JOIN USAs a commoner, one is tempted to ask if space travel is earmarked for the trained personnel alone. Can we too travel to space? Manned missions are just over five decades old, but old enough for huge strides and dramatic changes. Russia pioneered in sending citizens to its space stations from other countries too. Since then, advanced countries have sent businessmen, teachers, journalists and politicians to visit space stations.
Modified space laws allowing for privatisation are seeing breakthroughs in exploration. With the combined effort of government agencies’ technology and experience, with private investment, space travel is taking a new dimension altogether. Amidst all this buzzing activity, the space tourism industry is not far behind.
Human space travel is categorised into two different regions – the sub-orbital flights (region of interest for current tourism travel) and the orbital flights (trips to space stations in orbit).
In the sub-orbital flights, the spacecraft will aim for the region of the Karman Line (an arbitrary distance beyond which is considered space), typically just over 100km vertically above.
Upon reaching this distance, the spacecraft will spend a few minutes there where the tourists can experience the weightlessness, get the view of the non-twinkling skies, see the round horizon of earth before making a quick decent to earth.
The investors in this sector are Virgin Galactic (Sir Richard Branson’s), with commercial bookings made for around $250,000 per person aboard their five fleet space planes VSS Enterprise, which were due to fly by 2015. But a major disaster of the test flight in October 2014 resulted in a setback and rescheduling.
Undeterred, they are working to bring the flight to commission soon, with better technology and improved methods. The spacecraft is designed to carry seven passengers in retractable and reusable capsules besides two pilots.
Further breakthrough came from XCOR Aerospace with their Lynx spacecraft, which does not require a mother ship to launch it. It has a rapid turnaround which makes it capable of four trips a day. But the design is limited to only one passenger along with the pilot.
Elon Musk’s company SpaceX has commercial venture coming up with the Dragon Crew flight capable of sending passengers to any space station.
Due for flight in 2016, a pre-launch disaster stalled their plans which is rescheduled for 2017. Boeing too is a strong contender for space tourism with its Atlas V rocket.
Categorised under adventure travel, it may appear a costly affair now. But, analysts predict that once initial trips succeed, this will change, bringing the amounts drastically to a few thousand dollars since the maximum market for tourism comes from the middle income group. Also, the industry will see the mushrooming of added facilities like hospitality, sponsored comforts, and job openings in this sector.
Comforts and demands
An online survey indicated that space tourists wanted a longer stay in space and also the provision of a hotel there. Working on this is American hotel tycoon Robert Bigelow’s company, which, collaborating with TransLab of NASA, has successfully designed and launched two inflatable capsules Genesis I and II to remain in orbit.
It can be accessed by spacecraft to provide motel facilities in space. The BA 330 is ready for launch in 2017; it is a habitable capsule of 330 cubic metres of internal space.
Medical experts say that short duration space travel may not pose serious health issues. They can be tackled with minimal medications just like one tackles motion sickness or air travel sickness. Apart from that, fitness and prior training is mandatory to accustom to the travel experience.
With further advancements, in the coming 20-30 years, some companies are offering sub-lunar and lunar travel too. All this may sound fantastic now and left for imagination. But looking back, it was just a century ago when the Wright brothers flew their first plane, and was written off as a fanciful hobby, but the turn of the century saw the aviation industry looming large and contributing a major chunk of revenue.
So, it may not be far off when we chalk out holiday plans into space, moon or Mars in the near future. After all, today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality.
(The writer is an engineer and entrepreneur who keenly follows the quantum leaps in space science)