But that vision is under review, along with the space vehicles that would get them there.
There have been a number of papers in the last decade on electrical charging of space vehicles.
Our current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far, and they have served us well.
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Space vehicles for humans must be made safe, while we can risk a bunch of robots without losing sleep.
For example, similar technologies could be used to charge space vehicles, satellites and other assets with electric power .
Space vehicles should also be able to handle an unlimited number of launches.
Of course, even if both entrepreneurs and aerospace giants produce revolutionary new space vehicles, there's still nowhere for them to go.
Industrial gains won't be sufficient alone, nor will military aircraft or space vehicles that have provided solid business in the recent past.
Beryllium: used as a lightweight component in military equipment and in the aerospace industry. it is used in high-speed aircraft, missiles, space vehicles and communication satellites.
Although vehicles approaching the space station, such as the shuttle, will frequently hold their position just metres away from the platform, this formation flying is very short-lived.
"At the moment, there is just a complete gap - there is no European regulatory regime for reusable space vehicles, and we need one, " he told BBC News.
But like all hot tickets, the autumn migration can come with its share of hassles, including sky-high prices and traffic jams as safari vehicles jostle for space near the best sightings.
The agency would start regulating space vehicles to ensure crew and passenger safety only if the operation of those vehicles resulted in death, serious injury or a dangerous close call.
This enormous log home not only has garage space for 28 vehicles, but sits on 40-plus acres of prime skiing space that can be subdivided and developed into 16 possible ski lots.
There can be no doubt that private industry can build and operate space transportation vehicles much more rapidly and cheaply than government.
After all, the United States reached an agreement with Russia last month that explicitly authorizes the sale of "space launch vehicles" and associated "facilities" to anyone it wishes.
It enables the Chinese to build and operate their own space station, establish the technology that is necessary to efficiently send astronauts to the moon and beyond, build and operate fuel depots, and construct vehicles and bases in space.
Mr Thompson's niece Margaret Thompson said the area was "very dangerous" at the time of the accident because the location had only recently become a space where both vehicles and pedestrians have an equal right of way.
Some people envisage tug-like vehicles that push infrastructure around in space, such as modules for future space stations.
Orbital flights, which must propel vehicles past the atmosphere into outer space, require a particularly large amount of it.
For NASA, Mr. Musk's partner, the goal is to validate development of private cargo vehicles and eventually, fleets of space taxis to take astronauts into orbit.
Private equity firms are showing heightened interest in manufacturers of ambulances, fire trucks and other municipal or specialty vehicles this year, as the space is still depressed enough, post-recession, to allow the firms to strike attractive deals.
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Three astronauts, mission commander Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, found themselves rocketing around the moon in a pair of joined vehicles, each with the interior space of a VW Beetle, almost no power, and no heat.
It's not the miniature robotic space shuttle that NASA's planning to send into orbit this month, but another of the space agency's unmanned vehicles has edged closer to its beginning its mission, with the "nearly autonomous" Global Hawk aircraft having completed a key test flight bright and early on April 2nd.
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The proposed development, at Park View Garage, would include toilet and washing facilities and space for a maximum of 20 vehicles.
These habitats, which are folded up for launch and then inflated in space, were designed as interplanetary vehicles for a trip to Mars, but they are also likely to be useful general-purpose accommodation.
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In the short run, that might restrict natural-gas use to vehicles such as lorries and buses, where space is at less of a premium (and which already run on a different fuel from most cars).
Dozens of companies are attempting to build prototype vehicles that would take tourists to the edge of space.
Vehicles that can safely carry people both up into space and back down safely to Earth are extraordinarily complex.
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