The Commercial Space Industry

Space-Tourism is used to describe the idea of people buying a ticket in means of traveling and exploring the space. For many people, this idea sound very futuristic. In the recent years, there have been many resources and developments allocated towards the Commercial Space Industry. The idea of space-tourism is becoming a reality day by day, at least to those who can afford it. The Commercial space industry started back in the 1960s, when many attempts were conducted in means of flying higher distances and therefore reaching the space. On August 23, 1963, the USAF X-15 space plane successfully reached an altitude of 354,200ft, setting a world record up until 39 years later when SpaceShipOne broke it by reaching 367,442ft (www.spacefuture.com). Later in the 1980s, attempts to designed ships to carry out passengers to space were made and indeed projects were carried out. Lastly, in the 1990s, the Commercial Space Industry experienced a heavy research and development period. Today, fewer than 600 people had traveled to space and companies are trying their best to expand the number.

Regulating the Commercial Space Industry started back in the 1980s, when president Ronald Reagan signed the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 (www.faa.gov). This act helped create opportunities for private space flights. In the later add ons of this rule, private companies were given the legal authority to operate vehicles into space and carry passengers, at their own risk of course. The Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Industry regulations are located in Chapter III, parts 400 to 460, of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Much of those regulations were put in place to have rules in place for the operations of space vehicles. They highlight important aspects for those companies in such way to mostly ensure financial responsibility. For more about the regulations, I would advise to visit the NASA website as well. I think that the space industry is just like any other aviation industry and therefore must be somewhat regulated. I personally agree with all the regulations, even though I am sure that there will be many changes due to the fact the industry will only be expanding in the next years to come.

The Space-Tourism industry is currently expanding. The idea itself does not interest me personally but I am sure it interests others. I personally do not see this idea being opened up to the general public and for one reason only, the cost per person per flight. Estimates show that a ticket will cost a person nearly $250,000 to millions of dollars (Mann, 2017). How many people would be able to afford such ticket price? not me not you I am sure. Opportunities to tour the space are opened up for those wealthy individuals who do not know what else to do with their money. Research indicate that there are many attempts being made to lower that price but tickets, at least in my opinion, will remain outside of the general public's reach. Also, if those private space companies were to lower prices, I am so sure that they will minimize spendings on safety, indirectly, and operations will no longer be safe.

Throughout my research, I have came to conclusion that the Commercial Space Industry has many opportunities for you, my fellow aviation peers. With opportunities comes many qualifications that a person must have to land a job in such industry. Other than some preferred qualifications, the FAA does a great job setting the minimum requirements for pilots of human spaceflights. Below are some of those requirements.

• A person must possess an FAA pilot certificate with an instrument rating.
• A person must have a Class 1 medical certificate.
• A person must train in operating aircraft, wearing assigned pressure suits.
• A person must a have a strong knowledge in the following fields:
• Aerodynamics 
• High-Altitude Operations 
• Rocket Machineries 
• Aerospace Physiology
• Ballistic Flights
• Re-Entry Flights 
• A person must be training on several emergency procedures.
• A person must have experience in jet fighting, as he or she will be familiar with traveling at higher speeds than normal.

With that being said, most jobs in the industry are given to fighter pilots, test pilots, and commercial airlines pilots who have flying hours in excess of at least 3000 hours. 

References 

Mann, A. (2017, July 21). So you want to be a space tourist? Here are you options. Retrieved February 22, 2018, from https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/so-you-want-be-space-tourist-here-are-your-options-ncna784166

Www.faa.gov. (2017, September 27). Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Retrieved February 22, 2018, from https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/ 

(Www.spacefuture.com), P. W. (n.d.). Space Tourism - The Story So Far. Retrieved February 22, 2018, from http://www.spacefuture.com/tourism/timeline.shtml 

The Current Status of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

I am sure that we, some what, have an idea of the current status of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the United States. The use of such concept is increasing drastically in the military as well as the civilian sectors of the operation. The advanced modern technology has played a key role in the evolvement of UAVs. Drones, also known as UAVs, are machines that are flown without a pilot on board and controlled/operated from a ground station ("pilot less"). Believe it when I tell you, that you are going to see more of them hovering above you in the coming months/years. The civilian use of UAVs extends from those hobbyists who buy drone for the sheer of joy and challenge of flying an object in the sky to the ability of some to capture a high-quality photos/videos from an aerial vantage point. The regulations imposed on the civilian use of drone, and according to New York Times, is that any vehicle weighting more than 250 grams must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, comply with the public laws (suggests to fly under 400 feet, clear of emergency response efforts, etc), and to notify a control tower when operating 5 miles within the radius of the airspace of the airport (Wingfield, 2015). On the other hand, the regulations for the commercial use of drone is a whole different game.

