What are we going to talk about?
These are trips by ordinary people to space, not as scientists or
technologists, but for personal reasons including adventure, recreation and business.
Who’s the first?
Sixty-year-old California financier Dennis Tito lifts off into space aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft and becomes the world’s first paying space tourist. Tito, who paid Russia a reported $20 million for the trip, spent six days on the International Space Station before returning to Earth.
What do they say about space tourism?
Japanese Rocket Society:
if some $12 billion of funding became available in the near future, commercial passenger space travel services to and from Earth orbit could begin in 2010. At a growth rate of some 100,000 passengers/year/year the business could reach 700,000 passengers/ year by 2017, at a price of about $25,000 /passenger. The importance of this result is that $12 billion is less than half of one year's funding of government space agencies today, and it is therefore readily affordable. By 2030 space tourism activities could have grown to a scale of $100 billion/year, creating several million jobs. It thereby demonstrates the very great economic value of such a development; approximately $1 trillion greater than the value of continued taxpayer funding of space agencies' activities without developing space tourism.
How can they be so confidence?
Analysis indicates that future market revenues will come from large and established industries that can improve their bottom line by doing business in space.
The plan
1. sub-orbital trips (lasting less than 1 hr; all in the space transportation vehicle)
2. three orbit trips (lasting up to 5 hours; all in the space transportation vehicle)
3. three day trips (possibly including a LEO facility)
4. resort packages (with stays of 1-2 weeks at a LEO facility and possibly even extrafacility activities)
How to reach that plan?
Space tourism fields for research
Life Sciences
Short-term orbital stays by average people
Tests of full range of anti-emetics
Treatments of minor ailments in micro-gravity
Propulsion
Development of reusable rocket operation and maintenance procedures
Design of rockets for ease of maintenance
Reusable rocket engine reliability increase
Reusable rocket engine noise suppression
Cost reduction
Transportation
Passenger vehicle size optimisation
Passenger vehicle optimisation for different routes
Orbital propellant production and handling
Orbital Accommodation
Large windows
Micro-gravity plumbing
Facilities for large numbers of guests
Micro-gravity interior design
Cost reduction through mass production
Rotating facilities
Legal/Insurance Issues
Collaboration with aviation
Implementation of liability for damage in space
Implementation of space salvage laws
Insurance industry contribution to vehicle design
Space building standards
Conclusion
Tourism is not bounded to earth. We can extend it further by space tourism. Some people say that if some $12 billion of funding became available in the near future, commercial passenger space travel services to and from Earth orbit could begin in 2010.
