Space Tourism is a collection of activities, services and industries that deliver a space travel experience including transportation, accommodations, food and drink. Commercial organisations operate holidays / vacations and visits to places of interest.
The First Space Tourist was Dennis Tito. The age of Space Tourism began with the first visit at the international space station. The second space tourist was Mark Shuttleworth who also visted the ISS. Virgin Galactic plans to commence sub-orbital space flights by 2008/2009.
In foreseeable future, Space Tourism will be accessible to millionaires! Russia’s Energia and Mircorp plan to have 1 week space voyages using the Soyuz-TM as the spacecraft.
First Space Tourist
Who is the first woman space tourist?
Anousheh Ansari was the first female tourist in space.
Tourism on Earth
There are various places around the world where you can visit space related tourist or experience them. One of the most famous is Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
There are various museums around the planet that are dedicated to space like the National Space Centre in the UK.
Circumlunar Moon Trips
Many companies are promoting trips around the moon. The approx cost is between $150 million to $300 million dollars.
SpaceX announced in February 2017 that they are planning on sending two space tourists on a trip around the moon in 2018 / 2019 on their Dragon V2 spacecraft launched by the Falcon Heavy rocket.
Virgin Galactic plans to commence sub-orbital space flights by 2007/2008. Virgin Galactic is licensing the SpaceShipOne technology which won the $10m Ansari X Prize. The Winning the X-Prize compeition has paved way for Virgin Galactic to launch people space tourists on sub-orbital flights.
In 2013 the fare for Virgin Galactic flight was about $250,000 USA dollars.
The next step is, we need to bring Space Tourism to the Public. At present prices, it is not commerically viable to pursue this option. Hopefully in the future the everyday person will be able to journey to space on a regular basis. Virgin Galactic flights will cost about 200,000 USA dollars in 2009. Hopefully in the future the prices will drop so your everyday person can take a flight to space.
Future Space Tourists
These are some possible tourist activities in the distant future:
- Climbing Oympus Mons on Planet Mars.
- Sailing methane seas on Titan moon.
- Visiting a Lunar Mining Museum on the Moon.
- Floating above toxic Planet Venus.
- Grand Canyon equivalent tour on Planet Mars.
- Racing on salt flats of Dwarf Planet Ceres.
- Travel on a Space Cruise Lines
Past ideas included to use the Space Shuttles’ cargo bay to carry tourists in Space.
If cheap reusable launch vehicles are developed or revived such as Pionner’s Rocketplane, Ascender, the Roton and Astroliner, or NASA’s second generation space shuttle, then these will have the ability to carry space tourists!
To really kick-start space tourism we need a space vehicle that can take off and land at an airport. For example, a commercial derivative of the cancelled X-30.
In the distant future, we may use space elevators to get to orbit and if its possible we might be able to beam in space like in Star Trek ” Beam me up Scotty”. Time will only tell.
Space Tourism Links:
MirCorp: Operate Mir
Virgin Galactic: Official Website
MirCorp: Picture Soyuz-TM with Mircorp Logo.