The commercial use of drones refers to the use of such machine by a person or a company as a service to generate profits. Some examples of commercial use of drones are as follows: Real Estate aerial imagery, precision crop monitoring, aerial photography/videography, storm tracking, construction projects surveillance, package delivery (coming in the future believe it or not), and the list could go on and on. The FAA has recently put in place a new set of regulations that commercial users of drones must abide by. According to the Verge.com, the regulations are as follows:

• Drones have to remain in Visual Line of Sight of the Pilot.
• Pilots must at least be 16 years old.
• Operation is only allowed during daylight hours or twilight with appropriate lighting.
• Maximum groundspeed of 100 mph.
• Maximum altitude of 400 feet. 
• Pilots must hold a "Remote Pilot Airman Certificate" Issued from the FAA.
• Remain clear of controlled airspace and manned aircrafts.

The above rules do not apply to traditional model airplanes and drone delivery operations (said to be put in place by google and amazon) due to the fact that such machines would have to use autonomous technology to guide the drones rather than human pilots (Vincent, 2016). In my personal opinion, the regulations by the FAA are fair enough. At least they are not requiring drone operators to be certified pilots. Rather, by such regulation, the FAA is trying to educate drone operators on the environment in which aircrafts operate in. The UAVs had to be regulated as they can easily interfere with the traffic as well as the safety of manned aircrafts operations. 

The use of UAVs expands internationally. Without doing much research, I can personally assume that United States is not the only country associating itself with the use of such machines. Drones are being used all over the world for recreational as well as commercial purposes. According to a traveler named Anil Polat, "Commercial drone use requires a permit in practically any country you can think of" (Polat, 2016). Perhaps the requirement of having a permit to fly a drone any where in the word is not a "regulation" from a federal agency like the FAA in the United States but I would not know for sure anyways. I personally can not provide information regarding how hard/easy the process of getting your drones permitted in other countries. I can tell you this though, If you are a traveler who makes use of a drone to capture imageries, make sure you familiarize yourself with the the country's laws regarding UAVs before you launch. You never want to get in trouble while on a vacation, I tell you that from an unfortunate and unrelated experience.

Now, let's get down to some real business. I, personally, do see the integration of drones into our National Air Space (NAS) but for commercial use only. After researching the topic, I came across sources that stated future plans of companies for the use of UAVs. You got Google and Amazon trying to deliver packages via drones on one hand and Uber attempting to provide a service of unmanned transportation (a drone picks you up and drops you at your destinations) on the other hand. My point here is, we are going to see the use of drones commercially increase as technology is advancing and businesses would take advantage of such developments. With this being said, we are going to come to a time where those drones will need to be operated at higher altitudes, for longer periods of time, for longer distances (forcing the operation to be completely autonomous), and thus creating a risk to the traffic system in the airspaces. The potential logistical problem of the integrating of drones into out NAS is that it might give the system more than it can handle. When workload increases, risks increase as well, and catastrophic events are more likely to happen. In terms of perception problems, I can think of two. How would pilots feel knowing that the are operating in an airspace where unmanned flying machines are flying all over it? I would feel paranoid. How would the public/passengers feel knowing that, small and harmful object that are controlled by a person that is no where near the airspace but rather some hundreds of miles away, could interfere with and probably reduce the safety of their flights. Technology and computers may malfunction at any time as they lack the decision making process human acquire. We are going to see interesting things happening in the near future my friends. I will leave it at that. 

As in regards to the military use of UAVs, I am two hundred percent in support of the idea. The use of drones in the military sector has mainly been for the purpose of reconnaissance, to spy on the enemy in other terms. I think this has been very efficient as we are no longer in need of sending actual lives in danger. Reconnaissance provide military with all the real time intel they need to carry out missions, and drones have played a magnificent rule in the aide of that. Economically speaking, drones are cheaper than an actual aircraft. In case of a drone being shut down, no problem ... launch another one. Ethically speaking, well, wait, there are no ethics in the military. We go to war for a reason, to defeat the enemy. Our military units have every right to use any technological development to reduce spendings and casualties to as little as possible. In war applications, a nation uses all of its sources to gain an advantage over the enemy. For example, the drone played a key role in the capturing of Usama Bin Laden. It was a key in providing the american seal team with his location as well as s proof of his actual presence in his secret hideout. 

