On this page we look at several topics related to space
tourism and offer some additional reference
materials.
Space tourists will want to stay in a roomy habitat
when they reach orbit and some serious work is going
into devloping space
hotels.
One way to experience weightlessness without going
to space is to buy a ticket for a parabolic
plane ride.
A vicarious way to travel space is to place personal
tokens
on spacecraft or simply broadcast a message
towards another star via a big radio antenna.
Space
Tourist Lodging
A future Bigelow
Aerospace orbiting facility assembled from multiple
BA-330 inflatable modules. Such a facility would be
used for
space tourism plus science and engineering projects.
While the mega-rich can now head directly
for the ISS, what about the lesser rich space tourists?
Sub-orbital hops will eventually become boring and even
lapping the earth a few times in low earth orbit will
become routine.
Not wanting to remain strapped into their
seats for long periods of time in a small cramped spaceship,
space tourists will demand somewhere to go to enjoy
extended stays in space. It's unlikely the government-run
ISS will welcome dozens or eventually hundreds of guests.
Surprisingly, even to space optimists
like HobbySpacers, two
serious (i.e. they involve substantial private funding)
projects began a couple of years ago to develop detailed
plans for space hotels.
These projects are based on the expectation
that the efforts in government and private industry
to lower launch costs by at least a factor of 10 with
reusable
launch vehicles will succeed within
5-10 years.
The hotel designs by that time should
be mature enough to begin construction. The space lodges
will serve the loads of adventure tourists looking for
a week or two at the final frontier.
Bigelow
Aerospace
This company is developing plans for a space tourism
infrastructure that includes orbital hotels. Owner of
Budget Suites of America, Robert Bigelow is planning
to spend several hundred million dollars over the course
of a couple of decades on this project.
The company began a collaboration with NASA on inflatable
space habitats, continuing the work that began with
NASA's Transhab project for the Space Station.
See the BA
Growth Chart for the series of modules planned that
will lead to the launch of crew capable habitats by
2010. Their first prototype module - Genesis
I - was successfully launched on July 12, 2006.
Genesis
II was launched on June 28, 2007. The Galaxy
module, the next prototype in a series, will launched
in in late 2008.
See Space
Transport News web log for the latest update. Do
a search there on "Bigelow" to obtain a list
of postings with links to stories about the project.
Mir-Corp
In the late 1990s, the telecom mogul Walter
Anderson and some partners created this firm to
work with the Russian RSC Energia company on obtaining
rights to the Mir space station to use for commercial
activities, particularly visits by space tourists.
However, the inability of Russia to support both Mir
and its ISS committments forced Russia to de-orbit Mir
in early 2001. So MirCorp shifted its emphasis to the
ISS.
The company attempted to launch a commercial space
station in collaboration with RSC. The $100 million
dollar Mini Station 1 would "accommodate up to
three visitors for 20-day stays..."
MirCorp hoped to use the station as a space tourism
destination. It's also worked with several space toursit
and game show enterprizes to send civilians to space
- either the ISS, the MiniStation, or just a few orbits
in a Soyuz..
The company also hoped to develop several commercial
activities that range from TV broadcasts from space
to micro-gravity product manufacture. For example, it
arranged for a Radio Shack commercial to be filmed on
the ISS.
Subsequently, Anderson, along with Dennis Wingo, shifted
interest to Orbital
Recovery, which is developing a space tug for docking
with and maintaining comsats that have run out of station-keeping
fuel.
MirCorp is also involved with the Xero
company that is planning to offer zero-gravity experiences
on an airliner flying parabolic flights out of northern
Sweden.
Interview
on the Space Show, April 25, 2004 with Walt Anderson,
the main investor in Mir Corp.
Anderson in 2005 was arrested for tax invasion. The
status of MirCorp isn't known.
MirCorp & Dennis Tito
Dennis
Tito first worked with MirCorp to go to Mir
and undergo the Cosmonaut training program. After Mir
was deorbited, MirCorp continued to facilitate his dealings
with the Russian agencies, although Space
Adventures became the primary agent.
(Walt Anderson, the billionaire investor in MirCorp,
later wrote an angry letter to Aviation Week disputing
the level of Space Adventures involvement.)
