Space Tourism
Posted on | August 23, 2010 | 1 Comment
Space Tourism – Is it Possible?
By Dani Alonso
Lots of things have happened since the early days of the space race. The moon was conquered, and even if the Fox documentary caused a lot of trouble, there is too much proven evidence that man walked on the moon. Good. Further from that, Houston, we have a problem. Luckily for us, the solution should be easy, but things need to move on.
Space tourism is a need inside every human populating the Earth and every time that population has been asked about traveling to space the answers have been massively favoring it. It is considered statistically that more than a 70% of the people would consider travel to space, if affordable. Within this 70%, more than the half of them would agree to spend 3 month’s salary in a trip like this.
What this result means, further from being just some numbers alone, is that space tourism is definitely possible, as 3 months salary is what will be required in order to go for a sub-orbital trip. That is about $10.000 (US). This could happen in a maximum period of 10 years provided that it was started now but movement is still very slow in this space tourism.
Where is the problem there? The problem is that space agencies are not investing in space tourism. And until they realize that there is a real waiting market that would go for it, nothing will be done. The technology exists, we are not speaking about any revolutionary idea. Instead, we are just speaking about cost of opportunity. Travel agencies are investing less than a 2% in space tourism while in other areas they are putting all their government financial helps.
The problem goes deep and gets back to the origin, as the citizen does not like to pay taxes to see people landing in Mars, but would love to pay taxes if somebody could take him or her for an orbital flight or to an international station, or even to a space hotel. And if the citizen does not like to pay high taxes for that, then space agencies have the days left counted with hand fingers. A change has to be produced and as soon as space agencies realize the need for space tourism, then the money they will get will arise again.
There is a key point in the reduction of cost, as NASA is beginning to understand. As well as an airplane industry could not be competitive if after every trip the plane would have to be thrown away, traveling to space can’t be developed until the technology for durable space transport vehicles is developed. And this technology is there waiting to be developed, but a very small part of the budget is placed on those projects. As soon as this problem gets solved all the rest will follow up, as everything will be more cost competitive.
Nowadays, a large trip to the Antarctica can reach $10.000, and the numbers of people going there are extremely rising. If the same cost is applied for traveling to space, the numbers expected could be massive, as the experience can be absolutely extraordinary. Space Tourism is an undeveloped market that is waiting it’s opportunity and I can promise that the first one to realize it will make a fortune.
Let’s cross our fingers and wish for a future in which an orbital trip could be as usual as going down to visit the South Pole. Let’s hope the relevant people listen to public opinion about space travel. Personally, I wouldn’t like to die before trying this opportunity. Would you?
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Dani Alonso
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January 19th, 2011 @ 8:10 pm
Space tourism is very possible. Nice article. It is written well.