Space Tourism
(c) 2009 Puja Goyal
Magazine: Live IT
Month of Publication: June 2009
If you have ever grown up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie "Total Recall" or the Alien movie series; or any other science fiction movie from Star Trek to Star Wars. If you have ever had romantic fantasies of voyaging the moon and the stars with champagne in your hand and your love sitting right in front of you, and thought, well, it happens in books and movies; then you are close to realizing your dream more than ever. You will understand that space tourism was a central theme to these movies, where people find the story’s plot based in space. But, space tourism is not just some pipe dream as companies like Scaled Composites, Blue Origin, and SpaceX are developing craft and programs to do just this.
With ticket prices are a mere $20 million for a one- week stay in space, the Space tourism industry is officially open for business. American businessman, Dennis Tito was made the world’s first space tourist, by Russia despite NASA’s disapproval. On April 30, 2001, a Russian Soyuz rocket flew Tito into space and arrived at the International Space Station. "It is not going to be a holiday (but) to me it is a life's dream and the start of a new career," Tito had said to journalists, during a break from training for the mission. Tito was quoted as saying that the most profound experience of his life was aboard the ISS, when he was able to speak from space to his kids over a ham radio link. The same rocket also flew Space Tourist and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth on April 25, 2002. Greg Olsen, an American businessman, became tourist number three to the ISS on October 1, 2005.
On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, a telecommunications entrepreneur, became the first female space tourist and the fourth space tourist overall. She was also the first person of Iranian descent to make it into space. Anousheh Ansari has invested in her interest in space before -- she and another relative contributed to the $10 million XPrize, and she hopes that her experience on the ISS will help her to develop spacecraft that make space tourism more affordable. Ansari shrinks from the term "space tourist," because of the rigorous training she and the first three explorers had to undergo. "I think tourists are people who basically decide to go to some place and put a camera around their neck, and basically buy a ticket and go there. They don't prepare...I spent six months [training in Russia], and had to learn many different systems, and many new different technologies to take this journey, so I don't think tourism [does] justice to this event," Ansari said. Charles Simonyi, a software architect, became the fifth space tourist on April 7, 2007.
Trips like these have opened up possibilities of Space Tourism as the next big thing in the 21st Century, what with companies investing millions believing that the space tourism industry is on the verge of taking off. NASA published a report in 1997 signifying that selling space trips to private individuals could be worth billions of dollars. To reiterate that a Japanese report supports the findings indicating that space tourism could be a $10 billion per year industry within the next two decades.
Events such as these have triggered a possibility of exploring dimensions in space and plans of constructing suborbital vehicles, orbital hotels, cruises to the moon etc. Several space tourism companies have lined up to build suborbital vehicles and orbital cities within the next two decades. Thus, space travel is an industry which it born out of human curiosity about the unknown.
Few realize though that Space tourism is not only about a trip in space; it is much more. It could range from, Short term trips into space; to, long term stays in orbital hotels, and taking part in space research, educational and entertainment oriented games in space (for example; the possibility of have space Olympics). It could open up possibilities of individuals experiencing short moments of weightlessness and travelling to space theme parks. The most exciting prospect of space travel could be the use of virtual reality and space games in order to interact with simulated or actual space hardware, including rovers on the Moon or Mars. In suborbital flights, passengers would experience three to six minutes of weightlessness, a view of a twinkle-free starfield, and a vista of the curved Earth below.
Along with Russia, many companies are showing interest in space travel. Several projects are underway to commercialize space travel. Here are a few of the groups that might take you to space:
Space tourism has been condemned as being a "playground for the rich." And, while there may be some current truth to this, the vision for the future is to make space tourism affordable and available to the middle class in just a few, short years. While 'N Sync singer Lance Bass may have fallen short of cash and Madonna was voted down in her request, still many companies are working on making suborbital flights affordable to the general public. In spite of the high prices people are ready to pay thousands of dollars to go on a vacation in space. This speaks volumes as to how popular space travel is. The way it is going, the space industry, like the aviation industry, is going to find that carrying passengers is going to be its main business.
Magazine: Live IT
Month of Publication: June 2009
If you have ever grown up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie "Total Recall" or the Alien movie series; or any other science fiction movie from Star Trek to Star Wars. If you have ever had romantic fantasies of voyaging the moon and the stars with champagne in your hand and your love sitting right in front of you, and thought, well, it happens in books and movies; then you are close to realizing your dream more than ever. You will understand that space tourism was a central theme to these movies, where people find the story’s plot based in space. But, space tourism is not just some pipe dream as companies like Scaled Composites, Blue Origin, and SpaceX are developing craft and programs to do just this.