Space Buffs Attempt to Make Their Mir Tourist Venture
Fly - Wall Street Journal - June.16.2000 - This
was the first article to reveal the plans by Tito pay
the Russians for a ride to Mir. MirCorp was his liason
with the Russians. When Mir was deorbited he changed
his destination to the ISS.
Space
Island Group This project is investigating the re-use of Space
Shuttle external tanks to build a commercial space
station that could serve as a hotel for tourists as
well as for scientific applications. The group's advisors
includes NASA and aerospace industry leaders as well
as Arthur C. Clarke.
See their information pages for more details and graphics
about the design of their station.
Hilton Internation has provided some funding for the
group
lunararchitecture-lunar
base 2002 workshop - June 10-21, Nordwijk , The
Netherlands. This is a "student workshop for
design of extra-terrestrial bases for human settlement
of the Moon. The workshop aims to inspire, engage
and challenge European students to create design concepts
for Lunar Bases for our return to the Moon."
WAT&G
This architectural and development company has done
some design studies of space hotels. There are no details
given but the futuristic
projects page does show artwork of a space station.
(Courtesy ZERO-G)
Professor Stephen Hawking weightless during his parabolic
flight on April 26, 2007.
Here are resources related to weightlessness experiences
via rides on aircraft as they fly parabolic trajectories.
There are now a number of ways that members of the public
can pay for such rides.
Russian
Spaceport & Adventure Travel - a list of some
travel agencies that provide opportunities to ride
the microgravity and Mig fighter flights.
Near
Space - high altitude experiences with ballooning,
sub-orbital rockets, etc.
ZERO-G:
Zero Gravity Corporation
This company, began offering commercial parabolic flights
to the public in Septmber 2004. The first 20 flights
were already sold out before the official opening. ZERO-G
was co-founded by Peter
Diamandis who also co-founded the X-PRIZE,
A ride on the 90 minute flight costs around $3000.
The first few parabolas give Mars-like gravity, the
next set gives Moon-like gravity, and the last 10 or
so give zero-g. This gradual approach to zero-g, plus
keeping the number of parabolas at 20, greatly reduces
the incidents of motion sickness.
Sponsored by Northup-Grumman, "teachers from across
the U.S. and around the world will experience first
hand the application of math, science and engineering
principles to human activities in a weightless or low-gravity
space environment". The program will let 240 teachers
ride on the aircraft of Zero
Gravity (ZERO-G)
Atlas
Aerospace - Zero Gravity
This Russian firm offers a wide range of space adventure
experiences including parabolic flights
"Participate in parabolic flights for achievement
zero gravity on russian IL-76 MDK airplane! The zero-g
fligts technology is used for cosmonauts and astronauts
training in weightlessness. Also commercial flights
for advertising projects are carried out."
Xero
This company plans to offer parabolic flights out of a
base in Kiruna in northern Sweden. They will use a Russian
il-76. The company is supported by Mir-Corp.
Interview
on the Space Show, April 25, 2004 with Walt Anderson,
investor in Mir Corp and Xero.
Adventure Travel Microgravity
Packages
These adventure travel companies offer vacation packages
that include microgravity flight experiences:
Space
Adventures, Inc - Travel to Star City, Russia
and experience zero-G on a Russian plane used for
training the cosmonauts. Also, see their MIG flight
experience. See entry in Spaceflight
section.
Incredible
Adventures - Incredible Adventures offers
a number of adventure tourism packages including Zero-g
flights on Russian cosmonaut training aircraft.
NASA
Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities -
NASA offers parabolic flight opportunities for both
students and their micro-g experiments. The flights
are offered on a competitive basis according to the
experiment proposals.
ESA
Outreach: Student Parabolic Flight Campaign -
European students compete for the chance to experience
weightlessness on a parabolic flight in this program
at the European Space Agency. Groups of 4 students
design and propose an experiment to run during the
flight on an Airbus 300.
Novespace
- This is a French company that carries out parabolic
flights for European space agencies and universities.
Rides not available for the public.
Weightlessness
Course at Interglobal
Space - an early attempt by Rand Simberg in collaboration
with Weaver Aerospace to provide parabolic flights
for the public. Unfortunately, the project was blocked
by the FAA.
