People have dreamed of going into space for a long time. Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin made his space travel as the first human in 1961. Later, Neil Armstrong’s entry into the moon further heightened man’s desire to travel to space.
But now the question is, are people really going to start space tour? In fact, the arrival of British millionaire Richard Branson in space has raised such a question.
Richard Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, has recently successfully launched a unique rocket into space. In 2004, the company planned its first space trip.
But then the plan backfired due to a rocket accident. And after 17 long years, Richard Branson has taken his five companions on a rocket made by his company successfully.
Possibility and space tourism
Since the arrival of Richard Branson in space travel, the issue of space tourism has been considered very seriously. Virgin Galatics has already sold 600 advance tickets for space travel.
In addition, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has started showing the potential of space tourism in advance. The space company Blue Origin, which was created by him, has started selling tickets for space travel.
Elon Musk is also building a spaceship that is readily available for space travel. The vehicle he built is called Starship.
space tourism and reality
NASA scientists are yet to say for sure about the reality of space tourism. They say that the place where Richard Branson came from is the only shallow area in space.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, says that the beginning of space is basically 62 miles above. But the place from which Richard Branson orbited is only 53 miles above the Earth’s surface.
They say that this is basically the Karman region from which the atmosphere gradually came to an end. But according to the definition of NASA, the space is above 50 miles from Earth surface.
So it is easy to assume that Richard Branson’s orbit is not very high above the Earth’s surface, where the International Space Station is about two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth’s surface. On the other hand, the Moon’s position is about two million miles above the Earth.
Undoubtedly, Richard Branson’s space travel is a significant event, which is taking the possibility of space travel a little further for ordinary people.
Space Travel for all
But now the question is whether space tourism is going to be possible for ordinary people very soon? In this context, NASA scientists say that going to space is quite expensive which is not yet available to all.
On the other hand, Amitabh Ghosh, a NASA scientist, has said that space travel by one or two millionaires can never be called tourism. Only when ordinary people can buy tickets and go into space will it be identified into tourism.
Obstacles to Space Travel
There are still a number of obstacles to the transformation of space travel into tourism, one of which is the high cost.
Blue Origin has already started selling tickets for the spaceship worth two million US dollars. On the other hand, the price of the spaceship of Virgin Galactic is about two and a half million US dollars.
Also, it is not possible to reuse the spacecraft that is usually used to go into space. Therefore, in order to go into space and to return from there, you need to know two different things, which further increases the cost of space travel.
In addition, space travel requires a very fast speed of a spaceship. It is called escape velocity, which means that if an object is thrown upwards from the earth’s surface, it will not return to the earth.
Such a speed of a spaceship requires a lot of fuel. It can move a spaceship at a speed of seven miles per second. It is very expensive to make such a lot of fuel for the public.
Isn’t Space Travel possible?
So far, scientists have not said much about space tourism. However, NASA scientists say that it will be possible to create the possibility of space tourism in the next decade.
Elon Musk has already focused on building a reusable spaceship for space travel. At a very low cost, he is going to build a spaceship that can go into space more than once and return from there.