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The curvature of Earth seen from orbit provides one of the main attractions for tourists paying to go into space
Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of tourists paying for spaceflights, primarily for personal satisfaction.
As of 2008, space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is now $30 million. Flights are fully booked until 2009.
Among the primary attractions of space tourism are the uniqueness of the experience, the thrill and awe of looking at Earth from space (described by astronauts as extremely intense and mind-boggling), the experience\'s notion as an exclusive status symbol, and various advantages of weightlessness. The space tourism industry is being targeted by spaceports in numerous locations, including California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Alaska, Esrange in Sweden and Wisconsin, as well as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Some use the term "personal spaceflight" as in the case of the Personal Spaceflight Federation.
After initial successes in space, many people saw intensive space exploration as inevitable. In the minds of many people, such exploration was symbolized by wide public access to space, mostly in the form of space tourism. Those aspirations are best remembered in science fiction works (and one children\'s book), such as Arthur C. Clarke\'s A Fall of Moondust and also 2001: A Space Odyssey, Roald Dahl\'s Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Joanna Russ\'s 1968 novel Picnic on Paradise, and Larry Niven\'s Known Space stories. Lucian in 2 A.D. in his book True History examines the idea of a crew of men whose ship travels to the Moon during a storm. Jules Verne also took up the theme of lunar visits in his books, From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon. Robert A. Heinlein’s short story The Menace from Earth, published in 1957, was one of the first to incorporate elements of a developed space tourism industry within its framework. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000. Many futurologists around the middle of the 20th century speculated that the average family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon.
The end of the Space Race, however, signified by the Moon landing, decreased the importance of space exploration and led to decreased importance of manned space flight. (2003-03-01) "Space: the forgotten frontier?".
The Soviet space program was aggressive in broadening the pool of cosmonauts from the very beginning. The Soviet Intercosmos program also included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact members and later from allies of the USSR and non-aligned countries. Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but especially after the Mir program began, were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts. The European Space Agency took advantage of the program as well.
The U.S. Space Shuttle program included payload specialist positions which were usually filled by representatives of companies or institutions managing a specific payload on that mission. These payload specialists did not receive the same training as professional NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA, so they were essentially private astronauts. NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors, and Senator Jake Garn and (then-Representative, now Senator) Bill Nelson were both given opportunities to fly on board a shuttle. As the Shuttle program expanded, the Teacher in Space program was developed as a way to expand publicity and educational opportunities for NASA. Christa McAuliffe would have been the first Teacher in Space, but she was killed in the Challenger disaster and the program was canceled. During the same period a Journalist in Space program was frequently discussed, with individuals such as Walter Cronkite and Miles O\'Brien considered front-runners, but no formal program was ever developed. Eventually, McAuliffe\'s backup in the Teacher in Space Program, Barbara Morgan, would train and fly as a full-fledged NASA astronaut. She launched aboard STS-118 as a payload specialist and spoke to many students as an educator during the trip.
With the realities of the post-Perestroika economy in Russia, its space industry was especially starved for cash. The Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) offered to pay for one of its reporters to fly on a mission. For $28 million, Toyohiro Akiyama was flown in 1990 to Mir with the eighth crew and returned a week later with the seventh crew. Akiyama gave a daily TV broadcast from orbit and also performed scientific experiments for Russian and Japanese companies. However, since the cost of the flight was paid by his employer, Akiyama could be considered a business traveler rather than a tourist.
In 1991, British chemist Helen Sharman was selected from a pool of public applicants to be the first Briton in space. (1991-05-18) "1991: Sharman becomes first Briton in space]". As the United Kingdom had no human space program, the arrangement was by a consortium of private companies who contracted with the Russian space program. Sharman was also in a sense a private space traveler, but she was a working cosmonaut with a full training regimen.
While it is sometimes jokingly argued that John Glenn was essentially a tourist on his 1998 shuttle flight (STS-95), space tourism did not resume for another three years. MirCorp, a private venture by then in charge of the space station, began seeking potential space tourists to visit Mir in order to offset some of its maintenance costs. Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former JPL scientist, became their first candidate. When the decision to dismantle Mir was made, Tito opted to book a trip to the International Space Station through U.S.-based Space Adventures, Ltd., which remains the only company to have sent paying passengers to space. Int\'l space station ticket price climbs. AP."International Space Station Welcomes American Tourist", Associated Content, 27 April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-27. Boyle, Alan. "Regulators OK Oklahoma spaceport - Suborbital test flights could begin in 2007, setting stage for tourists", MSNBC, 13 June 2006. Retrieved on 2006-06-26.
