s ongoing
exploration of the planet. “The Mars 2020
mission addresses high-priority science goals
for Mars exploration, including key questions
about the potential for life on Mars,” NASA
said. The next Rover mission is designed to
demonstrate technologies that “address the
challenges of future human expeditions to
Mars.” They include a method for producing
oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying
water beneath the surface, and improving
landing techniques. NASA also wants to
study weather, dust and other environmental
conditions that could affect future astronauts
living and working on Mars. •
Friday
Sunny
89˚/76˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
91˚/72˚
Sunday
Sunny
81˚/69˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne