The Commercial Space Industry

Since antiquity, human beings have always dreamt about spaceflight, and in the past centuries, the Chinese applied rockets for commercial and military purposes (Goehlich et. al, 2013). It was not until the 20^th century that powerful rockets capable of overcoming the force of gravity emerged, allowing human exploration into the open space which consequently led to the launching of the first satellite in space in 1960. During this period of 1960s, an unmanned spacecraft photographed and probed the moon before the landing of astronauts. In the early 1970s, communication and navigation satellites became prominent in everyday use and by the 1980s, satellite communications extended to carry television programs thus providing opportunities for people to tap the satellite signals on their home dish antennas. However, hurdles in space tourism began in 1986 when a shuttle Challenger shattered after takeoff, killing all its seven crew members. This Challenger tragedy led to the reevaluation of American space program, and today suitable launch systems exist in which the design of the satellite system has a compatibility that makes it possible to launch from more than one system (Webber, 2012).

The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 marked the legal framework for facilitating commercial activities in space. This law was established to enable regulation of space activities through which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorizes, oversees and regulates launches and reentry of launches as well as the operation of launches carried out within the US atmosphere. The current FAA regulations in the space tourism industry embedded in Title 14 states that any space tourism pilot ought to possess a license and instrument rating; possess knowledge, skills, and experience of flying an aircraft alongside receiving mission-specific drill for every stage of flight (Goehlich et. al, 2013).. These regulation requirements are ambiguous and restrictive because various types of crafts have different flight characteristics and thus the regulations should be reviewed to enable these FAA regulations to be used as training guidelines to incorporate better training for pilots.

There will be a bright future come 2030 for commercial space tourism given the number of space exploration experiences which show a potential of sparking up a competition. The presence of a competitive opportunity will open up a genuine marketplace that will guarantee improvement in services, an increase in safety and reliability and the prices for exploration will most likely go down just like in aviation. Space tourism will develop into a means of transportation where only a single traveler will be accepted to sit adjacent to the pilot giving an extraordinary experience of the typical scene. Space exploration will become open not only to the wealthy elites but also to the general public including the average families who will be able to travel to the moon for a holiday based on decreased exploration prices(Webber, 2012).

There are minimum qualifications requirements established by the FAA that every pilot of human spaceflight must meet. Pilots in space tourism industry must have as well as carry a FAA certification that has an instrument rating. For crews flying sub-orbital profile, the Aerospace Medicine Association determined FAA Class I certificate as the relevant medical standard given that suborbital flights are less strenuous than traditional flights (Goehlich et. al, 2013). Pilots must have the know-how and training in operating aircraft while putting on pressure suits given the high altitudes in the suborbital space that require pressure gears. Pilots must have broad drilling in emergency procedures and crew management. Lastly, given the fact that suborbital flights involve great speed and fast decision making, pilots with experience in jet flights are prioritized in the industry (Goehlich et. al, 2013).

References

Webber, D. (2012). Space tourism: Its history, future and importance. Journal Of International    Academy Of Astronautics, 92(2), 138-143.             http://dx.doi.org/ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2012.04.03

Goehlich, R. A., Anderson, J. K., Harrold, N. N., Bemis, J. A., Nettleingham, M. T., Cobin, J.     M., Zimmerman, B. R., Avni, B. L., Gonyea, M. D., & Ilchena, N. Y. (2013). Pilots for         Space Tourism. Space Policy Journal, 29(2), Retrieved from            http://commons.erau.edu/ww-graduate-studies/2

The Current Status of UAVs

            Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones refer to aircrafts and related systems that function without a flight crew on board. They can be fully autonomous or remotely controlled. UAVs have become popular in the last decade, especially in the military usage. They are ideal for reconnaissance missions in high-risk areas. Due to the versatility possessed by UAVs, they have also gained popularity in many civilian applications. Some of these uses include video shooting and photography. The drones are equipped with high-resolution camera lenses. They are then positioned strategically above the scene to be filmed. Recently, the news network CNN tested camera-equipped drones for news coverage and gathering. UAVs are also used for aerial crop surveys, crowd monitoring, land surveying, and recreational purposes such as racing among many other applications.

            The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is the body that regulates all the practices of aviation in the United States including unmanned aerial vehicles. Foremost, users must obtain a certificate of authorization from the FAA to operate in the national airspace. In addition to that, UAVs weighing more than 250 grams must be registered with the FAA. In order to operate UAVs for commercial purposes, the FAA has put certain regulations that must be adhered to. Some of these regulations include flying below an altitude of 400 feet, the pilot must have aged 16 or above and holder of the pilot airman certificate. The operation is only allowed during daylight hours with a maximum ground speed of 100mph. These rules, however, only apply to remotely piloted drones and do not apply to fully autonomous UAVs (Curry & Jefferson, 2015).

            It is reasonable to expect that UAVs will be integrated into the National Airspace in the near future. This may be done by first developing a test program to gather critical data on unmanned air systems and then implementing it. This, however, poses great challenges such as risking individual privacies through an increased usage of UAVs. Another major challenge is the requirement of the monitoring system of millions of numbers of UAVs in America. Furthermore, since drones are much smaller than manned aircrafts, radar cannot be used to identify them in the airspace. Thus, different systems may have to be installed to monitor UAVs.