In conjunction with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation and Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Space Adventures facilitated the flights for the world\'s first private space explorers: Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen, Anousheh Ansari and Charles Simonyi. The first three participants paid in excess of $20 million (USD) each for their 10-day visit to the ISS.
On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito became the first "fee-paying" space tourist when he visited the International Space Station (ISS) for seven days. He was followed in 2002 by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. The third was Gregory Olsen in 2005, who is trained as a scientist and whose company produces specialist high-sensitivity cameras. Olsen planned to use his time on the ISS to conduct a number of experiments, in part to test his company\'s products. Olsen had planned an earlier flight, but had to cancel for health reasons.
After the Columbia disaster, space tourism on the Russian Soyuz program was temporarily put on hold, because Soyuz vehicles became the only available transport to the ISS. However, in 2006, space tourism was resumed. On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American (Soyuz TMA-9), became the fourth space tourist (she prefers spaceflight participant). On April 7, 2007, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire of Hungarian descent, joined their ranks (Soyuz TMA-10).
In 2003, NASA and the Russian Space Agency agreed to use the term \'Spaceflight Participant\' to distinguish those space travelers from astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights.Payload Specialist Astronauts. Retrieved on 2007-05-20. NASA also lists Christa McAuliffe as a "Space Flight Participant" (although she did not pay a fee), apparently due to her non-technical duties aboard the STS-51-L flight.
The X-Prize being awarded to the Scaled Composites team
On October 4, 2004, the SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and funded by Virgin Galactic, won the $10,000,000 X Prize, which was designed to be won by the first private company who could reach and surpass an altitude of 62 miles (beyond the Karman line, the arbitrarily defined boundary of space).SpaceShipOne Captures X-PrizeOctober 4, 2004 The first flight was flown by Michael Melvill on June 21, 2004 to a height of 62 miles, making him the first commercial astronaut.SpaceShipOne pilot bio: Michael W. Melvill May 2005 The prize-winning flight was flown by Brian Binnie, which reached a height of 69.6 miles, breaking the X-15 record.www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/041004_spaceshipone_x-prize_flight_2.html.
Space tourist Mark Shuttleworth
All five space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures:"How Space Tourism Works".
The following people have been named as possible future commercial passengers on Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS:
First Russian space flight participant will not lift off until 2009. RIA Novosti (2007-10-05). Gruzdev is a United Russia pro-presidential party member. The United Russia party may pay the estimated $25 million for the flight from the party funds. Gruzdev has had a medical examination and been given approval to begin the cosmonaut training program. Gruzdev previously participated in the Arktika 2007 mission, which placed a Russian flag on the seabed near the North Pole.
Additionally, as of November 2007 Virgin Galactic had pre-sold nearly 200 seats for their space tourism flights, according to the company\'s president. Spaceflights now for sale; scary part is price. Seattle Post-Intelligencer (November 14, 2007).
More affordable suborbital space tourism is viewed as a money-making proposition by several other companies, including Space Adventures, Virgin Galactic, Starchaser, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR Aerospace, Rocketplane Limited, the European "Project Enterprise",TALIS Institute. Retrieved on 2007-05-20. and others.[citation needed] Most are proposing vehicles that make suborbital flights peaking at an altitude of 100-160 kilometres. (2006-10-12) "Scotland 2040: Spaceships head for Moon with lunar golfers and crater ramblers aboard". Passengers would experience three to six minutes of weightlessness, a view of a twinkle-free starfield, and a vista of the curved Earth below. Projected costs are expected to be about $200,000 per passenger. (2004-09-28) "British tycoon wants to fly you to space: Virgin Galactic plans to sell $200,000 rides". X PRIZE Foundation.Space Adventures.Zero Gravity Corporation.The Last Frontier Of Tourism (article by Stefan Tiron, published by monochrom)
In December 2005, the U.S. Government released a set of proposed rules for space tourism.
Under current US law, any company proposing to launch paying passengers from American soil on a suborbital rocket must receive a license from the Federal Aviation Administration\'s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST). The licensing process focuses on public safety and safety of property, and the details can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Chapter III."Electronic Code of Federal Regulations". This is in accordance with the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act passed by Congress in 2004. (2004-12-09) "Congress Passes Space Tourism Bill".