If you, my fellow classmate, interested in a drone job ... please google "Drone Jobs in My area" and I am sure you will be able to find something that fits what you are looking for. I tried it, You should too. "They can't say yes if you don't ask." 

References

Polat, A. (2017, July 25). This Map Shows You The Drone Laws For Every Country In The World (Updated Regularly). Retrieved February 06, 2018, from https://foxnomad.com/2017/07/25/map-shows-drone-laws-every-country-world-updated-regularly/

Vincent, J. (2016, August 30). FAA regulations for commercial drones are now in effect. Retrieved February 06, 2018 from https://theverge.com/2016/8/30/12707502/drone-regulations-legality-us-faa

Wingfield, N. (2015, November 23). A Field Guide to Civilian Drones. Retrieved February 06, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/technology/guide-to-civilian-drones.html    

Should Cargo Carriers Be Exempt From The New Flight/Duty Changes?

After the Colgan Air Accident, the Aviation Industry has witnessed a change in regulations for flight crew members in order to increase safety. As we all may already know, the Air Transport Pilot Certification has gone up to 1,500 hours to where before, a total of 250 hours was only required. According to newly posted article about the FAA addressing pilot fatigue, it is stated that in the old rule, different hour requirements were based on whether the operation is domestic, international, or unscheduled to where now the new rule applies to all operations in the same way (Houston, 2017). The old rule requires the certificate holder to give reserve pilots at least 24 hours off in a 7-day period, to where now reserve pilots are to be given a rest period of at least 10 hours during their assignments at the airport (Houston, 2017). The new rule also requires flight crews to have a rest period of 10 hour, with the opportunity for at least 8 uninterrupted sleep hours (Houston, 2017). The old rule allowed the rest period of nine hours to reduced to 8. The maximum flight time during the day is now nine hours, and eight hours at nights, all depending on how many segments flown and the start time of duty. The FAA made the new flight/duty rule effective as of January 4th, 2014 and required all of part 121 certificates holder (as well as flights conducted under part 91) to comply. The new suggests that airlines put in place a Fatigue Risk Management Plan (FRMP), to educated pilots on their fatigue threshold.

The Federal Aviation Administration exempt cargo carriers from complying with part 117 of the new regulation of flight crew flight/duty rest requirements. To be more specific, all part 135 certificate holders (cargo carriers) are not subjected to comply. Although some cargo carriers, like Fedex and UPS, operate under part 121. According PNG logistics, the current flight and duty limitations for part 135 operations is the old requirements prior to enforcing the new rule allow a rest period of 9 hours (can be reduced to 8) and limits flight hours per day and month only (Rest Requirements for Air Cargo Pilots, 2013). However, the Cargo Carriers' flight crew flight and duty limitations vary, depending on the time of the day the flight takes place. After researching the topic, there seems to be a confusion over what part 135 operators are to comply with after making the new rule effective.

I personally somehow agree with excluding the cargo carriers from complying with the new rule put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration. I think the costs of such rule, subjected to be at least $297 million dollars, is greater than the benefits generated in the cargo portion of the industry. Cargo operations are usually on demand around the clock and imposing such rule would be detrimental, as it would limit their pilots to fewer hours flown and more rest requirements. Also, the cargo carriers have improved rest facilities for their crew members as their cargo is being loaded/unloaded. The exclusion seems fair enough as the value of life in cargo operations is different than that in passenger operations. The pilot and co-pilot of a flight conducted under part 135 usually do not travel as far destinations as passenger flights. We are already facing huge pilot shortage, so if the rule was to be applied to cargo pilots, such shortage would largely increase.

All in all, and as of right now, the exclusion seems like a fair game. If the FAA was to include cargo operators to comply, the cargo industry would suffer. I personally want to work for the airlines, which somehow would be affected if such situation takes place. We would see more cargo pilots switching to the airlines.

References

Houston, S. (2017, November 17). Learn About the FAA's Final Rule for Pilot Duty and Rest Requirements. Retrieved January 29, 2018, from https://www.thebalance.com/faa-final-rule-pilot-duty-and-rest-requirements-282927

Rest Requirements for Air Cargo Pilots. (2013, January 29). Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://pnglc.com/rest-requirements-for-air-cargo-pilots/