Patrick Collins, editor of the site and a Professor
of economics at Azabu University in Japan, is a long
time proponent of space commericialization. Reports
archived at the site include:
July.28.05: The STA site (spacetransportation.org)
unfortunately disappeared. You can search for the web
pages and reports in the STA
archive at the Wayback
Machine. The site spacetransportation.us
does not seem to provide the resources linked to below.
The Space Transportation Association, formed by leading
members of the space launch industry, previously had
a separate division dedicated to space tourism. It sponsored
a number of meetings and reports early in the development
of space tourism.
Space Tourism Conference June 25, 2001 -
Proceedings - included presentations by Patrick Collins
and Robert Bigelow\
Space Oddity: Promoters insist that zero-G tourism
is no joke. Maybe it's time to start planning an out
of this world vacation - Washington Post Magazine-
Dec.9.01
STA-NASA Report on Space Tourism- PDF - March,
1998 this NASA funded study gives a generally positive
judgement on the feasibility of a Space Tourism becoming
a successful business if launch costs are substantially
reduced.
Evolution of the Moder Cruise Trade and Its Application
to Space Tourism - Robert L. Haltermann - Nov.1996
Lunar
Tourism
Tourist flights to the Moon are no longer a crazy fantasy.
Constellation
Services, for example, has proposed the Lunar
Express in which a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the
ISS would be used for a fly-by of the Moon for about $100M.
For two passengers, the $50M tickets would be a lot
more than the $20M Tito and Shuttleworth spent on their
flights. However, compared to the billions spent to
make Apollo
8 happen, its still a sign of how things are progressing.
Rand Simberg
investigates the prospects for space tourism. The report
looks at preliminary services such as parabolic aircraft
flights (see below), high
altitude aircraft flights, and sub-orbital
flights. (The latter includes an interesting discussion
of modifying the X-34 for passengers.) Medical
issues are reviewed.
He also discusses regulatory
and liability
issues, which may be the biggest hurdles for getting
space tourism off the ground.
Expedition
Earth Space tourism information including an interesting
comparison of sea yachts and future "space yachts".
The group organized a world expo about space tourism
in 1998 and planned a new one for 2002.
"Spacetopia Inc has been established to
exploit the emerging market for space tourism
and related services in Japan. It will also participate
in other commercial space activities that will
arise with the sharp reduction in launch costs
that space passenger travel will bring about.
Founded by partners with extensive knowledge of
both the Japanese travel market and global efforts
to bring space tourism services to reality, Spacetopia
Inc will have three main fields of activity -
travel, media, and business services. Spacetopia
is a unique gateway to Japan for non-Japanese
companies looking to participate in this field
- whether seeking partners, aiming to serve the
Japanese market, or requiring consultancy on specific
projects."
Weddings & HoneyMoons
in Space
SpaceLove.com
- space activists "George and Loretta Whitesides
will be the first couple to honeymoon in space on
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceline".
Robert
Goehlich Robert Goehlich did his graduate work on space tourism
and is now doing postdoc work in Japan on this area.
See info about his lecture series:
He also has two books based on his studies. From his
space
tourism class at Keio University you can obtain
copies of his lectures in pdf format.
Space Tourism Market Simulation (STMS) is an
interactive simulation covering various disciplines
such as rocket engineering, economics, design,
laws, ethics, art, etc. around space tourism to
understand and practice coherences about this
topic. Participants can choose one out of eight
specific groups such as passenger, manufacturer,
organization, space travel agency, investor, government,
opposition or own created group. They can either
cooperate or compete with other groups. The idea
of STMS is to improve participant’s knowledge
and skills of space tourism in the fields of strategic
decision-making, engineering, teamwork, marketing
and entrepreneurial activities.
Politics
of Space Tourism As space tourism becomes a reality, government involvement
becomes an important factor in its development. The
dispute between NASA and the Russian space agencyover
the Tito flight, for example, brought intense publicity
to the issue.
Companies hoping to build reusable
space ships for the tourist market need a clear
and stable regulatory environment. They also will lobby
Congress for tax credits or other support.
Here are various links related to the politics of space
tourism.
The biggest question about space tourism is whether
there is really a sizable market for it.