Spaceship One, the first private space tourism spaceship to fly above the 100 km Karman Line
Virgin Galactic, one of the leading potential space tourism groups, is planning to have passenger service on its first spaceship, the VSS Enterprise (Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo), with the inaugural launch in 2008 and main flights beginning in 2009.Virgin Galactic - Virgin Galactic The price is initially set at $200,000. Headed by Sir Richard Branson\'s Virgin Group, Virgin Galactic will be the first private space tourism company to regularly send civilians into space, by training them for 3 days before their launch. The SpaceShipTwo spaceship was built as a result of the Ansari X Prize (which was won by SpaceShipOne); both SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo were designed by Burt Rutan. Launches will first occur at the Mojave Spaceport in California, and will then be moved to the permanent spaceport in Upham, New Mexico, near Truth or Consequences. The spaceships used will go 360,000 feet (109.73 km, or 68.18 miles) high; this goes beyond the height of 100 km, which is the internationally defined boundary between Earth and space. Space flights will last 2.5 hours, carry 6 passengers, and reach a speed of Mach 3. SpaceShipTwo will not require a space shuttle-like heat shield for atmospheric reentry as it will not experience the extreme aerodynamic heating experienced during reentry at orbital velocities (approximately Mach 22.5 at a typical shuttle altitude of 300 km, or 185 miles)."Flight to Orbit". The glider will employ a "feathering" technique to manage drag during the unpowered descent and landing. SpaceShipTwo will use a single hybrid rocket motor to launch from mid-air after detaching from a mother ship at 50,000 feet, instead of NASA\'s Space Shuttle\'s ground-based launch.
Several organizations have been formed to promote the space tourism industry, including the Space Tourism Society, and others.Space Tourism SocietySpace Future Journal."Space Tourism: Personal Spaceflight for you ...". More information about the future of Space Tourism can be found at Space Tourism Lecture, which is a free online Space Tourism Lecture handout collection. Since 2003 Dr. Robert A. Goehlich teaches the world\'s first and only Space Tourism class at Keio University, Yokohama, Japan.
Several plans have been proposed for using a space station as a hotel.Space hotels. American motel tycoon Robert Bigelow has acquired the designs for inflatable space habitats from the Transhab program abandoned by NASA. His company, Bigelow Aerospace already launched the first inflatable habitat module named Genesis I in 12 July 2006. The second test module, Genesis II was launched 28 June 2007. It is also currently planning to launch a prototype space station module by late 2008, and plans to officially launch the first commercial space station by 2010 (tagged Nautilus) which will have 330 cubic meters (almost as big as the ISS\'s 425 cubic meters of usable volume). (2006-10-06) "A Room with a View of Mars, Please".
Bigelow Aerospace is currently offering the America\'s Space Prize, a $50 million prize to the first US company to create a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying passengers to a Nautilus space station.
Other companies have also expressed interest in constructing "space hotels". For example, Excalibur Almaz plans to modernize and launch its Soviet-era Almaz space stations, which will feature the largest windows ever on spacecraft. Virgin\'s Richard Branson has expressed his hope for the construction of a space hotel within his lifetime. He expects that beginning a space tourism program will cost $100 million. Hilton International announced the Space Islands Project, a plan to connect together used Space Shuttle fuel tanks, each the diameter of a Boeing 747 aircraft.Hilton to back space hotel (1999-03-09). Retrieved on 2007-05-20. A separate organization, Space Island GroupThe Space Island Group\'s Mission (2006). Retrieved on 2007-05-20. announced their distinct Space Island Project (note the singular "Island"), and plans on having 20,000 people on their "space island" by 2020, with the number of people doubling for each decade."http://www.spaceislandgroup.com/sig-vision.html". British Airways has expressed interest in the venture. If and when Space Hotels develop, it would initially cost a passenger $60,000, with prices lowering over time. (1996=05-15) "Space Future - Prospects of Space Tourism]".
Fashion designer Eri Matsui has designed clothing, including a wedding gown, intended to look best in weightless environments.
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A recent web-based survey suggested that over 70% of those surveyed wanted less than or equal to 2 weeks in space; in addition, 88% wanted to spacewalk (only 74% of these would do it for a 50% premium), and 21% wanted a hotel or space station."http://www.space.com/news/061003_tourism_survey.html".
Dennis Tito, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari have all expressed their disapproval of the term, "space tourist", on the basis that all three carried out scientific experiments as part of their journey. Tito has asked to be known as an "independent researcher" while Ansari prefers the term, "private space explorer".www.anoushehansari.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
| Space tourism | ||
|---|---|---|
| Major private companies | Bigelow Aerospace · Blue Origin · EADS Astrium · Rocketplane · Space Adventures · Scaled Composites · The Spaceship Company · Virgin Galactic |  |
| Organizations | ARCASPACE · LiftPort Group · Personal Spaceflight Federation · Space Tourism Society · Association of Autonomous Astronauts | |
| Successful spacecraft | SpaceShipOne · Genesis I · Genesis II | |
| Living in space | Space station · Space habitat · Space colonization · Commercialization of space · Suborbital spaceplane | |
| Historical events | First tourists · Ansari X Prize | |
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