With ticket prices are a mere $20 million for a one- week stay in space, the Space tourism industry is officially open for business. American businessman, Dennis Tito was made the world’s first space tourist, by Russia despite NASA’s disapproval. On April 30, 2001, a Russian Soyuz rocket flew Tito into space and arrived at the International Space Station. "It is not going to be a holiday (but) to me it is a life's dream and the start of a new career," Tito had said to journalists, during a break from training for the mission. Tito was quoted as saying that the most profound experience of his life was aboard the ISS, when he was able to speak from space to his kids over a ham radio link. The same rocket also flew Space Tourist and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth on April 25, 2002. Greg Olsen, an American businessman, became tourist number three to the ISS on October 1, 2005.
On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, a telecommunications entrepreneur, became the first female space tourist and the fourth space tourist overall. She was also the first person of Iranian descent to make it into space. Anousheh Ansari has invested in her interest in space before -- she and another relative contributed to the $10 million XPrize, and she hopes that her experience on the ISS will help her to develop spacecraft that make space tourism more affordable. Ansari shrinks from the term "space tourist," because of the rigorous training she and the first three explorers had to undergo. "I think tourists are people who basically decide to go to some place and put a camera around their neck, and basically buy a ticket and go there. They don't prepare...I spent six months [training in Russia], and had to learn many different systems, and many new different technologies to take this journey, so I don't think tourism [does] justice to this event," Ansari said. Charles Simonyi, a software architect, became the fifth space tourist on April 7, 2007.
Trips like these have opened up possibilities of Space Tourism as the next big thing in the 21st Century, what with companies investing millions believing that the space tourism industry is on the verge of taking off. NASA published a report in 1997 signifying that selling space trips to private individuals could be worth billions of dollars. To reiterate that a Japanese report supports the findings indicating that space tourism could be a $10 billion per year industry within the next two decades.
Events such as these have triggered a possibility of exploring dimensions in space and plans of constructing suborbital vehicles, orbital hotels, cruises to the moon etc. Several space tourism companies have lined up to build suborbital vehicles and orbital cities within the next two decades. Thus, space travel is an industry which it born out of human curiosity about the unknown.
Few realize though that Space tourism is not only about a trip in space; it is much more. It could range from, Short term trips into space; to, long term stays in orbital hotels, and taking part in space research, educational and entertainment oriented games in space (for example; the possibility of have space Olympics). It could open up possibilities of individuals experiencing short moments of weightlessness and travelling to space theme parks. The most exciting prospect of space travel could be the use of virtual reality and space games in order to interact with simulated or actual space hardware, including rovers on the Moon or Mars. In suborbital flights, passengers would experience three to six minutes of weightlessness, a view of a twinkle-free starfield, and a vista of the curved Earth below.
Along with Russia, many companies are showing interest in space travel. Several projects are underway to commercialize space travel. Here are a few of the groups that might take you to space:
- Bigelow Aerospace, by Budget Suites of America hotels owner Robert Bigelow, hopes to make "habitable space stations affordable for corporate communities."
- Space Island Group is going to build a ring-shaped, rotating "commercial space infrastructure" that will resemble the Discovery spacecraft in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." Space Island says it will build its space city out of empty NASA space-shuttle fuel tanks (to start, it should take around 12 or so), and place it about 400 miles (644 km) above Earth. The space city will rotate once per minute to create a gravitational pull one-third as strong as Earth's.
- The X Prize is a national contest that offered $10 million to the first private company to develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) capable of carrying the general public into space. In October 2004, Scaled Composites, a California based company, won the prize with SpaceShipOne.
- According to their vision statement, Space Adventures plans to "fly tens of thousands of people in space over the next 10-15 years and beyond, both orbital and suborbital, around the moon, and back, from spaceports both on Earth and in space, to and from private space stations, and aboard dozens of different vehicles ..."
- Even Hilton Hotels has shown interest in the space tourism industry and the possibility of building or co-funding a space hotel. However, the company did say that it believes such a space hotel is 15 to 20 years away.
Space tourism has been condemned as being a "playground for the rich." And, while there may be some current truth to this, the vision for the future is to make space tourism affordable and available to the middle class in just a few, short years. While 'N Sync singer Lance Bass may have fallen short of cash and Madonna was voted down in her request, still many companies are working on making suborbital flights affordable to the general public. In spite of the high prices people are ready to pay thousands of dollars to go on a vacation in space. This speaks volumes as to how popular space travel is. The way it is going, the space industry, like the aviation industry, is going to find that carrying passengers is going to be its main business.
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