            In military applications, UAVs have helped in transforming the offensive strategies. These UAVs are mostly autonomous with a given flight plan. They are suitable for high altitude reconnaissance in dangerous missions. They are not visible to radar owing to their small size. Some unmanned aerial vehicles carry payloads during combat. The integration of UAVs into the military has been very efficient. In terms of costs, they are far less expensive than actual jet aircrafts to build and run. UAVs can also fly for days without landing. These are the few of the characteristics that are ideal for military uses. However, it can also be argued that the wider usage of highly adaptable UAVs in war-related purposes than in civilian applications is unethical ( Homeland surveillance & electronics LLC UAV, 2015).

            Currently, there are many companies that are looking for qualified drone pilots and aerial photographers. The number of UAV-related job opportunities is growing by each day as they are becoming more popular in civilian applications. The other reason for this growth is the recent establishment of well-defined regulations by the FAA. This means that drones are now open to full exploitation.

References

Curry, B. E., & Jefferson, T. A. (2015). Humpback dolphins (Sousa spp.): current status and conservation, part 1. Waltham, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.

Homeland surveillance & electronics LLC UAV. (2015). UAV integration challenges into the National Air Space NAS UAV. Retrieved from http://www.hse-            uav.com/uav_integration_challenges_nas.htm.

Cargo Carriers Are Exempt from Revised Flight/Duty Rules .. Should They Be?

 In the new flight and duty regulations, the pilots are now supposed to obtain a rigorous training of 1500 hours up from the original 250 hours initially required to obtain an ATP in the new regulations. Importantly, the specifications of new regulations are that the airlines departments are supposed to monitor the training operations and ensure that the new pilot monitoring is done with an in-depth assessment (Neis & Klaus, 2014). In fact, pilots are engaged with at least 10 full hours of flight from the next flights. Different from the old regulations, there is an additional 2 hours sleep time and an end-to-end shift arrangement.

The current flight and duty limitation for cargo carriers include the 8 hours off time between shifts and not as it was set in the beginning of sleep time. The new rules have the main focus of ensuring that the regulations support safe air travel as well as the efficiency of pilots. The increased structure of the sleep time was changed with allegations that the low period in it for pilots had reduced their ability to make a decision while at work (Rudari, Johnson, Geske, & Sperlak, 2016). Ideally, a similar situation could have been attributed to the many accidents that happened. Importantly, the flight and duty limitations for the cargo carriers are all inbuilt with the objective of improving the welfare of the pilot.

All the mentioned reasons are attributed to the exception of the cargo carriers from the new regulations. The value of life aspect was motivated by the fact that the cargo carriers do not involve as high risk as in the other categories. Additionally, the public perception that the cargo carriers do not operate frequently lead to the assumption that the pilots for the carriers have enough time for rest (Stengel, 2015). The economic implications are also a result of the exemption. The cargo carriers were considered to be quite expensive, as the implementation of the regulations would mean the inclusion of more pilots in the air travel. Clearly, a combination of the aspects triggered the noticeable exemption.

The cargo carriers should be included in the new rules. The justification for the inclusion is due to the improvements in the business process of outsourcing and additional cargo planes operating at any given time, an arrangement that leaves little time for the pilots to rest. The new regulations would ensure that the cargo flight pilots also have enough sleep. The dangers of a tired commercial plane pilot are the same with those of a tired cargo plane pilot; in this justification, the cargo planes should also be included in the rules (Stengel, 2015). All in all, the costs benefit analysis is needed to help show that it is quite risky and costly not involving the cargo flights in the new regulations due to the dangers posed by this approach.

As a flight manager, the inclusion of the regulation of cargo carriers to the plan could involve some management rescheduling. It is notable that the rescheduling aspects comprises of hiring more pilots who would take shifts with the existing ones (Winter, Rice, Rosser, Mehta & Rice, 2014). Some arrangements would work better for pilots. In fact, this arrangement could be a complement of managerial operations. In this perspective, the managerial committee and timelines support could have to increase the efficiency in the operations to the timetables I allocate. By doing so, my career as management personnel would involve an increased level of activities.

References

Neis, S. M., & Klaus, D. M. (2014). Considerations toward defining medical “levels of care” for commercial spaceflight. New Space, 2(4), 165-177. Retrieved from http://commercialspace.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/91695798/Neis,%20Klaus%202014.pdf

Rudari, L., Johnson, M. E., Geske, R. C., & Sperlak, L. A. (2016). Pilot perceptions on the impact of crew rest regulations on safety and fatigue. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 3(1), 4. Retrieved from http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=ijaaa

Stengel, R. F. (2015). Flight dynamics. Princeton University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-OjZBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=impacts+of+flight+regulations&ots=IqHeN-zTCm&sig=3vyJrjSesAQJw0mzJE3lxYa7E6g&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Winter, S. R., Rice, S., Rosser, T. G., Mehta, R., & Rice, A. (2014). Consumer perceptions of starting regional pilot pay given additional qualifications. International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace, 1(2), 1. Retrieved from http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=ijaaa