This is of particular interest with regard to sub-orbital
rides since private companies can begin building sub-orbital
vehicles today. But to get even the few $10s of millions
needed to do that, they must convince investors that
there exists a strong chance of getting their money
back.
There have been various surveys over the years of varying
size and depth. The new Zogby survey is considered the
most significant since it was done by an impartial professional
survey company and they talked only with people of high
net worth, which is the group from whom space tourists
would generally come.
The fact that Zogby found that 19% of the respondents
were interested in sub-orbital flights is highly significant.
Most companies proposing to build such vehicles only
need 50-100 riders per year to make a profit.
Dr.
Geoffrey Crouch interview on the Spaceshow - Dec.21,
2005 - "Dr. Geoffrey Crouch is the Chair
of Marketing in the School of Business, La Trobe University,
Melbourne, Australia." "Crouch has undertaken
innovative and state of the art market research for
suborbital and orbital tourism using Discrete Choice
Modeling."
Virgin
Galactic - as of the end of 2005, the company
had over $10M in deposits and full payment for the
$200k tickets and flights for the first two years
are sold out.
Health & Safety Issues
How healthy does a space tourist need to be before he
or she is allowed to fly? What stresses and strains
will a space tourist on a suborbital flight undergo?
Will there be age limits on space tourists? Here are
some resources for such questions.
Training for Crew and Passengers
There are services opening up to provide independent
training facilities and education for those involved
in space tourism. These could be pilots on space tourism
vehicles or passengers that need a quick introduction
to what they will encounter.
National
Aerospace Training & Research (NASTAR) Center
This facility in Bucks County, Pennsylvania offers
"state-of-the-art equipment and professional
instructors to train space travelers how to cope with
the effects of sustained elevated G exposure, altitude
exposure, and spatial disorientation."
History of Space Tourism
Trips to space for the general public here have been
discussed since the beginning of the rocket age in the
1920s and 1930s. But only since Tito's flight has it
been taken generally seriously.
X-Prize Foundation
- The X-Prize succeeded in its goal of stimulating
development of a 2 person reusable rocket vehicle
capable of reaching 100 km in altitude. Now the annual
XP
Cup rocket exhibition and competition will continue
the push for practical spaceflight vehicles..
Interorbital
Space Vacation - Interorbital
Systems is a California based rocket company that
is competing for the X-Prize with its Neptune
I sea launched reusable rocket. It hopes to develop
from this a 2-stage system to take 3 tourists at a
time into earth orbit.
Vicarious
Space Travel Send some token of yourself
to the cosmos...
A number of projects
past and present involve sending personal messages and
tangible mementos into space. This might involve a CD
type disk intended as a time capsule that will travel
in space or land on a planet. Or it could involve radio
transimission to another star.
Google
Lunar Legacy
This is part of the Google
Lunar Prize program in which private organizations
will compete for $30M in prize money to put a rover
on the Moon. Members of the public can pay $10 and get
a digital picture and message taken to the Moon on the
rover. Half of the donation will go towards the contest
purse, the other half to the X PRIZE Foundation's educational
programs.
YourNameInToSpace.org
The Mars
Gravity Biosatellte project will test the effects
of Martian gravity on mammals by spinning a satellite
with a colony of mice aboard. Led
by students from MIT, Georgia Tech, and several
other schools, the project so far has gotten some seed
money from NASA but it needs a lot more to keep on track.
With the YourNameInToSpace.org
program, they are offering the public the opportunity
to put a "name, signature, corporate logo, photograph,
or other MIT-approved imagery" on the outside of the
spacecraft for a donation. There will be a return capsule
for the mice and those who pay the top price will get
a piece of the hardware after it comes back to earth.
Teacher Contest - You can win free space for your
favorite teacher by telling them how "your teacher
inspired you or helped launch your career. Entries
may be submitted in any format: essay, video clip,
song, painting, etc. - creativity is encouraged!".
Deadline is May 15th, 2007.
KEO
This French organized non-profit program plans to launch
a capsule into an Earth orbit that would last 50000
years. The capsule will carry messages from ordinary
people, biological samples and an extensive database
of human knowledge. The letters K, E and
O are 3 most common phonemes in major languages.
