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How many people are in space right now

howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com

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Re: How many people are in space right now

#11

Post by ilogik »

paxy wrote: post #8

It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

there's also a Chinese space station but it's not currently occupied.

The last mission past low earth orbit was Apollo 17.

As far as I know, SpaceX are the only ones planning on taking crews further out, first with a mission around the moon, and then possibly Mars

Re: How many people are in space right now

#12

Post by nsxwolf »

ilogik wrote: post #11
paxy wrote: post #8

It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

there's also a Chinese space station but it's not currently occupied. The last mission past low earth orbit was Apollo 17. As far as I know, SpaceX are the only ones planning on taking crews further out, first with a mission around the moon, and then possibly Mars

What's the highest low earth orbit manned mission? The Hubble repair?

Re: How many people are in space right now

#13

Post by 7373737373 »

paxy wrote: post #8

It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

There seems to be at least one Chinese spacecraft in orbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_large_modular_space_st...

Re: How many people are in space right now

#15

Post by ronilan »

bcjordan wrote: post #3
mattchamb wrote: post #2

Hopefully some day this number will be so large that it will be impossible to track accurately.

By then it may be quite easy to track accurately!

Most likely.

"Any civilization advanced enough to leave its own plant will be advanced enough to track accurately those leaving"

-- Civilized Tracking Corollary (2017)

Re: How many people are in space right now

#16

Post by dwetterau »

ilogik wrote: post #11
paxy wrote: post #8

It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

there's also a Chinese space station but it's not currently occupied. The last mission past low earth orbit was Apollo 17. As far as I know, SpaceX are the only ones planning on taking crews further out, first with a mission around the moon, and then possibly Mars

There are plenty of other programs with "planned" missions to the moon and mars. You can question whether or not they'll happen, but you can do that about SpaceX too.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars#Current_...

Re: How many people are in space right now

#17

Post by kristianp »

raldi wrote: post #10

Is there a long-term graph of this? I believe the number has been nonzero since 2000, and wanted to see how it's changed over time.

Here's one up to 2014: http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/science/spaceflt.htm

Number of living humans who have walked on another world: https://xkcd.com/893/

Re: How many people are in space right now

#18

Post by dmichulke »

Some nitpicking / philosophical thoughts:

- This can only be a lower bound: There may be privately or secretly "launched" people (e.g.: Chinese military scientists, that missing SpaceX engineer, who knows what the NSA does, Mafia's posh new traitor treatment ...)

- "People" needs a definition here (are dead people still people, what about aliens?)

Re: How many people are in space right now

#20

Post by jaredandrews »

ilogik wrote: post #11
paxy wrote: post #8

It is currently only possible to be in space on the ISS (or in transit to/from there) right? Does anyone know when the last human space mission farther than Low Earth orbit was? And is any country seriously planning another one?

there's also a Chinese space station but it's not currently occupied. The last mission past low earth orbit was Apollo 17. As far as I know, SpaceX are the only ones planning on taking crews further out, first with a mission around the moon, and then possibly Mars

Wow, whenever I am reminded that a human hasn't been on the moon since 1972 it just blows my mind.

I mean.. I guess it's probably easier and cheaper and safer to send a robot, but I would think that at least one nation would decide to flex their muscles in the "yea that's right, we can afford to do this" way. Oh how I dream of such forms of international posturing!

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